[rhelv6-list] kickstarting rhel6 from usb key

Thu Jun 16 03:08:38 UTC 2011

ack sorry... i guess i read the first e-mail in a rush.  i get and
sympathize with the problem.  I've been having a very similar issue
with doing san boots, because I dont care about mpatha-z, i need to be
identify based on UUID.

Are there no other /dev/disks/by-* that are available to you for what you want?

-greg

On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 21:26, Jason Keltz <jas at cse.yorku.ca> wrote:
> Hi Greg,
>
> Thanks for the link!  Fortunately, the location of the kickstart config file
> isn't the problem.  Right now, I server my ks.cfg through an NFS server, so
> that part works great.  My custom kickstart USB key has as its first option
> "kickstart" which does does a " ... ks=nfs:1.2.3.4:/obj/kickstart/", and
> that part always works fine.  The problem isn't really finding the ks config
> file.  The problem is that when I setup a system in our hardware database, I
> specify say, "sda" is the install location for kickstart -- if I use an
> install CD, it will certainly be sda, but if I use my USB key (which is much
> faster and more convenient than a CD) -- then sometimes it will be sda, and
> other time it won't be sda, and as it stands right now, I'd have to check
> each time to be sure or I could wipe out the USB key by choosing the wrong
> option!!  It just doesn't seem like something that I should have to "hack"
> into kickstart to get it right!  Surely there must be a way for Anaconda to
> distinguish between hard disk and USB keys!   If I want to use the USB key
> for installation, then I need to do some other magic, but this will mess
> with my simplicity of just specifying a disk device, and having the
> kickstart file automatically assigned... and I don't even know whether I
> *can* hack it because of a "chicken and egg" type problem... if I define the
> disk device in the kickstart file, and the pre script notices that the USB
> key is inserted, and it needs to "change" the disk as specified, then I
> don't know whether I can do that after the fact -- the system has already
> read the kickstart file, and the disk device was already specified on the
> clearpart line and on other lines..
>
> sigh.
>
> jas.
>
> On 15/06/2011 4:55 PM, Greg Swift wrote:
>>
>> check this out... specifically the bit about it defaulting to ks.cfg
>> in root directory of media:
>>
>> http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=235489
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 15:36, Jason Keltz<jas at cse.yorku.ca>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Greg,
>>>
>>> I believe /dev/disk/by-label is available, and I looked into using that,
>>> but
>>> still, if the usb key becomes /dev/sda, then this will effect
>>> installation
>>> of bootloader, etc.  hard to work around.
>>> Does red hat not support installation via usb key?
>>> I'm not using multipath so I don't have /dev/disk/by-scsi-id..
>>> In this particular case, the system has a 3ware 9750-8e card (which is
>>> referred to first in bios)..
>>>
>>> I wish there was some way to force the usb device as being sdb.
>>>
>>> jas.
>>>
>>> Greg Swift wrote:
>>>>
>>>> in the stage2 environment check to see if /dev/disk/by-label is
>>>> available.  If it is, and you know or can change the label of your usb
>>>> device, you should be able to reference this.
>>>>
>>>> I know that in the multipath bits they are trying to push more heavily
>>>> into using the /dev/disk/by-scsi-id/ for disk handling in rhel 6
>>>> anaconda.
>>>>
>>>> -greg
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 15:18, Jason Keltz<jas at cse.yorku.ca>  wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Ges,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for your reply.
>>>>> Does this mean that kickstarting from a USB key is just not reliable?
>>>>> You have to be able to specify a device during kickstart, and if you
>>>>> don't
>>>>> know what the device that represents the hard disk will be, then what
>>>>> do
>>>>> you?
>>>>> I could "calculate" it on the fly, and modify the kickstart process
>>>>> accordingly, but if there are multiple disks in the system, and I want
>>>>> to
>>>>> be
>>>>> able to specify which of those devices will be used for kickstart, then
>>>>> this
>>>>> messes things up ..
>>>>> Once a system is kickstarted, you can use labels, etc. to identify
>>>>> disks,
>>>>> but assuming you're starting with a totally blank hard disk, who knows
>>>>> what
>>>>> device the kernel will see..
>>>>>
>>>>> I remember this was an issue years and years ago .. can't believe we
>>>>> haven't
>>>>> found a better way to handle this under Linux yet...
>>>>>
>>>>> sigh..
>>>>>
>>>>> Jason.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Grzegorz Witkowski wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /dev/... devices may not be persistent between reboots.
>>>>>> It is not a bug. The kernel usually just assigns unpredictable device
>>>>>> names based on the order of discovery. See udev related info.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> Ges
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, 2011-06-15 at 15:44 -0400, Jason Keltz wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm kickstarting a new Red Hat 6.0 system from a USB key.
>>>>>>> I've kickstarted it many times from the key in the last week, and the
>>>>>>> USB
>>>>>>> key is recognized as sdb, and the system hard disk as sda.
>>>>>>> However, this morning, I went to kickstart, and the USB key was
>>>>>>> suddenly
>>>>>>> being recognized as sda which, of course messed up the process.
>>>>>>> I tried it various times, and it continued to be that way.
>>>>>>> I then had to leave it for a while because I was busy with other
>>>>>>> stuff.
>>>>>>> When I came back, the hard disk is now being recognized as sda, usb
>>>>>>> key
>>>>>>> as sdb.
>>>>>>> What's up?  seems like an odd bug...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jason.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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