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Short Explanation: I am trying out various scenarios for network installations. This particular scenario involves having no dhcp server available. If I specify a kickstart file on the installation server (http://<installation_server>/path/ks.cfg or nfs:<installation_server>:/path/ks.cfg), the installation process stops at the point it wants to retrieve the kickstart file and prompts for the local address.
Question: Is there a way to specify the address of the local network interface so that when it attempts to retrieve the kickstart file, it does not need to obtain the address, either through dhcp or by an interactive prompt?
Long (Winded) Explanation: I have set up a kickstart server and it works well when all intended conditions are met. However, dhcp imposes two limitations on the setup. First, because dhcp is a broadcast protocol, the scope of the kickstart server is limited to a single subnet. Second, I don't have any control over the production dhcp servers in the building. I am exploring several ways to get around these limitations such as having the dhcp packets passed through the routers and/or using a proxy dhcp server. The method I am working on at the moment is to put a grub bootloader on a floppy, have that define the address for the client interface, and point to the kickstart server. Here is a sample entry from the grub.conf file:
title RHEL 3 WS kickstart-guided, no dhcp, local ks file ifconfig --address=192.168.99.161 --mask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=192.168.99.1 --server=192.168.99.15 root (nd) kernel /linux-install/rhel3ws/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=10000 ks=floppy initrd /linux-install/rhel3ws/initrd.img
Note: the version of grub shipped by Red Hat does not include network support. I had to build a version from Gnu with patches for the network interfaces for this experiment.
As best as I can tell, the address for the local interface is defined at least twice and maybe more times during the installation process. The first time is before it retrieves the installation kernel from the kickstart server. That is usually handled by the PXE software on the NIC itself through dhcp. Using this grub method, the address is defined in the grub configuration. The other time I know about is when it attempts to retrieve a kickstart file from the network. If I put the kickstart file on the floppy with the grub bootloader, it does not prompt for the local nework address. The client already knows its address before it attempts to retrieve the kickstart file. Is there a way to tell it to remember that address? Is there a way to specify that address explicitly? There is a ksdevice parameter that will tell the system which client interface to use. Is there a similar parameter to specify the address of that local interface?
Thanks!
Andrew Robinson
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