Kickstart Methodology

[Ken Teh]

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004, Philip Rowlands wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Brian Long wrote:
> 
> >I'd like some ideas on how folks on this list customize their install
> >base.  We currently create a completely customized kickstart tree based
> >on RHEL 3 where we integrate third-party and internally-written RPMs.
> >
> >I'm thinking we should just use Red Hat's kickstart (comps.xml) as it
> >comes on the CD (each quarter) and bootstrap Red Carpet or RHN into the
> >mix to install all third-party and internal RPMs after the initial
> >kickstart.
> 
> 
> Pre-patch vs yum/up2date? Putting all the RPMs in RedHat/RPMS vs %post
> scripts? Both will work fine technically, so the decision then moves
> into softer areas such as time-to-deploy, maintainability etc.
> 

Does pre-patch work?  I seem to remember that somewhere along the way,
RedHat required that updated rpms had to be installed in order.  I used to
replace the CD rpms with the latest updates and rebuild the headers for my
installations but that stopped working.  So, I shifted to installing the CD
rpms as is, then in the %post section, putting all the updates in in the
order they were released.

> Once the packages are on though, we use a good deal of %post-invoked
> scripts to tweak about 30 different things; again what you do here will
> depend a lot on internal requirements.
> 
> 

Yes, I also do most of my stuff in the %post section.  Besides the updates
for an install of a new machine, I have a lot of scripts that do
post-configuration mainly site customizations and to comply with local
security requirements.  One point I will mention:  If there are a lot of
update rpms (like if you're running an old RedHat release), the updating
part in %post takes a pretty long time.


Cheers! Ken