What is Kickstart?
Many system administrators would prefer to use
an automated installation method to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on their
machines. To answer this need, Red Hat created the kickstart installation
method. Using kickstart, a system administrator can create a single file
containing the answers to all the questions that would normally be asked during
a typical installation.
Kickstart files can be kept on a single server
system and read by individual computers during the installation. This
installation method can support the use of a single kickstart file to install
Red Hat Enterprise Linux on multiple machines, making it ideal for network and
system administrators.
Kickstart provides a way for users to automate
a Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation.
All kickstart scriptlets and the log files of
their execution are stored in the /tmp directory to assist with debugging
installation failures.
How to perform a Kickstart Installation?
Kickstart installations can be performed using
a local DVD, a local hard drive, or via NFS, FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS.
To use kickstart, you must:
·
Create a kickstart file.
·
Create a boot media
with the kickstart file or make the kickstart file available on the network.
·
Make the installation
tree available.
·
Start the kickstart
installation.
To create a kickstart file, you can use Kickstart
Configurator.
Kickstart
Configurator is not installed by
default on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Run
su - yum install
system-config-kickstart or use your graphical package manager to install
the software.
Setup
Kickstart Server in Linux
1. Install tftp server and enable TFTP service
a.
yum install tftp-server.
b.
Enable TFTP server.
vi /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
and change disable to 'no'
c.
service xinetd restart
2.
Install syslinux if not
already installed
yum install syslinux
3.
Copy needed files from
syslinux to the tftpboot directory
cp
/usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot
cp
/usr/lib/syslinux/menu.c32 /tftpboot
cp
/usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk /tftpboot
cp
/usr/lib/syslinux/mboot.c32 /tftpboot
cp
/usr/lib/syslinux/chain.c32 /tftpboot
4.
Create the directory for
your PXE menus
mkdir
/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
5.
For each
"Release" and "ARCH" Copy vmlinuz and initrd.img from
/images/pxeboot/ directory on "disc 1" of that $Release/$ARCH to
/tftpboot/images/RHEL/$ARCH/$RELEASE
mkdir -p
/tftpboot/images/RHEL/i386/5.
mkdir -p
/tftpboot/images/RHEL/i386/5.8
mkdir -p
/tftpboot/images/RHEL/x86_64/5.1
mkdir -p
/tftpboot/images/RHEL/x86_64/5.8
6.
For RHEL 5.8 x86_64, do
the following
mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom
cd /cdrom/images/pxeboot
cp vmlinuz initrd.img
/tftpboot/images/RHEL/x86_64/5.8
Do the above for all
releases and ARCH you want to kickstart from this server.
7.
Add this to your
existing or new /etc/dhcpd.conf.
8.
Note: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is
the IP address of your PXE server
allow booting;
allow bootp;
option option-128 code
128 = string;
option option-129 code
129 = text;
next-server
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;
filename
"/pxelinux.0";
9.
Restart DHCP service
service dhcpd restart
10. Create Simple or Multilevel PIXIE menu. Create a
file called "default" in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory. A Sample
file named "isolinux.cfg" is found on the boot installation media in
"isolinux" directory. Copy this file as default and edit this file as
per requirement. A sample default file is given bellow.
default menu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 300
ONTIMEOUT local
MENU TITLE PXE Menu
LABEL Pmajic
MENU LABEL Pmajic
kernel images/pmagic/bzImage
append noapic
initrd=images/pmagic/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk_size=100000
label Dos Bootdisk
MENU LABEL ^Dos bootdisk
kernel memdisk
append initrd=images/622c.img
LABEL RHEL 5 x86 eth0
MENU LABEL RHEL 5 x86 eth0
KERNEL images/RHEL/x86/5.8/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=images/RHEL/x86_64/5.8/initrd.img
ramdisk_size=10000
ks=nfs:xx.xx.xx.xxx:/
ksdevice=eth1
LABEL RHEL 5 x86_64 eth0
MENU LABEL RHEL 5 x86_64 eth0
KERNEL images/RHEL/x86_64/5.8/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=images/RHEL/x86_64/5.8/initrd.img
ramdisk_size=10000
ks=nfs:xx.xx.xx.xxx:/
ksdevice=eth1
11. Install the kickstart Configurator tool. This
tool will be helpful to create the kickstart configuration file.
yum install
system-config-kickstart
12. Create the kickstart config file. This file can
be created using kickstart Configuration Tool. A Sample file anaconda-ks.cfg
based on current installation of a system is placed in /root directory. We can
also use this /root/anaconda-ks-cfg as the configuration file. Copy this file
to the location specified in the default file. Make sure the directory is NFS
exported if you are using NFS for installing the OS.
13. Modify the kickstart configuration file as per
requirement. If you are using NFS for installation, Make sure to copy the ISO
images of Linux disks to any NFS server and NFS export the directory. This
server/directory details need to be specified in the jumpstart configuration
file.
14. After creating the KS configuration files and
copying the ISO images, the installation can be started.
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