Kickstart - Automated Installations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Kickstart installations provide an automated alternative to the normal interactive installations of Red Hat Linux. The automation of installation and post installation configuration steps represents a considerable time saving in situations where many similar installations are performed.

A kickstart installation requires a kickstart file that contains the answers to every question asked during an interactive installation. Kickstart files can be written manually in a text editor, or generated using the Kickstart Configurator.

Installing Kickstart Configurator
Generating Kickstart Files
Editing Kickstart Files
Kickstart Installation
Network Installations

Installing Kickstart Configurator

The Kickstart Configurator program is an extra package in the Administration Tools package group in RHEL 3.0. It is installed using the Package Management dialog (RedHat > System Settings > Add/Remove Applications).

Add/Remove Programs Menu

Expanding the Administration Tools package group allows the kickstart package to be selected for installation.

Package Management

Once the installation is complete, Kickstart is available from the menu (RedHat > System Tools > Kickstart).

Kickstart Menu

Generating Kickstart Files

The Kickstart Configurator program allows you to answer most of the questions asked during an interactive installation process. Once each section of the configurator is complete, simply save the configuration as a file called "ks.cfg" on a floppy disk, cdrom or some other media available at boot time.

The generated text file can be edited to customize the installation further.

Editing Kickstart Files

There are a large number of Kickstart Options that can not be modified by the Kickstart Configurator. The kickstart file below was generated by the configurator, then modified to include the hostname and some addition packages, shown in bold, to support the installation of 10g AS Release 1.

#Generated by Kickstart Configurator
#System  language
lang en_US
#Language modules to install
langsupport  --default=en_US
#System keyboard
keyboard uk
#System mouse
mouse generic3ps/2
#Sytem timezone
timezone Europe/London
#Root password
rootpw --iscrypted $1$.6i6zn9F$/3A7hCL3hRFtCLCZRiwMa.
#Reboot after installation
reboot
#Install Red Hat Linux instead of upgrade
install
#Use CDROM installation media
cdrom
#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --location=mbr 
#Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr yes
#Partition clearing information
clearpart --all --initlabel 
#Disk partitioning information
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 150 
part swap --size 8192 
part / --fstype ext3 --size 1 --grow 
#System authorization infomation
auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5 
#Network information
network --bootproto=static --ip=192.168.2.2 --netmask=255.255.255.255 --gateway=192.168.2.1
        --nameserver=192.168.2.1 --device=eth0 --hostname=rhel3.mydomain.com
#Firewall configuration
firewall --disabled 
#XWindows configuration information
xconfig --depth=32 --resolution=1024x768 --defaultdesktop=GNOME --startxonboot
#Run the Setup Agent on first boot
firstboot --enable
#Package install information
%packages --resolvedeps
@ X Window System
@ GNOME Desktop Environment
@ Editors
@ Graphical Internet
@ Text-based Internet
@ Server Configuration Tools
@ FTP Server
@ Development Tools
@ Administration Tools
@ System Tools
setarch
sysstat
openmotif21
ORBit
libpng10
gnome-libs
compat-glibc
compat-gcc
compat-gcc-c++
compat-libstdc++
compat-libstdc++-devel

Post installation tasks can also be included in the kickstart file by using the "%post" option at the end of the file. The script listed below performs the majority of the the post installation tasks necessary for the installation of 10g AS Release 1.

#Post-installation script
%post --nochroot
echo "192.168.2.2  rhel3.mydomain.com  rhel3" >> /etc/hosts
#
echo "kernel.shmall = 2097152" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "kernel.shmmax = 2147483648" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "kernel.shmmni = 142" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "# semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "kernel.sem = 256 32000 100 142" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "fs.file-max = 131072" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 20000 65000" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "kernel.msgmni = 2878" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "kernel.msgmax = 8192" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "kernel.msgmnb = 65535" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
/sbin/sysctl -p
#
echo "*               soft    nproc   16384" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo "*               hard    nproc   16384" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo "*               soft    nofile  65536" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo "*               hard    nofile  65536" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
#
echo "session    required     /lib/security/pam_limits.so" >> /etc/pam.d/login
#
mv /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc323
mv /usr/bin/g++ /usr/bin/g++323
ln -s /usr/bin/gcc296 /usr/bin/gcc
ln -s /usr/bin/g++296 /usr/bin/g++
#
groupadd oinstall
groupadd dba
groupadd oper
useradd -g oinstall -G dba -s /bin/ksh oracle
#
echo "# Oracle Settings" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "TMP=/tmp; export TMP" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/904_infra; export ORACLE_HOME" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "PATH=/usr/sbin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin; export PATH" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin; export PATH" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "if [ $USER = "oracle" ]; then" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "  if [ $SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "    ulimit -p 16384" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "    ulimit -n 16384" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "  else" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "    ulimit -u 16384 -n 16384" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "  fi" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "fi" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "PS1="`hostname`> "" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "set -o emacs" >> /home/oracle/.profile
echo "set filec" >> /home/oracle/.profile
chown oracle:oinstall /home/oracle/.profile

Kickstart Installation

To start the installation, boot from the normal Red Hat installation disk. At the boot prompt, insert the floppy disk containg the "ks.cfg" file then type "linux ks=floppy" followed by return.

Kickstart Boot Screen

Once the installation is complete the server will reboot and present the normal welcome screen.

Network Installations

To perform a network installation, place the kickstart configuration file on a HTTP server and boot using the following boot option, using the IP address of the HTTP server.

linux ks=http://192.168.2.50/anaconda-ks.cfg

If you want to install using network media, copy the "RedHat" directories from all the CDs into a directory available from the HTTP server, then alter the "install" option in the kickstart configuration file to read as follows.

install url --url http://192.168.2.50/RHEL3/

The IP address is that of the HTTP server and "RHEL3" represents the directory containing the combined RedHat directories from the CDs.

For further information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

Back to the Top.