Linux Kickstart Installation

On each computational cluster we installed Linux via a kickstart installation.

What is a kickstart installation?

• It is an automated installation method to install Red Hat Linux
• The system administrator may create one file that has the specifics of the system configuration instead of having to answer these questions each time he or she wants to install Linux on a machine

How to perform a kickstart installation

We performed our kickstart installations in two different ways:

1. Install off a boot disk (for PCs)
2. Install over the network using DHCP and NFS (for SPARCs)

Kickstart installation off a disk

Create a Linux boot disk and on it place a file named ks.cfg on your boot disk. The file must be in the following format:

Command section
%packages
%pre and %post

An example can be found at our class web page

To begin the installation, you must boot the system from the boot disk and at the boot prompt, type:

linux ks=floppy

Kickstart installation over a network

First, create a Linux boot disk. On the DHCP server, it is necessary to add the following two lines to the /etc/dhcpd.conf file:

filename "/home/(username)/";
next-server (server name);

Then create a file named (ip-addr)-kickstart in the /home/(username)/ directory on the NFS server. The file must be in the following format:

Command section
%packages
%pre and %post

An example can be found at our class web page

To begin the installation, you must boot the system from the boot disk and at the boot prompt, type:

linux ks=nfs:(server):/(path)