Spike,
Thanks for the reply. I am always interested in hearing what other people do as it gives me new ideas, so I'd love to see your doc.
My needs are pretty different. I don't really care about minimal sizes, etc... I package up an entirely customized version of RHEL 6 onto dvd. This install goes on multiple machines, etc... I have an entire build system that uses templating (jinja) to construct the kickstart files based on ks snippets. I am constantly making tweaks, updates, etc... and using CDs is extremely cumbersome especially given how long it takes to burn a dvd and then install from it. Thus why I want to use USB drives. much faster to install and easier to test changes. Also, for a few of the systems I install to, the image exceeds dvd size and I either have to use dual layer or make two separate install discs. USB drives would make that a smoother install.
I also do pxe boot installs. Actually, my build script not only builds the disk, it auto-generates the isolinux.cfg files for the pxe server and then pushes the image/files to the tftp server.
250mb minimum! that's not very... minimal lol. We are planning a transition to RHEL 7 soon, but the core application is not happy about running on 7 yet, so I have to wait. At least I should be able to get the build system updated to support RHEL 7 in preparation. much better than trying to play catch up.
Andrew Simpson
On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 8:15 PM, Spike White <spikewhitetx@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> From: Andrew Simpson <simpsonar77@xxxxxxxxx>> Cc:> Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 08:48:04 -0500> Subject: help with creating USB kickstart drive RHEL 6.5> I have a complicated kickstart based install that I have been using with DVDs. I Would like to use USB drives, but I have a few questions that I haven't gotten answers to yet.>> 1. what's the best way to create a bootable USB key/drive? I have been using dd to put the ISO onto the device, but that makes the usb drive a read only filesystem (iso9660). I would really like it to be writable. So I'm assuming I will need to format the drive, put an mbr on there, etc...?>> 2. what kickstart install option should I be using? normally, I put "cdrom" in. Do I have to change that to the "harddrive" option?>> 3. Is there a good reference for turning a dvd image into a live image?>> thanks in advance, the information on these topics is all over the place and I'm not finding exactly what I need.>> DrewDrew, it really depends on what you want to do. What I do is stage all my build content on the network. So my USB image has syslinux, vmlinuz, initramfs and my ks.cfg.I reference all I want to do via my ks.cfg.If I'm doing a generic DHCP build, even my (generic) ks.cfg will be on the network.Because boot media size is of great concern for us, we have a minimal boot USB media. It's39 MB for OL6.5. We have a larger boot media, that will allow you to install anything from RHEL 5.4 up to RHEL 6.5.If this is of interest to you, drop me a note and I'll send doc with full instructions.Spike WhitePS For RHEL7 static builds, while good in other ways -- the new anaconda results on the squashfs.img having to be on USB. So the absolute min-sized USB boot media is ~250 MB.Ouch!
_______________________________________________
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
