Hello experts!
I planning unattended installation of Redhat distro on remote server using kickstart file ks.cfg. Server has no cd-rom nor usb devices, and has only one hard disk drive. I use grub to load installation kernel and initrd, grub config file below:
--------------------------
title Unattended Install from hard drive
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ks=hd:sda1:/boot/ks.cfg
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot
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ks.cfg listed below
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# Auto-Generated Scripted Install Configuration file.
# Installation Method
harddrive --partition=sda1 --dir=/temp
# root Password
rootpw --iscrypted $*************************
# Authconfig
auth --enableshadow --enablemd5
# BootLoader ( The user has to use grub by default )
bootloader --location=mbr
# Timezone
timezone Europe/Madrid
# X windowing System
skipx
# Install or Upgrade
install
# Text Mode
text
# Network install type
network --bootproto static --ip 192.168.xx.yy --netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 192.168.xx.yy --nameserver 192.168.xx.yy --hostname remotehost.xyz --addvmportgroup=1 --vlanid=0
# Language
lang en_US
# Langauge Support
langsupport --default en_US
# Keyboard
keyboard us
# Mouse
mouse none
# Reboot after install ?
reboot
# Firewall settings
firewall --disabled
# Clear Partitions
clearpart --all --initlabel --drives=sda
# Partitioning
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 102 --ondisk sda
part / --fstype ext3 --size 4997 --ondisk sda
part swap --size 544 --ondisk sda
part None --fstype vmfs3 --size 10000 --grow --ondisk sda
part None --fstype vmkcore --size 110 --ondisk sda
part /var/log --fstype ext3 --size 1992 --ondisk sda
%packages
@base
@ everything
%post
--------------------------
As seen above,
# Installation Method
harddrive --partition=sda1 --dir=/temp
This refer to inatallation iso (mydistro.iso) file which is currently placed on sda1 in /temp directory.
I tested it on local server which has two hdd, and that work perfectly when mydistro.iso is placed on second hard disk partition e.g. sdb1. But that not work when installation iso file placed on sda because the first disk consuming to be formatted during installation process.
Because my remote server has only one hdd, i see solution to put mydistro.iso image on ramdisk. Do you know how to do it in grub config file and then how to refer to ramdisk device in ks.cfg ? Any other working solution also appreciated.
Big Thanks!
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noci:
Remote server has no access to NFS/ FTP/ HTTP carriers.
Repeat, I had the success unattended installation on local server with two hard disks.
it fails with one hard disk because hard disk consuming to be formatted during installation and can't hold mydistro.iso.
Now needed to create ramdisk at boot time and put installation iso image on it making iso image available from ramdisk in installation process.
Do You know how to do that?
Well for a ramdisk at boot time you need a kernel with a LARGE ramdisk (it is initialized during kernel initialisation.
Then the ramdisk image is mapped to the ramdisk. So you need enough RAM memory to hold the instalation DVD....
~4GiB , I have no access to a linux right now, I have to lookup at home. (after some 6 hours from posting).
Also the boot partition you start from needs to be capable to hold this volume of data....
And what happens if your system crashes during the process....
noci:
Yes, that's exactly solution what i looking for. Remote server has 4 GB RAM, anb boot partition capable to hold this volume data. And nothind serious when system crashes - server has automated re-installation system, and standard ubuntu or centos distro can be restored at any time.
Will wait when You look on it at home, thanks.
Did some lookup though google to try to find some information ahead of time...
Here is a setup for DUAL boot (ie prevets clean all out...)
http://sial.org/howto/kick
Make a FAT partition with your ISO content.....
And use that partition to load from is should stay there because of the clearpart --linux
The before mentioed sial.org has some info.
Here is CENTOS doc.
http://www.centos.org/docs
noci:
yeah, already tried trick with FAT32 and clearpart --linux, however whole disk was formatted anyway (
A way with large ramdisk at boot time still needed.
Or maybe did You know the way to make a big size initrd.img - near 650 MB. there would be posiible to write installation iso on it, and it will be loaded to ram within initrd.img.
Next simple "solution"
No clearpart or clearpart none ... and use fdisk prior to instalation...
The kernel doesn't complain when giving it such a large volume so you could try to build a kernel with a HUGE init ramfs (from make menuconfig, device drivers, block devices, RAMdisk)
make it 1 disk and make it large enough, but not too large or there is no memory available for programs.
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE
are the relevant kernel config variables.
Be warned that a ramdisk has no backing store..., and you need 3.8 GB for the DVD install.
+ 4/8 MB for the normal ramdisk.
It will mean that you have A large system, that will crawl forward because it has only 100MB or so memory to process.
I can't test this, it;s too large a setup to try in a VM.
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by: nociPosted on 2009-11-03 at 04:33:45ID: 25728267
I was under the impression that the packages could also be loaded from an NFS server/ HTTP server....
I never used it though.
See also: (ancient I know).
http://linux902.tripod.com
(Unless it has been removed...)
Here is a more complete recent example:
http://blog.vpire.com/?p=6