New to RH Satellite server and Kickstart

[Tom Brown]

>
> IMHO, you should be aiming for fully-automated installations whenever 
> possible.
>
> Using a templating system, like Cobbler's, you can share one kickstart 
> template among various systems, add the system
> network information into Cobbler, and cobbler will build out the 
> per-system kickstarts for you automatically.
>
> In cobbler, this is as simple as:
> cobbler system add --name=foo --mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF --ip=192.168.5.5 
> --subnet=....
> and in the template you can reference things like $ip_address and so 
> on automatically
> there is also a web interface available for setting this up if you 
> don't like the command line.
>
> It can also help you manage your DHCP and PXE configurations if you 
> want to do that.
>
>>   - is there some documentation/examples/helper scripts to get a this
>> nicely done?
>>   
> It's kind of spread out, but start here:
>
> http://cobbler.et.redhat.com
> https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/
>
> The templating system is described here:
>
> https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/KickstartTemplating (warning, 
> this reads a bit scarier than it actually is)
>
>>
>> Also:
>>
>> - is cobbler supporting/integrating with the satellite server
>>   
>
> Cobbler plays nicely with Satellite. You can use Cobbler with 
> Satellite/RHN very easily if you want to.
>
> All you have to do is call rhnreg_ks (or is it rhn_regks, I forget) in 
> %post so that the systems you install get
> registered to RHN.

satellite is clunky, horrible to learn and just plain expensive - 
cobbler on the other hand is brilliant and once you get used to it 
adding new distros or profiles and syncing boxes to those profiles is a 
breeze. Users can also rebuild their own boxes using koan if so desired.