[Spacewalk-list] Kickstarting a RHEL5 install - better with updates included or not?

[spacewalk at epperson.homelinux.net]

Wow!  Thanks, you're very kind.

On Tue, November 27, 2012 10:22, Snyder, Chris wrote:
> Short version, you have to specific in the Kickstart Profile which
> channels are available DURING the kickstart process. This is *separate*
> from any channels associated to activation keys (which are really in use
> *after* the kickstart is more or less complete).
>
> I'm using RHEL5, so my examples are geared around that.  Adjust as needed.
>
> - I set up three channels:
> 	- RHEL5 Base (RPMS from the original ISO) -- parent
> 	- RHEL5 Updates (all the updates available from RHN) -- child
> 	- Spacewalk Client  -- child
> - Load all the appropriate RPMs in to the channels
> - I define an activation key which ties to all three channels
> - I then set up my RHEL5 kickstart distro tree for PXE Boot
> - I create my kickstart profile
> 	- Tie the profile to the RHEL5 kickstart distro tree
> 	- Tie the profile to the my RHEL5 base parent channel
> 	- ADDITIONALLY, I tie my kickstart profile to the RHEL5 Updates and
> Spacewalk Client channels (under the KS Details > Operating System tab)
> 	- I apply my activation key to my kickstart profile
> - Now kickstart your host with PXE or what ever
>
> My understanding of the process works like this:
>
> When the host is being Kickstarted, it has access to all packages from the
> channels you have directly linked to the kickstart profile (KS Details >
> Operating System), so this is how your host can apply all the updates and
> spacewalk clients during creation.
>
> Once the host is build, during the kickstart profile's '%post' sections,
> your host is registered with Spacewalk via 'rhnreg_ks', at this time the
> activation key is used which lets Spacewalk know to continue to allow your
> new host to have access to your three channels. So you can apply packages
> from those channels later in its life.
>
> (Note: some people like to fold the RHEL base, RHEL updates and spacewalk
> client RPMs into a single 'RHEL5' channel, I didn't do that because I like
> to keep this stuff separate for my own nefarious plans.)
>
> So far I haven't had any problems with this, the only irritating thing is
> that I've got ALL RHEL Update RPMS available from RHN in my Update
> channel.  And during the Kickstart process there are some on-screen
> warnings about some of the kmod packages not having a kernel or something
> (they flash by and are hard to read).  To the best of my understanding
> these are noise, and not actual errors.  I am led to believe that this is
> because during the host build, kickstart is downloading info on *all*
> available packages in the channels and does a normal dependency/sanity
> check on *all* the packages, regardless if it's going to use those
> packages or not.    As for those kmod packages, I have never met anybody
> who actually uses them, and I can't see them being needed unless you are
> building a very special, one-off host with very odd kernel requirements.
> So these are safe to ignore. (If I really wanted to spend the time, I
> would probably just remove those packages from my channels, but!
>   I don't have that kind of time these days.)
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Thx
> Gopher.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: spacewalk-list-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:spacewalk-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of
> spacewalk at epperson.homelinux.net
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 9:38 AM
> To: spacewalk-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: [Spacewalk-list] Kickstarting a RHEL5 install - better with
> updates included or not?
>
> I should already know this, but I can't find how to set up a kickstart
> that installs with updates (rather than doing a "yum -y update" in post).
>
> Thumbnail sketch, anyone?  I've been poking around and googling, and have
> not found the magic bullet.
>