RHEL6.5 provisioning without DHCP

Jim Wildman jim at rossberry.com
Fri Dec 12 02:50:50 UTC 2014


As others have noted, you can absolutely do kickstarts without DHCP/PXE.
If you don't have physical access to the boxes, then you will need
a remote console such as DRAC or ILO with remote media capabilities.
You will have to manually provide the ip, netmask, gateway, dns and select
the correct network interface as each box boots.  Even without DHCP/PXE,
you can use cobbler to manage the kickstart profiles, either via a web
server, or with the buildiso capability.


On Thu, 11 Dec 2014, Peter Davey wrote

> Good to see the blacklist=lpfc
> 
> We always disconnected Fibre Channel after a kickstart disk on the test system reformatted part of the SAN :(
> 
> Peter Davey
> [Sealand204x109.png]
> psvdavey at sealand-systems.co.uk
> Tel: +44 1903 209367
> Gsm: +44 7802 651892
> www.sealand-systems.co.uk/small
> 
> On 11 December 2014 at 21:20, Fisher, Robert L (ROB) <rob.fisher at verizon.com> wrote:
>
>       I’ve been building servers using the ISO for 6 years now and we always use the following setup the
>       networking in the isolinux/isolinux.cfg file:
>
>        
>
>       default remoteks
>
>       prompt 10
>
>       timeout 100
>
>       display boot.msg
>
>       F1 boot.msg
>
>       F2 options.msg
>
>       F3 general.msg
>
>       F4 param.msg
>
>       F5 rescue.msg
>
>       F7 snake.msg
>
>       label linux
>
>         kernel vmlinuz
>
>         append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=124836
>
>       label localks
>
>         kernel vmlinuz
>
>         append ks=cdrom initrd=initrd.img text ramdisk_size=124836
>
>       label cdbuild
>
>         kernel vmlinuz
>
>         append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img netwait=60 lowres
>
>       label remoteks
>
>         kernel vmlinuz
>
>         append ksdevice=eth0 netwait=60 blacklist=lpfc ks=http://100.1.1.1/ks.cfgs/ks.cfg.hostname
>       ip=10.1.1.100 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.1.1.254 initrd=initrd.img
>
>        
>
>       The entry netwait=60 is a leftover from RHEL 5 but it hasn’t caused any problems with our RHEL 6
>       builds.  This entry just give the network device 60 seconds to enable before it tried to start
>       networking.
>
>       We use blacklist=lpfc to make sure that the OS does not try to install on anything other than local
>       devices.
>
>        
>
>       Good luck,
>
>       Rob Fisher
>
>       From: kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Larry
>       Brigman
>       Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:22 PM
>       To: Discussion list about Kickstart
>       Subject: Re: RHEL6.5 provisioning without DHCP
>
>        
>
>       You can set the IP address from the boot line.  You may need to know the mac address of the install
>       interface if there is more than one interface on the server.
>
>       On Dec 11, 2014 4:11 AM, "Frantisek Krecmer" <f.krecmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>       Hello,
> 
> I have following scenario:
> 
> - need to install very large number of physical servers
> 
> - RHEL repository is on the network filer (url install, NFS install available)
> 
> - there is no DHCP available (and it is not possible to have one - long story)
> - I know serial number and IP for each server
> 
> My idea was to boot from installation image rhel-server-6.5-x86_64-boot.iso where I modified following:
> 
> - isolinux.cfg to load kickstart file
> 
> label Project
>   menu label Project
>   menu default
>   kernel vmlinuz
>   append ks=cdrom:/isolinux/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img
> 
> add kickstart file containing network configuration in %pre script (get serial number from dmidecode, assign
> IP, install from network.  + configure hw raid etc etc)
> 
> Basically, something like this:
> 
> 
> install
> url --url 1.2.3.4.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5
> ...
> 
> %include /tmp/network
> 
> 
> %pre
> #!/bin/sh
> #------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
> #                     PRE-INSTALL NETWORK SETUP        #
> #------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
> 
> echo "network --bootproto=static --vlanid=123 --ip=1.2.3.4 --netmask=255.255.248.0 --gateway=1.2.3.5
> --nameserver=1.2.3.6 --device=eth0" > /tmp/network
> 
>  
> 
> But. System asks for network settings when booted.
> I understand that I need to have stage2 loaded before anaconda starts %pre section. So, I need it to use
> stage2 from iso. But it looks for stage2 on the network when there is url as source in kickstart file. Is
> there any way how to tell installer:
> 
> - start Anaconda from CD (use local install.img), run %pre, download packages from url ?
> 
> file copied to /tmp/ks.cfg
> 
> setting up kickstart
> 
> kickstart forcing text mode
> 
> kickstartFromUrl
> 
> results of url ks, url http://1.2.3.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5
> 
> trying to mount CD device /dev/sr0 on /mnt/stage2
> 
> drive status is CDC_DISC_OK
> 
> transferring /mnt/stage2/images/install.img to /tmp
> 
> mounted loopback device /mnt/runtime on /dev/loop0 as /tmp/install.img   #Perfect
> 
> Looking for updates in /mnt/stage2/images/updates.img
> 
> Looking for product in /mnt/stage2/images/product.img
> 
> mounted loopback device /tmp/product-disk on /dev/loop7 as /mnt/stage2/images/product.img
> 
> umounting loopback /tmp/product-disk /dev/loop7 
> 
> umounting loopback /mnt/runtime /dev/loop0                      #Why??
> 
> no stage2= given, assuming http://1.2.3.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5/images/install.img   #you have it in /tmp
> already!
> 
> setting language to en_US.UTF-8
> 
> starting STEP_METHOD
> 
> need to set up networking
> ...
> 
> Do you have any idea if it possible to somehow change this stage2 behavior? I found Anaconda boot options
> but I am unable to set stage2 either by stage2= or inst.stage2=. 
> 
> (Any other idea how to set IP in ks.cfg and use it for packages downloading without DHCP would be also
> appreciated.)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
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> 
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> 
> 
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Wildman, CISSP, RHCE       jim at rossberry.com http://www.rossberry.net
"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best
state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
Thomas Paine


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