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Jump Start for the Linux Realm Kit

Jump Start for the Linux Realm Kit

Red Hat Linux uses an automated install system known as Kickstart. Very basically, this is a detailed text file that the Red Hat Linux installer can retrieve and use to install the machine rather than asking the a human many questions. One of the most powerful methods of delivering a kickstart file to the installer is by HTTP which allows complex scripting to generate the proper kickstart file. This is what we are doing here.

Sun Solaris uses a similar system called JumpStart to perform automated installs. An advantage of JumpStart is that its' format is already familiar to those that do Solaris installs, and JumpStart configuration files are often significantly simpler than Kickstart files. To leverage our Jumpstart knowledge, we decided to use the JumpStart file format and convert it to the equivalent Kickstart format, which would then be used to perform the install via HTTP.

Maintained by NCSU CLS.

Documentation

Web-Kickstart is designed to install Realm Linux from a simple config file. This config file is used to dynamically create a Red Hat Kickstart to do the install. The filename of the config files must be the fully quantified domain name of the machine you want to install. Files must be placed under the following directory:

/afs/bp/system/config/linux-kickstart/configs.

Note: In addition to the jump start config file, the computers' DNS entry must be configured to use DHCP and the IP address received from DHCP must resolve to a domain name.

A full description of all possible key words and what they do can be found in keywords.txt.

Currently, the following products are supported:

ProductVersion KeyStatus
Production Products
Realm Linux 5.3 Server (x86_64)server5.x86_64Production
Realm Linux 5.3 Server (i386)server5Production
Realm Linux 5.3 Client (x86_64)client5.x86_64Production
Realm Linux 5.3 Client (i386)client5Production
Realm Linux WS4 U6 (i386)WS4Production
Realm Linux AS4 U6 (i386)AS4Production
Realm Linux WS4 U6 (AMD64/EM64T)WS4.x86_64Production
Realm Linux AS4 U6 (AMD64/EM64T)AS4.x86_64Production
Non-Production and Testing Products
Realm Linux 5.1 Server (x86_64)server5.1.x86_64Retired
Realm Linux 5.1 Server (i386)server5.1Retired
Realm Linux 5.1 Client (x86_64)client5.1.x86_64Retired
Realm Linux 5.1 Client (i386)client5.1Retired
Realm Linux WS4 U4 (i386)WS4.4Retired
Realm Linux AS4 U4 (i386)AS4.4Retired
Realm Linux WS4 U4 (AMD64/EM64T)WS4.4.x86_64Retired
Realm Linux AS4 U4 (AMD64/EM64T)AS4.4.x86_64Retired
End of Life Products
Realm Linux AS3 U8 (i386)AS3.8Production - EOL 1/1/2007
Realm Linux WS3 U4 (i386)WS3Production - EOL 1/1/2007
Realm Linux AS3 U4 (i386)AS3Production - EOL 1/1/2007

Examples and More Documentation.

  • keywords.txt - Keywords and syntax for the Realm Linux JumpStart files.

Disk Image

Here's a disk image that is set up to automatically do a kickstart install from web-kickstart.linux.ncsu.edu. (This was done by modifying the syslinux.cfg file on the floppy. After you setup your config file all you need to do is boot off of one of these disks to install the machine. This boot disk you use must match the version of Realm Linux you have the config file set to install.

Production Products

Realm Linux 5.3

Realm Linux 4.6

Non-Production and Testing Products

Realm Linux 5.1 - Retired

Realm Linux 5.0 - Retired

Realm Linux 4.4 - Retired

End of Life Products

Realm Linux 3 (Retired)

Web-Kickstart Tools

There are several Web-Kickstart Tools available to help you debug your config files and manage your config files in AFS. You can view the kickstart that is generated and sent to your machines and check for syntax and other errors. All of these Tools can be found at the:

This page is SSL'd and WRAP protected for security reasons.

When Things Go Wrong

There are several common things that can keep Web-Kickstart from installing your machine for you. If the install process starts asking you questions, like what language to use, then the client didn't receive the kickstart from the Web-Kickstart server and is defaulting to a manual install. Possible causes and solutions:

  • Reboot the machine and try again.
  • Is the IP of the machine configured for Manual DHCP in QIP?
  • Does the IP reverse resolve to the domain name yet?
  • Does the file name exactly match the string that the IP address reverse resolves too? It is case sensitive.

Another common trouble point is that the installer complains that it cannot download stage2.img at the beginning of the install. This means that you are using a boot disk for a different version of Realm Linux compared to what the version key says in the config file.

Recent Changes

The following are some recent changes to the system there were made after I released it to public testing. These changes are also documented in the keywords.txt file or their relivant place.

The Change Log has grown quite a bit so I've moved it to its own page. Please keep up with the systems as it grows and changes.

References

The follow collection of links points to documentation and resources that you may find useful but are not directly related to setting up a JumpStart config file for Realm Linux.