Monitoring kickstart install status

[Hugh Brown]

On 05/03/2011 04:34 PM, Chun Tat David Chu wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am hoping to run a python script in the background during %pre to monitor
> the kickstart install status.  My script will periodically send status to a
> server somewhere within LAN and report the current installation status.
>
> Running a python script in %pre and sending status to a remote server is the
> easy part but I am not sure what to monitor to retrieve the kickstart
> install status.
>
> One thought I have is to monitor the /mnt/sysimage/root/install.log and
> compare the number of packages installed and the number of packages
> specified in the ks.cfg and get a rough estimate of the kickstart install
> status.
>
> I am not sure if this is a correct way to do or there's a better to do so.
>
> Please let me know if you've any suggestion or thought.
>
> Thanks!
>
> - David

My memory says that the install.log is actually in /tmp/install.log. 
After the installation is finished it is copied to 
/mnt/sysimage/root/install.log.

For fedora systems, I enabled sshd and require a password:

sshpw --username=root  XXXXXXXX  --plaintext

If I want to check status, I ssh in and look.  If I don't, there's a 
script that will email me when it has finished.

On RH5 systems, I enabled vnc and would use vncviewer to connect and 
check progress.

Otherwise, watching the number of packages installed in install.log works.

Hugh