I need to find a PowerPC system to reproduce and debug a problem. I don't care about the exact hardware, any 64-bit PowerPC system will do.
I have access to a Beaker instance which has some PowerPC hardware. What's the best way to reserve a 64-bit PowerPC system through Beaker?
(Based on a question originally asked on a mailing list.)
If you have a working bkr command-line client, you can use the workflow-simple command, like this:
bkr workflow-simple --task=/distribution/reservesys \
--family=RedHatEnterpriseLinux6 --arch=ppc64 \
--whiteboard="Investigating issue XYZ"
The key part is --task=/distribution/reservesys. That means you are scheduling a recipe with the /distribution/reservesys task, which will e-mail you when your system is ready and then wait 24 hours so you can log in an use it. You can extend your reservation beyond the initial 24 hours if you need to, there are instructions in the e-mail.
If you wanted a specific distro, you could pass --distro=RHEL-6.5 instead of --family. There are plenty of other options too, check the Workflow options section of the bkr(1) man page.
Alternatively you can use the Reserve Workflow in Beaker's web UI. Pick Scheduler -> Reserve from the menu. Use the form to pick your distro (make sure to choose ppc64) and then submit the job. The Reserve Workflow does the same thing as the CLI command above: it scheduled a recipe with /distribution/reservesys.