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Multi-host install of FC6

Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:22:12 -0400

Hi, all -

I'm going to be teaching a class next week in which the student machines are going to have Fedora Core 6 installed on them, so the poor on-site tech guy is going to be spending his weekend flipping the 6 installation CDs among a dozen-plus machines - not a happy-fun thing at all, as I see it.

Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux can do better. :)

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:33:40 +0100

2008/7/16 Ben Okopnik <[email protected]>:

> Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps

On Redhat/Fedora, this is called "kickstart".

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart

-- Thomas Adam


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Breen Mullins [breen.mullins at gmail.com]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:35:45 -0700

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> can do better. :)
>

Red Hat calls it 'kickstart'. Google for kickstart install server and you should find plenty of instructions.

-- 
Breen Mullins
Menlo Park, Calif.


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:39:49 -0400

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 10:33:40PM +0100, Thomas Adam wrote:

> 2008/7/16 Ben Okopnik <[email protected]>:
> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> 
> On Redhat/Fedora, this is called "kickstart".
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart

Thanks, Thomas - I remembered something called 'PXE', but Googling for this just took me down the "You're in a maze of twisty passages, all alike" route - I wasn't getting anywhere, and constantly felt like I was about to be eaten by a grue. Much appreciated.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:56:43 -0400

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 02:35:45PM -0700, Breen Mullins wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> > can do better. :)
> 
> Red Hat calls it 'kickstart'. Google for kickstart install server and you should
> find plenty of instructions.

Got it, thanks.

I think - having reviewed the instructions for the process - that the on-site guy is stuck flipping CDs. He's mostly a Wind0ws type; the last time I taught a class at that site, I walked him through installing Ubuntu (he was shocked at how quick and easy that was...), and I really doubt that he's up to writing a Kickstart file - I took a look at a sample that I found on the Net, and it seems like the up-front cost would be higher than doing this one-time task. Oh well...

I appreciate the help, guys.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Breen Mullins [breen.mullins at gmail.com]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:30:08 -0700

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> I really doubt that he's up to writing a Kickstart file - I took a look at a
> sample that I found on the Net, and it seems like the up-front cost
> would be higher than doing this one-time task. Oh well...

After a manual install, anaconda will dump a kickstart file with the options used in /root . You might be able to modify that for him.

-- 
Breen Mullins
Menlo Park, Calif.


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:52:02 -0400

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 03:30:08PM -0700, Breen Mullins wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > I really doubt that he's up to writing a Kickstart file - I took a look at a
> > sample that I found on the Net, and it seems like the up-front cost
> > would be higher than doing this one-time task. Oh well...
> >
> After a manual install, anaconda will dump a kickstart file with the
> options used
> in /root . You might be able to modify that for him.

"Aye, there's the rub!" :) If I was there, it would be a different thing indeed. As it is, I won't be there until late Sunday - a bit late for all that. I was just trying to find a way to make the guy's life a bit easier.

I will mention it to him, though. If there are going to be a lot of these in the future, it would make sense for him to learn the process.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Joey Prestia [joey at linuxamd.com]


Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:55:45 -0700

Ben Okopnik wrote:

> 
> Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> can do better. :)
> 
> 

At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be moving to cobbler http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/08/10/cobbler-how-to-set-up-a-network-boot-server-in-10-minutes/ I have set it up and it is an excellent approach to the problem. I would install one machine like Thomas has stated and use the kickstart from it. Our automated installs take 7 minutes for a full student build of RHEL 4 via pxe kickstart.

Best,

-- 
Joey Prestia
L. G. Mirror Coordinator
[email protected]
http://linuxamd.com
Main Site http://linuxgazette.net


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:41:54 -0400

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 08:55:45PM -0700, Joey Prestia wrote:

> Ben Okopnik wrote:
> > 
> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> > can do better. :)
> 
> At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be  moving to
> cobbler
> http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/08/10/cobbler-how-to-set-up-a-network-boot-server-in-10-minutes/
> I have set it up and it is an excellent approach to the problem. I would
> install one machine like Thomas has stated and use the kickstart from
> it. Our automated installs take 7 minutes for a full student build of
> RHEL 4 via pxe kickstart.

Cool! The article describes a nice, simple system for doing this; I'll recommend it and see how that goes. Thanks, Joey!

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Mulyadi Santosa [mulyadi.santosa at gmail.com]


Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:03:20 -0700

Hi Ben!

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:41 AM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 08:55:45PM -0700, Joey Prestia wrote:
>> Ben Okopnik wrote:
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
>> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
>> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
>> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
>> > can do better. :)
>>
>> At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be  moving to
>> cobbler

Be aware to setup DHCP too and make the clients the IPs from there. Otherwise, if you just plainly use the /root/kickstart, you will end up with nodes using same IP.

Also carefully check the partitioning scheme.... especially if you want to keep certain partition s in the machines.

Another tips, better use HTTP or FTP sharing, because that would be faster than NFS (based on my experience).

regards,

Mulyadi.


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:30:13 -0400

Hi, Mulyadi -

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 10:03:20AM -0700, Mulyadi Santosa wrote:

> Hi Ben!
> 
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:41 AM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 08:55:45PM -0700, Joey Prestia wrote:
> >> Ben Okopnik wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> >> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> >> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> >> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> >> > can do better. :)
> >>
> >> At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be  moving to
> >> cobbler
> 
> Be aware to setup DHCP too and make the clients the IPs from there.
> Otherwise, if you just plainly use the /root/kickstart, you will end
> up with nodes using same IP.

Sure. This isn't a tragedy by any means, since it's fairly easy to fix, but doing it up-front would make life simpler. :)

> Also carefully check the partitioning scheme.... especially if you
> want to keep certain partition s in the machines.

In this case, it's a full install.

> Another tips, better use HTTP or FTP sharing, because that would be
> faster than NFS (based on my experience).

It's interesting that you say that. NFS has many faults, in my opinion - but being slow isn't one that I've run into, even with the encrypted version. Although I must admit that pretty much all of my NFS experience has been with Solaris rather than Linux.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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