Subject: Re: More customized partitions? - msg#00125

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RE: new to kickstart, show me where to start

Tom, I have a setup similar to yours working "almost" automatically. I have to manually select NetBoot on my Dell box by F12, then it when it asks for the kernel parameters, I have it setup such that I have to type ks=file:/tmp/ks.cfg In order to do that locate my kickstart file there, I update the kickstart file and place it in a loopback mounted directory and rebuild the initrd file (linux.2) as shown in the script found in this document - http://www.datamodel.co.uk/unix/resources/dmdl-pxe.pdf Also, look at the back issues of Linux Magazine http://www.linux-mag.com. Specifically the two part article in January and February 2003 by Forrest Hoffman. What he has in this 2 part article mostly works. I had to modify something else based on blksize or MTU or some crap like that based on this article - http://www.gctglobal.com/Download/PXE_Server_FIX/pxe_server_fix.html I never could get the system to automatically find my kickstart file based on IP address or whatever when running the PXEServer (active server vs pxelinux.cfg method, which is passive). I don't mind the having to put the ks=file command as describe above. Also, it never automatically connects to my NFS server with the Redhat9 install files when it first tries to connect with text-based Redhat install. It prompts me with a warning that it cannot find my NFS server. If I immediately select OK (without changing the NFS parameters) from the text-based install screen about the NFS server, all is well and I can move on the next machine without babying the install further. But bottom line, it is almost automatic, and the time to baby-sit the installation to the NFS server problem is like 2 minutes before I can move to the next machine. I suppose I could dig deeper to solve these last few issues, however I don't have that high of throughput of new machines to install that the time spent (wasted) to debug this further wouldn't pay off for me. Bob Original Message ------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 19:02:39 -0600 From: Tommy McNeely <tommy.mcneely@xxxxxxx> Subject: new to kickstart, show me where to start To: kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx Organization: Sun Microsystems - ITCTO Reply-To: kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx Hello, I am new to kickstarting and PXE, and would like to figure out where I am, and where I have gone wrong, and how to "get there from here" .. pointers to any *recent* docs are appreciated too :) searches on google seem to turn up Index of (blah) (the images directory) .. so its not much help. I want to be able to kickstart RH9 linux boxes in much the same way one would "jumpstart" a Sun box. At this point, I have done.. cp images/pxeboot/vmlinuz /tftpboot/X86PC/UNDI/linux-install/linux.1 cp images/pxeboot/initrd.img /tftpboot/X86PC/UNDI/linux-install/linux.2 chkconfig tftp on chkconfig pxe on service xinetd reload service pxe start *** CANNOT RUN MY OWN DHCP SERVER ON THIS NETWORK I want to have it jumpstart "automatically" using my ks.cfg (that I created with redhat-config-kickstart) .. but I don't know what "next-server" and "filename" translate to on a "Sun" DHCP server (currently controlling the network). But... I would be extremely happy if I could even get an "interactive" nfs install running... I am hitting "F12" during the bootup of a Sun LX50, and it looks like it tries to boot, it loads the kernel, then it loads the initrd, but then it just sits there... dumblike... hehe I dont know what to do next... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Tommy McNeely

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Re: More customized partitions?

I've seen it mentioned before to have the %pre run a script that is later read as an `update` or as an `include`. Searching the mailing list archives for those terms might provide some usefull suggestions :) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Fahrner" <Matt.Fahrner@xxxxxxxx> To: <kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: "Joe Funk" <Joe.Funk@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 6:06 PM Subject: More customized partitions? > Does anyone know if there's a way, say in the "%pre" to run something > that could do more customized partitioning than what is supplied by > generic "kickstart". For instance, perhaps running a Perl script that > in turn runs "fdisk"? > > The reason I ask is because while the kickstart config does offer > quite a few options, there are a number of things we'd like to do that > it can't handle. For instance, we'd like to clear all but one > partition or make a very, very, smart program to auto-partition our > disks (we have such a wide range, 4 gig to 20 gig, that using "--grow" > isn't quite sufficient). > > Anyone done this before? Is it feasible? > > Thanks in advance, > > - Matt > > -- > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Matt Fahrner 2 South Park St. > Manager of Networking Willis House > Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Lebanon, N.H. 03766 > TEL: (603) 448-4100 xt 5150 USA > FAX: (603) 443-6190 Matt.Fahrner@xxxxxxxx > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > _______________________________________________ > Kickstart-list mailing list > Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list >

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Re: More customized partitions?

