Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

Installing with Kickstart 49Use this boot CD to start the kickstart installation as described in the “Starting theKickstart Installation” section later in this chapter.Over NFS as Defined by the DHCP ServerInstead of having to type the NFS server name and location of the kickstart file on the NFSserver each time you start a kickstart installation, you can configure the DHCP server tosend this information to the system being installed, as long as it is configured to retrieveits network information via DHCP and the DHCP server supports this feature (Red HatEnterprise Linux as a DHCP server supports this feature). The DHCP and NFS servers usedfor kickstart installations can be the same physical system, but they do not have to be.1After setting up the NFS server and making the installation tree available on it, create adirectory such as /kickstart on the NFS to store the kickstart files for the systems youwant to install. Copy the kickstart files to this directory and make sure it is configured asa shared directory via NFS.Assuming your DHCP server is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux server, on the DHCP server, usethe following lines in dhcpd.conf to define the NFS server sharing the kickstart files:filename “/shares/kickstart/”;next-server nfs.example.com;If the filename listed in the DHCP server configuration file ends in a slash (/), it isassumed to be a directory, and the installation program looks for the file kickstart,where is the IP address of the system being installed as assignedby the DHCP server. If the NFS server is not defined with next-server, the installationprogram assumes the NFS server has the same IP address as the DHCP server. If a path orfilename is not specified with filename, the installation program assumes the kickstartfile is in the /kickstart directory on the NFS server with the filename kickstart.Starting the Kickstart InstallationTo start a kickstart installation by PXE booting, refer to the “Installing with PXE” sectionfor details.Otherwise, to start a kickstart installation, make sure the system’s BIOS is configured toboot off the CD-ROM drive, and boot from a boot CD created with boot.iso or the firstinstallation CD. Booting off the first installation CD is only required if you are performinga CD-ROM installation. After booting from the CD, a specially formatted commandmust be issued at the boot: prompt. This command varies depending on the location ofthe kickstart file:. CD-ROMIf the kickstart file is located on the boot CD as previously described in the “Makingthe Kickstart File Accessible” section, use the following command at the boot:prompt:linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg