Automated kickstart of remote machine

[Dan Trainor]

James_Martin at ao.uscourts.gov wrote:
> Call me crazy, but this sounds like an awfully big hassle to get working.. 
> And if it breaks, it's going to be a pain.  Since this is only one 
> machine, why use kickstart at all? Why not use the VNC option that lets 
> you drive the upgrade/installation remotely?
> 
> James S. Martin, RHCE
> Contractor
> Administrative Office of the United States Courts
> Washington, DC
> (202) 502-2394
> 
> kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com wrote on 06/10/2005 10:23:11 PM:
> 
> 
>>Hello, all -
>>
>>I've set up a small lab in VMWare to experiment with upgrading an older
>>machine.  I'd like to come up with a process to completely re-install
>>RHEL4 on the machine.  I'm trying to pull all this off in a little lab
>>before I go for the big money - a server that is about 1200 miles away
>>from me.
>>
>>I'm able to do a kickstart install off of a CD, or a disk - that's cake.
>> However, I don't know much about doing a kickstart on a remote machine,
>>a machine I will have no physical access to.  All I can do (and
>>hopefully after the kickstart will still be able to) is SSH to the
>>machine as it stands.
>>
>>I guess what I'm asking here is what are my options in an effort to
>>kickstart this machine remotely?  Is there a process which I can hack at
>>grub a little bit to load some additional kickstart paramaters next time
>>it boots, and at that time, it would begin the kickstart?  Is that how
>>it's done in this situation?
>>
>>Thanks again for the time
>>-dant
>>

Hello, James -

I'm sorry, this process will be implemented with many machines, not just
one.

How is this a hassle?  Tell me, what do you think is more hassle - an
attended installation, or a completely automated unattended installation?

I'll be practicing this on many machines, and i'd rather perfect the
arrt of a completely unattended remote installation, than have to
actually sit down and babysit an install until it is done.  Then VNC
option looks cute, but again, that would require me to actually sit down
and use it.  I might consider the VNC option for debugging and such,
that might be neat.

Anyway, thanks for the ideas.
-dant