Kickstart NFS installations

[Rick Stevens]

On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 18:33 -0700, Jason Nemecek wrote:
> Hi List, 
> 
>  
> 
> I looked through the last 2 years of archives and didn’t find anything
> covering this.
> 
>  
> 
> My question(s):
> 
>  
> 
> Short version:  Are kickstart installations allowed under RHEL4 WS?
> NFS installations under RHEL4 WS?
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Long version:
> 
>  
> 
> I’m trying to install RHEL4 on several new Dell Precision 470
> workstations via NFS.
> 
>  
> 
> I set up one of the servers with an NFS globally exported
> directory /home/RHEL4/ which contains:
> 
>  
> 
> RedHat/
> 
>    Base/   (hdlists, comps, hdstg2, img files…)
> 
>    RPMS/  (all RPMS from all of the RedHat directories on the RHEL4
> CDs)
> 
>    TRANS.TBL
> 
>     Ks.cfg 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> I try to install from this host via NFS after booting off of a boot CD
> that I created exactly as described in the RHEL4 manual from
> redhat.com. 
> 
>  
> 
> I hit <F2> when it boots off of the CD to specify installer boot
> options and as the RHEL4 sysadmin-guide states, I try to install with
> the following command:
> 
>  
> 
> linux ks=nfs:cad:/home/RHEL4/ks.cfg
> 
>  
> 
> I want it to look for the kickstart file on the NFS server “cad”
> under /home/RHEL4/ks.cfg  
> 
>  
> 
> The installer finds the kickstart file and uses it.

Hmmm, I dunno about that.  Have you tried using the IP address of
"cad" rather than a host name?  DNS isn't up at this point and I don't
think the system can actually find the host.  That's silently ignored
(but is probably in the ALT-F2 console).

>  I initially had a full ks.cfg file, but have been scaling it back
> step by step to try and get it to work. Currently it looks like this:
> 
>  
> 
> #Generated by Kickstart Configurator
> 
> #platform=x86, AMD64, or Intel EM64T
> 
>  
> 
> #System  language
> 
> lang en_US
> 
> #Language modules to install
> 
> langsupport en_US
> 
> #System keyboard
> 
> keyboard us
> 
> #System mouse
> 
> mouse
> 
> #Sytem timezone
> 
> timezone America/Los_Angeles
> 
> #Root password
> 
> rootpw --iscrypted blahblahblahpasswordgoeshereblahblah
> 
> #Reboot after installation
> 
> reboot
> 
> #Install OS instead of upgrade
> 
> install
> 
> #Use NFS installation Media
> 
> nfs --server=cad.foo.bar.com  --dir=/home/RHEL4/

Again, use the IP address, Luke! :-)

> 
> #System bootloader configuration
> 
> bootloader --location=mbr 
> 
> #Clear the Master Boot Record
> 
> zerombr yes
> 
>  
> 
> I used the Kickstart Configurator tool to generate a Kickstart file.
> When I boot with this ks.cfg it takes me up to the Disk Druid
> configuration. I set up the drives (2x300GB) with 2 RAID1 partitions,
> 1 ext2 partition (/boot) and swap on each drive. When I finish making
> the md0 and md1 devices and click “next” to continue out of Disk Druid
> I get the following error message dialog window:
> 
>  
> 
> “You are trying to install on a machine which isn’t supported by this
> release of RedHat Linux WS”

That smels like it's not seeing the RPMs.  I strongly suspect that using
the IP address instead of the host name will solve this.

> There is a button marked “Exit” which exits the install and reboots if
> clicked.

> It’s odd to me that if I install off of CDs I can do the same thing
> (RAID volumes and all) but if I try to install over NFS, then my
> machine isn’t supported. I just tried it with automatic partitioning
> and it did the same thing. Ditto w/o any RAID or LVM partitions.
> 
>  
> 
> Is this a restriction of the WS version of RedHat?

No.

> Are network installs only available with the ES and AS versions? 

Shouldn't be.

> Are Kickstart installs only available with ES and AS?

Absolutely not.

> Is there any method that one could automate 50 workstation installs
> using RHEL4 WS ? 

Cloning the disk using Ghost or something like it would be far faster
than a kickstart/NFS install.  Install one machine.  At the end,
DON'T let it restart.  Just shut down.  Pop in a drive from one of the
other machines (re-address it first), then use Ghost to clone the disk.
Address the drive back to its original setting and put it back in the
new machine.  When it boots, you'll go through the initial set-up
("firstboot") stuff.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                      LOOK OUT!!! BEHIND YOU!!!                     -
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