The Virtualization Cookbook for SLES 10 SP2 - z/VM - IBM

Chapter 10. Installing Linux with kickstart
Kickstart is an automated way of installing RHEL 6. Using kickstart, you can create a single
file that answers all of the questions usually asked during an interactive installation.
In the previous chapter, you cloned to LINUX01 and created three new user IDs for virtual
servers. In this chapter you will kickstart a RHEL 6 system to LINUX02. In comparison, cloning
a server is faster, assuming the FLASHCOPY command is available. However, kickstarting a
server is more flexible, as it allows for different package configurations as well as pre-install
and post-install scripting.
The cloner is now configured as an installation server using NFS to share the installation tree.
You will now configure it as a kickstart server to perform automated installations over the
network. The following steps are involved in installing Linux with kickstart:
► Configure the cloner for kickstart
► Configure the LINUX02 user for kickstart
► Kickstart the LINUX02 user
10.1 Configure the cloner for kickstart
The installer generates a kickstart file at the end of every installation. It is based on the
answers provided during the interactive install. This kickstart file is named anaconda-ks.cfg
and is located in the /root/ directory. This file on RH6CLONE will be used as a template for
LINUX02.
Perform the following steps:
► Start an SSH session on the cloner (RH6CLONE) as root.
► Start the golden image (RH6GOLD). You could log on to a 3270 session, but you can also
start it from the cloner with the CP XAUTOLOG command:
# vmcp xautolog rh6gold
Command accepted
► Create the directory /nfs/ks/ for the kickstart file:
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