Re: RHEL6.5 provisioning without DHCP

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



As others have noted, you can absolutely do kickstarts without DHCP/PXE.
If you don't have physical access to the boxes, then you will need
a remote console such as DRAC or ILO with remote media capabilities.
You will have to manually provide the ip, netmask, gateway, dns and select
the correct network interface as each box boots.  Even without DHCP/PXE,
you can use cobbler to manage the kickstart profiles, either via a web
server, or with the buildiso capability.


On Thu, 11 Dec 2014, Peter Davey wrote

Good to see the blacklist=lpfc

We always disconnected Fibre Channel after a kickstart disk on the test system reformatted part of the SAN :(

Peter Davey
[Sealand204x109.png]
psvdavey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel: +44 1903 209367
Gsm: +44 7802 651892
www.sealand-systems.co.uk/small

On 11 December 2014 at 21:20, Fisher, Robert L (ROB) <rob.fisher@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

      Iʼve been building servers using the ISO for 6 years now and we always use the following setup the
      networking in the isolinux/isolinux.cfg file:

       

      default remoteks

      prompt 10

      timeout 100

      display boot.msg

      F1 boot.msg

      F2 options.msg

      F3 general.msg

      F4 param.msg

      F5 rescue.msg

      F7 snake.msg

      label linux

        kernel vmlinuz

        append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=124836

      label localks

        kernel vmlinuz

        append ks=cdrom initrd=initrd.img text ramdisk_size=124836

      label cdbuild

        kernel vmlinuz

        append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img netwait=60 lowres

      label remoteks

        kernel vmlinuz

        append ksdevice=eth0 netwait=60 blacklist=lpfc ks=http://100.1.1.1/ks.cfgs/ks.cfg.hostname
      ip=10.1.1.100 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.1.1.254 initrd=initrd.img

       

      The entry netwait=60 is a leftover from RHEL 5 but it hasnʼt caused any problems with our RHEL 6
      builds.  This entry just give the network device 60 seconds to enable before it tried to start
      networking.

      We use blacklist=lpfc to make sure that the OS does not try to install on anything other than local
      devices.

       

      Good luck,

      Rob Fisher

      From: kickstart-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:kickstart-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Larry
      Brigman
      Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:22 PM
      To: Discussion list about Kickstart
      Subject: Re: RHEL6.5 provisioning without DHCP

       

      You can set the IP address from the boot line.  You may need to know the mac address of the install
      interface if there is more than one interface on the server.

      On Dec 11, 2014 4:11 AM, "Frantisek Krecmer" <f.krecmer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

      Hello,

I have following scenario:

- need to install very large number of physical servers

- RHEL repository is on the network filer (url install, NFS install available)

- there is no DHCP available (and it is not possible to have one - long story)
- I know serial number and IP for each server

My idea was to boot from installation image rhel-server-6.5-x86_64-boot.iso where I modified following:

- isolinux.cfg to load kickstart file

label Project
  menu label Project
  menu default
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks=cdrom:/isolinux/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img

add kickstart file containing network configuration in %pre script (get serial number from dmidecode, assign
IP, install from network.  + configure hw raid etc etc)

Basically, something like this:


install
url --url 1.2.3.4.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5
...

%include /tmp/network


%pre
#!/bin/sh
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
#                     PRE-INSTALL NETWORK SETUP        #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

echo "network --bootproto=static --vlanid=123 --ip=1.2.3.4 --netmask=255.255.248.0 --gateway=1.2.3.5
--nameserver=1.2.3.6 --device=eth0" > /tmp/network

 

But. System asks for network settings when booted.
I understand that I need to have stage2 loaded before anaconda starts %pre section. So, I need it to use
stage2 from iso. But it looks for stage2 on the network when there is url as source in kickstart file. Is
there any way how to tell installer:

- start Anaconda from CD (use local install.img), run %pre, download packages from url ?

file copied to /tmp/ks.cfg

setting up kickstart

kickstart forcing text mode

kickstartFromUrl

results of url ks, url http://1.2.3.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5

trying to mount CD device /dev/sr0 on /mnt/stage2

drive status is CDC_DISC_OK

transferring /mnt/stage2/images/install.img to /tmp

mounted loopback device /mnt/runtime on /dev/loop0 as /tmp/install.img   #Perfect

Looking for updates in /mnt/stage2/images/updates.img

Looking for product in /mnt/stage2/images/product.img

mounted loopback device /tmp/product-disk on /dev/loop7 as /mnt/stage2/images/product.img

umounting loopback /tmp/product-disk /dev/loop7 

umounting loopback /mnt/runtime /dev/loop0                      #Why??

no stage2= given, assuming http://1.2.3.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5/images/install.img  ; #you have it in /tmp
already!

setting language to en_US.UTF-8

starting STEP_METHOD

need to set up networking
...

Do you have any idea if it possible to somehow change this stage2 behavior? I found Anaconda boot options
but I am unable to set stage2 either by stage2= or inst.stage2=. 

(Any other idea how to set IP in ks.cfg and use it for packages downloading without DHCP would be also
appreciated.)

 

 



 

 

 

 


_______________________________________________
Kickstart-list mailing list
Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list


_______________________________________________
Kickstart-list mailing list
Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list





----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Wildman, CISSP, RHCE       jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.rossberry.net
"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best
state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
Thomas Paine
_______________________________________________
Kickstart-list mailing list
Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list

[Index of Archives]     [Red Hat General]     [CentOS Users]     [Fedora Users]     [Fedora Maintainers]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Big List of Linux Books]     [Yosemite News]     [KDE Users]

  Powered by Linux