Hey thanks! That is a good start! Chris Adams wrote: Once upon a time, Matt Fahrner <Matt.Fahrner@xxxxxxxx> said: Does anyone know if there's a way, say in the "%pre" to run something that could do more customized partitioning than what is supplied by generic "kickstart". For instance, perhaps running a Perl script that in turn runs "fdisk"? I don't think perl is available during %pre (IIRC perl is not in the install image at all). Here's what I do in my %pre for partitioning (this may not be as smart as what you want, but it may give you some ideas). I figure my own swap size first, then look at the available devices (in this case I know I've got 4 drives, doing RAID mirroring and LVM striping) to figure out how much space to use. I call python to get a couple of things (but I'm not a python person, so that is just copied from some of the anaconda source), and I use shell math to do the calculations. It should be easy enough to expand this to be smarter about other filesystems than /usr/local. It also currently assumes all drives are the same size as the first drive (only the first line of output from "list-hardrives" is used) because in my setup, that is true; a better way would be to use a shell array. The lvcreate script could also be smarter (use different options based on the device being used). ************************************************************************ zerombr yes clearpart --all --initlabel %include /tmp/part-include bootloader --location=mbr %pre # How much RAM is there (round up to next 16MB) ram=`python <<EOF import sys sys.path.append('/usr/lib/anaconda') import iutil sizekB = iutil.memInstalled(1) print sizekB EOF ` ram=$(((($ram + 1023) / 1024 + 15) / 16 * 16)) # Swap should be twice RAM swap=$(($ram * 2)) if [ "$(($swap > 2048))" = "1" ]; then # but no more than 2G swap=2048 fi # Figure out disk size and partition scheme list-harddrives | while read dev mb; do mb=`echo $mb | sed 's/\.[0-9]*//'` echo "dev=$dev; mb=$mb" break done > /tmp/ks-hd-info . /tmp/ks-hd-info boot=75 lvm=$(($mb - $boot)) # Since we're going to software stripe, full lvm size will be double lvm=$(($lvm * 2)) root=250 usr=2500 tmp=750 var=2500 # Leave some empty space for LVM snapshots empty=750 # Make /usr/local the rest usrlocal=$(($lvm - $root - $swap - $usr - $tmp - $var - $empty)) # Set the volume based on the hostname . /tmp/netinfo if [ "$HOSTNAME" = "" ]; then vol=vol else vol=${HOSTNAME%%.*} fi # Cheat: we want lvcreate called with certain options, and Red Hat # doesn't currently support passing extra options. So, create an # lvcreate script that uses the options, and bind mount it on top of the # binary (after copying the binary). cp /usr/sbin/lvcreate /tmp/lvcreate.bin cat > /tmp/lvcreate <<EOF #!/bin/sh exec /tmp/lvcreate.bin -i 2 -I 512 \$@ EOF chmod +x /tmp/lvcreate mount /tmp/lvcreate /usr/sbin/lvcreate -o bind cat > /tmp/part-include <<EOF part raid.01 --ondisk=sda --size=$boot --asprimary part raid.02 --ondisk=sdb --size=$boot --asprimary part raid.03 --ondisk=sdc --size=$boot --asprimary part raid.04 --ondisk=sdd --size=$boot --asprimary part raid.05 --ondisk=sda --size=1 --grow --asprimary part raid.06 --ondisk=sdb --size=1 --grow --asprimary part raid.07 --ondisk=sdc --size=1 --grow --asprimary part raid.08 --ondisk=sdd --size=1 --grow --asprimary raid /boot --level=1 --device=md0 --fstype=ext3 raid.01 raid.02 raid.03 raid.04 raid pv.10 --level=1 --device=md1 raid.05 raid.07 raid pv.20 --level=1 --device=md2 raid.06 raid.08 volgroup $vol pv.10 pv.20 logvol / --name=root --vgname=$vol --fstype=ext3 --size=$root logvol swap --name=swap --vgname=$vol --fstype=swap --size=$swap logvol /usr --name=usr --vgname=$vol --fstype=ext3 --size=$usr logvol /tmp --name=tmp --vgname=$vol --fstype=ext3 --size=$tmp logvol /var --name=var --vgname=$vol --fstype=ext3 --size=$var logvol /usr/local --name=usrlocal --vgname=$vol --fstype=ext3 --size=$usrlocal EOF ************************************************************************ -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt Fahrner 2 South Park St. Manager of Networking Willis House Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Lebanon, N.H. 03766 TEL: (603) 448-4100 xt 5150 USA FAX: (603) 443-6190 Matt.Fahrner@xxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: More customized partitions?

I've seen it mentioned before to have the %pre run a script that is later read as an `update` or as an `include`. Searching the mailing list archives for those terms might provide some usefull suggestions :) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Fahrner" <Matt.Fahrner@xxxxxxxx> To: <kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: "Joe Funk" <Joe.Funk@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 6:06 PM Subject: More customized partitions? > Does anyone know if there's a way, say in the "%pre" to run something > that could do more customized partitioning than what is supplied by > generic "kickstart". For instance, perhaps running a Perl script that > in turn runs "fdisk"? > > The reason I ask is because while the kickstart config does offer > quite a few options, there are a number of things we'd like to do that > it can't handle. For instance, we'd like to clear all but one > partition or make a very, very, smart program to auto-partition our > disks (we have such a wide range, 4 gig to 20 gig, that using "--grow" > isn't quite sufficient). > > Anyone done this before? Is it feasible? > > Thanks in advance, > > - Matt > > -- > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Matt Fahrner 2 South Park St. > Manager of Networking Willis House > Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Lebanon, N.H. 03766 > TEL: (603) 448-4100 xt 5150 USA > FAX: (603) 443-6190 Matt.Fahrner@xxxxxxxx > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > _______________________________________________ > Kickstart-list mailing list > Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list >