Installation guide

To perform a CD-ROM-based kickstart installation, the kickstart file must be named ks.cfg and must
be located in the boot CD-ROM's top-level directory. Since a CD-ROM is read-only, the file must be
added to the directory used to create the image that is written to the CD-ROM. Refer to Section 2.4.1,
“ Alternative Boot Methods” for instructions on creating boot media; however, before making the
file.iso image file, copy the ks.cfg kickstart file to the isolinux/ directory.
To perform a pen-based flash memory kickstart installation, the kickstart file must be named ks.cfg
and must be located in the flash memory's top-level directory. Create the boot image first, and then
copy the ks.cfg file.
Note
Creation of USB flash memory pen drives for booting is possible, but is heavily dependent on
system hardware BIOS settings. Refer to your hardware manufacturer to see if your system
supports booting to alternate devices.
31.8.2. Making t he Kickst art File Available on t he Net work
Network installations using kickstart are quite common, because system administrators can easily
automate the installation on many networked computers quickly and painlessly. In general, the
approach most commonly used is for the administrator to have both a BOOTP/DHCP server and an
NFS server on the local network. The BOOTP/DHCP server is used to give the client system its
networking information, while the actual files used during the installation are served by the NFS
server. Often, these two servers run on the same physical machine, but they are not required to.
To perform a network-based kickstart installation, you must have a BOOTP/DHCP server on your
network, and it must include configuration information for the machine on which you are attempting
to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The BOOTP/DHCP server provides the client with its networking
information as well as the location of the kickstart file.
If a kickstart file is specified by the BOOTP/DHCP server, the client system attempts an NFS mount of
the file's path, and copies the specified file to the client, using it as the kickstart file. The exact settings
required vary depending on the BOOTP/DHCP server you use.
Here is an example of a line from the dhcpd.conf file for the DHCP server:
filename "/usr/new-machine/kickstart/"; next-server blarg.redhat.com;
Note that you should replace the value after filename with the name of the kickstart file (or the
directory in which the kickstart file resides) and the value after next-server with the NFS server
name.
If the file name returned by the BOOTP/D HCP server ends with a slash ("/"), then it is interpreted as a
path only. In this case, the client system mounts that path using NFS, and searches for a particular
file. The file name the client searches for is:
<ip-addr>-kickstart
The <ip-addr> section of the file name should be replaced with the client's IP address in dotted
decimal notation. For example, the file name for a computer with an IP address of 10.10.0.1 would be
10.10.0.1-kickstart.
⁠Chapt er 31 . Kickst art Inst allat ions
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