Kickstart short cuts for noobs

Kickstart short cuts for noobs

Introduction

Purpose

Kickstart is the core of the automated installation system used by Fedora and RHEL.

This short cut describes how to set-up such a system.

References

http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Documents

KVM documentation page.

| How Kickstart Works

High level overview of Kickstart, and a tool for modifying the kickstart configuration.

| RedHat Linux KickStart HOWTO

This HOWTO briefly describes how to use the RedHat Linux KickStart system to rapidly install large numbers of identical Linux boxes.

| How To Set Up A Local Yum Repository On Fedora 8

Creating a local repository.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart

kickstart syntax.

Operating Environment

yum install yum-utils

This package will enable you to download packages, without installing them. So you can populate your kickstart server with packages that didn't come with the Install media.

Do the virsh bridge create in kickstart http://www.mail-archive.com/netcf-devel@lists.fedorahosted.org/msg00361.html

Administration

Creating the NFS export Structure

1. mkdir -p /exports/ks/configs
2. mkdir -p /exports/ks/images
3. update /etc/exports

/exports/ks/config             192.168.42.0/255.255.255.0(ro,no_root_squash)

1. service nfs restart

populate an install directory for kickstart use

1. mount -o loop /exports/isos/images/rhel6beta2.iso /mnt
2. pushd /mnt
3. cp -r * /exports/ks/images/rhel6beta2
4. update /etc/exports

/exports/ks/images/rhel6beta2  192.168.42.0/255.255.255.0(ro,no_root_squash)

Kickstart config file

To create the config file use:

Fedora

/usr/bin/system-config-kickstart

# Kickstart file automatically generated by anaconda.

# Tells the system to install a fresh system rather than upgrade an existing system.
install

# Install from the NFS server specified.
nfs --server=192.168.42.132 --dir=/exports/ks/images/rhel6beta2

# If present, X is not configured on the installed system.
skipx

# Perform the kickstart installation in text mode.
text

# Installation logging level
logging --level=info


# Sets up the authentication options for the system.
authconfig --enableshadow --enablemd5

# Sets the system's root password
rootpw --iscrypted XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard dk
timezone --utc Europe/Copenhagen

# Configures network information for the system.
network  --device=eth0 --bootproto=dhcp --onboot=on
network  --device=eth2 --bootproto=dhcp --onboot=on
network  --device=eth3 --bootproto=dhcp --onboot=on


firewall --disabled
selinux --disabled

bootloader --location=mbr
# Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr

clearpart --all --initlabel
part / --fstype="ext3" --size=14000
part swap --fstype="swap" --size=768


firstboot --disabled
reboot

%packages 
@base
@core
@java
keyutils
trousers
fipscheck
device-mapper-multipath
-cups
nfs-utils

#%post
# Any post ops, just add the bash script commands here.

%end

Adding a package to the repository

• yumdownloader sysstat: Downloads the 'sysstat' packages, to the current directory, and with the same architecture as the current system architechture.
  • 'uname -m' will print the system architecture.

Local repository

See the reference in the reference list.

1. yum install lighttpd
2. vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
   • enable mod_aliases
   • add 'alias.url = ( "/yum" => "/exports/isos/repos" )'
3. chkconfig lighttpd on
4. /etc/init.d/lighttpd start

Package administration bytes

list content of a package

repoquery -ql mercurial

find a package

yum search kvm

download package without installing

Install a local package

yum localinstall TUT.RPM

Description of package

yum info mercurial

Trouble shooting

kickstart

I have to select the NIC to use for the installation

During the boot, on a multi NIC system, I'm asked to choose which NIC to use for the installation.

use the ksdevice=eth3 in the kickstart command.

on virt-install put it inside the -x"PARMS" parameter.

yum

Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml)

See: [ http://digitizor.com/2009/06/17/how-to-fix-the-cannot-retrieve-repository-metadata-repomd-xml-error-in-fedora-11 | How to fix the “Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml)” error in Fedora? ]

Public key for .rpm is not installed

Public key for tigervnc-server-minimal-1.0.90-0.22.20100813svn4123.fc14.x86_64.rpm is not installed

See: | Public Key Not Installed

1. find / -name "*GPG*"
2. rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora