Kickstart is a network installation system for RHEL, Fedora and CentOS Linux distributions. Another good option is Cobbler which is a Linux provisioning server that centralizes and simplifies control of services including DHCP, TFTP, and DNS for the purpose of performing network-based operating systems installs. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to use kickstart file to install CentOS.
Create Kickstart file
An automated installation method to install CentOS / Fedora or RHEL is recommend to automate procedure. Using kickstart, a system administrator can create a single file containing the answers to all the questions that would normally be asked during a typical RHEL Linux installation. Use kickstart GUI tool called "Kickstart Configurator" (run system-config-kickstart command to start the tool) to create a file called ks.cfg as follows:
auth --useshadow --enablemd5 bootloader --location=mbr zerombr clearpart --all --initlabel text firewall --enabled --port=22:tcp firstboot --disable keyboard us network --device eth0 --bootproto static --ip 10.10.21.76 --netmask 255.255.255.240 --gateway 10.10.21.100 --nameserver 10.10.21.1,10.10.21.2 --noipv6 network --device eth1 --bootproto static --ip 123.1.2.6 --netmask 255.255.255.240 --gateway 123.1.2.100 --nameserver 10.10.21.1,10.10.21.2 --hostname centos.nixcraft.in --noipv6 lang en_US logging --level=info url --url=http://mirrors.nixcraft.in/centos/5.5/os/x86_64/ reboot rootpw --iscrypted $1$somepassword selinux --enforcing skipx timezone America/New_York install part / --bytes-per-inode=4096 --fstype="ext3" --grow --size=1 part swap --recommended %packages @core --nobase %post ( echo '10.0.0.0/8 via 10.10.21.100' > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0 sed -i 's/LABEL=\//& console=ttyS0/' /etc/grub.conf echo 'S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS0 115200' >> /etc/inittab echo "ttyS0" >> /etc/securetty echo 'IPV6INIT=no' >> /etc/sysconfig/network echo 'install ipv6 /bin/true' >> /etc/modprobe.conf ) 1>/root/post_install.log 2>&1
Upload this file to a web server as ks.cfg. You can use nfs server too.
virt-install: Install CentOS using Kickstart
Type the following command:
# virt-install \
-n centos \
-r 2048 \
--vcpus=1 \
--os-variant=rhel5.4 \
--accelerate \
-v \
-w bridge:br0 \
-w bridge:br1 \
--disk path=/emc/kvm/centos.img,size=100 \
-l http://mirrors.nixcraft.in/centos/5.5/os/x86_64/ \
-nographics \
-x "ks=http://10.10.21.3/static/ks.cfg ksdevice=eth0 ip=10.10.21.76 netmask=255.255.255.240 dns=10.10.21.1 gateway=10.10.21.100"
The -x option is used to pass additional kernel command line to the installer when performing a guest install. The ks option sets ks file location and rest are networking options so that installer can fetch ks.cfg and do automated installation for you.
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This FAQ entry is 5 of 14 in the "CentOS / Redhat (RHEL) KVM Virtulization" series. Keep reading the rest of the series:- CentOS / Redhat: Install KVM Virtualization Software
- CentOS / Redhat: KVM Bridged Network Configuration
- KVM virt-manager: Install CentOS As Guest Operating System
- KVM virt-install: Install FreeBSD / CentOS As Guest Operating System
- KVM: Install CentOS / RHEL Using Kickstart File (Automated Installation)
- Troubleshooting KVM Virtualization Problem With Log Files
- KVM Virsh: Redirect FreeBSD Console To A Serial Port
- KVM: Starting / Stopping Guest Operating Systems With virsh Command
- Linux KVM: Disable virbr0 NAT Interface
- FreeBSD / OpeBSD Running in KVM Does Not Accept FTP Traffic
- KVM: Start a Virtual Machine / Guest At Boot Time
- KVM virt-install: Install OpenBSD As Guest Operating System
- Linux KVM: OpenBSD Guest Hangs At Starting tty Flags
- KVM Virtualization: Start VNC Remote Access For Guest Operating Systems
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there,
Great articles! I’d like to auto install (pxe boot) all my KVM based VMs, using my Satellite/Cobbler server. But the problem seems to be that , to add a server into Cobbler we need “MAC” addresses of both interfaces in advance (so we could assign the DHCP/Static IP accordingly). Is it possible to create dummy VMs or assign pre-defined MAC during VM auto pxe install?
Thanks,
Nitin
I do believe it is possible to generate macs before you create the VM.
Why is the IP info required in both the kickstart as well as the virt-install? This doesn’t make sense to me.