Using Kickstart to deploy Debian servers?

[Douglas McClendon]

Michael DeHaan wrote:
> Daniel Segall wrote:
>> I feel dirty even asking this, but here it goes. I have been tasked 
>> with the unlucky job of setting up a deployment solution for Debian 
>> servers. I have an existing Kickstart server that I call via altiris 
>> (we mostly use blades). Does anyone know if there is a relatively easy 
>> way to create a kickstart config for Debian "etch"? I really don't 
>> want to setup FAI if I don't have to.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -Dan
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Kickstart-list mailing list
>> Kickstart-list at redhat.com
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list
> 
> Debian has it's own system of answer files that are different from 
> kickstart.

Well, actually...  ubuntu isn't debian, but...

https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/installation-guide/i386/automatic-install.html#kickstart

(I have no personal experience with this.   Most likely this is nowhere 
near 'relatively easy' to use with etch yet, but maybe in the future?)


> The kernel options change from "ks=blah" to "auto=true url=blah".
> 
> I'm told (user patch, haven't tested) it actually works with "cobbler 
> distro add" if you specify "--breed=debian", though you could just as 
> easily do this all yourself.
> 
> You may also want to look at FAI -- http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/

I think he specifically wanted to avoid that if possible.

-dmc