Kickstart files
Kickstart is a mechanism allowing automated and unattended system installations. At CERN kickstart installations can be performed by AIMS service (including PXE boot). For AIMS documentation please refer to: AIMS2 documentation. For full documentation on all available Kickstart options, please consult the Red Hat System Administrator Guide.
For now this page documents only a basic kickstart
file which can be used to install SLC4. You can also use the system utility /usr/sbin/system-config-kickstart to generate a template file, and then edit the generated file to include the "CERN recommended" package group as shown below.
Please be aware that Kickstart is not very user-friendly, typos or syntax errors may result in impressive-looking python tracebacks (where the most valuable information is at the bottom...).
Example kickstart file
#System language lang en_US.UTF-8 #Language modules to install langsupport en_US.UTF-8 #System keyboard keyboard us #System mouse mouse #Sytem timezone timezone Europe/Zurich #Root password - change to a real password (use "grub-md5-crypt" to get the crypted version) rootpw --iscrypted **** #Reboot after installation reboot #Install OS instead of upgrade install #Use Web installation url --url http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/cern/slc4X/i386/ #System bootloader configuration bootloader --location=mbr #Clear the Master Boot Record #zerombr yes #Partition clearing information #clearpart --all --initlabel #Disk partitioning information #part / --fstype ext3 --size 1 --grow --asprimary #part swap --size 1024 #part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 256 --asprimary #System authorization infomation auth --useshadow --enablemd5 #Network information network --bootproto=dhcp --device=eth0 #Firewall configuration firewall --enabled --ssh --port=7001:udp #SELinux configuration selinux --enforcing #XWindows configuration information xconfig --depth=24 --resolution=1024x768 --defaultdesktop=GNOME --startxonboot #Run the Setup Agent on first boot firstboot --enable #Package install information %packages --resolvedeps @ cern-recommended-setup %post # you can use this section to add shell scripts that will run # on the freshly-installed system before it is being rebooted. # At this stage, you don't have AFS. ## Example: ssh root access via public key # mkdir /root/.ssh # echo "1024 35 105374965023403953619273218488692371847122061579726954060640619224367531786361797460439239779225291510998384245737470929780826970942573422600433723682782964698156957858570918426341934349474597692460396373380175080582840918975294262527874987444842330561466940416293074387647909258951412020424054395417813493629 some-random-sysadmin@evil.cern.ch" > /root/.ssh/authorized_keys ## Example: ssh root access via Kerberos, requires srvtab to be configured # echo "dumbo.@CERN.CH" > /root/.klogin ## Example: add a local user "dumbo" with md5-crypted passwrod "passwrod". # useradd -c "Joe Dumbo" -p '$1$msHv81$Z.0NDAeqKqqFtkgRSgmBw1' dumbo ##### CERN customization (equivalent to what can be selected in firstboot) /bin/echo LCM_FIRSTBOOT_START=yes > /etc/sysconfig/lcm-firstboot /bin/echo LCM_FIRSTBOOT_COMPONENTS=1 >> /etc/sysconfig/lcm-firstboot /bin/echo LCM_FIRSTBOOT_STARTAFS=yes >> /etc/sysconfig/lcm-firstboot /bin/echo LCM_FIRSTBOOT_UPDATE=1 >> /etc/sysconfig/lcm-firstboot ## some of the post-install configuration can be done here, ## but we don't have AFS yet. (this is the same as done in the CERN customization section above) # /usr/sbin/lcm --configure afsclt krb4clt krb5clt sendmail zephyrclt pine security # /sbin/chkconfig afs on # /sbin/chkconfig --add yum-autoupdate # echo "YUMUPDATE=1" > /etc/sysconfig/yum-autoupdate ## other things to do can be written to a file and executed after reboot cat > /etc/rc.d/init.d/ks-post-reboot <<End_Of_Post_Reboot ## enable Kerberos authentications (run-time dep on AFS) # /usr/sbin/lcm --configure srvtab ## add AFS users (requires AFS or ORACLE libraries) #/usr/sbin/ccdbuser afsdumbo ## clean up so we dont run the script in the future rm -f /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S86ks-post-reboot End_Of_Post_Reboot # make it executable and hook into boot sequence chmod +x /etc/rc.d/init.d/ks-post-reboot ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/ks-post-reboot /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S86ks-post-reboot #### AIMS (CERN) #### Tell our installation server the installation is over. #### otherwise PXE installs will loop all-over-again #### If you are not using PXE install: just ignore this section /usr/bin/wget -O /root/aims2deregistered http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/aims2reboot #### AIMSAbove file should provide you with a system setup identically as CERN Recommended Setup for manual installations. (Then if CERN cutomization section in %post was not used, you will need to enable CERN customizations, please see: installation instructions: manual post-install customization)
