[Spacewalk-list] Interactive install using Spacewalk/Cobbler

[Matthew Patton]

On Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:05:19 -0400, Velayutham, Prakash  
<Prakash.Velayutham at cchmc.org> wrote:

> On Sep 2, 2012, at 11:12 PM, Matthew Patton wrote:
>> I use a makefile to create ks files on the fly from component parts. No  
>> second guessing required.
>
> Can you explain a little bit more on how you do this? Where do you keep  
> your hand-written kickstart file? How does a PXE booting node know to  
> get it from that location? I am not a kickstart expert.

when the client bootstraps I have for example something like the following  
on my kernel line

...  
ks=http://spacewalk/cgi-bin/ksbuilder.sh?pkgset=minimal+cluster&disk=40&profile=cloud  
...

ksbuilder.sh is just a shell script that runs 'sed' against some fragments  
of anaconda files, and then runs 'make' to glue all the fragments together  
and spits out a fully-fleshed out kickstart script on stdout which the  
anaconda installer ingests and runs.

PXE booting is just a matter of telling your dhcp server to provide the  
necessary boot string when a particular MAC address checks in.

My earlier comment was probably too harsh WRT cobbler. It is useful in  
some contexts. I just find the hassle not worth it.

-- 
Cloud Services Architect, Senior System Administrator
InfoRelay Online Systems (www.inforelay.com)