RE: RHEL6.5 provisioning without DHCP

I’ve been building servers using the ISO for 6 years now and we always use the following setup the networking in the isolinux/isolinux.cfg file:

default remoteks
prompt 10
timeout 100
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
F7 snake.msg
label linux
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=124836
label localks
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks=cdrom initrd=initrd.img text ramdisk_size=124836
label cdbuild
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img netwait=60 lowres
label remoteks
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ksdevice=eth0 netwait=60 blacklist=lpfc ks=http://100.1.1.1/ks.cfgs/ks.cfg.hostname ip=10.1.1.100 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.1.1.254 initrd=initrd.img

The entry netwait=60 is a leftover from RHEL 5 but it hasn’t caused any problems with our RHEL 6 builds.  This entry just give the network device 60 seconds to enable before it tried to start networking.
We use blacklist=lpfc to make sure that the OS does not try to install on anything other than local devices.

Good luck,
Rob Fisher

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Larry Brigman
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:22 PM
To: Discussion list about Kickstart
Subject: Re: RHEL6.5 provisioning without DHCP


You can set the IP address from the boot line.  You may need to know the mac address of the install interface if there is more than one interface on the server.
On Dec 11, 2014 4:11 AM, "Frantisek Krecmer" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hello,

I have following scenario:
- need to install very large number of physical servers
- RHEL repository is on the network filer (url install, NFS install available)
- there is no DHCP available (and it is not possible to have one - long story)
- I know serial number and IP for each server
My idea was to boot from installation image rhel-server-6.5-x86_64-boot.iso where I modified following:
- isolinux.cfg to load kickstart file

label Project
  menu label Project
  menu default
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks=cdrom:/isolinux/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img
add kickstart file containing network configuration in %pre script (get serial number from dmidecode, assign IP, install from network.  + configure hw raid etc etc)
Basically, something like this:


install
url --url 1.2.3.4.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5
...

%include /tmp/network


%pre
#!/bin/sh
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
#                     PRE-INSTALL NETWORK SETUP        #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

echo "network --bootproto=static --vlanid=123 --ip=1.2.3.4 --netmask=255.255.248.0 --gateway=1.2.3.5 --nameserver=1.2.3.6 --device=eth0" > /tmp/network

But. System asks for network settings when booted.
I understand that I need to have stage2 loaded before anaconda starts %pre section. So, I need it to use stage2 from iso. But it looks for stage2 on the network when there is url as source in kickstart file. Is there any way how to tell installer:
- start Anaconda from CD (use local install.img), run %pre, download packages from url ?
file copied to /tmp/ks.cfg
setting up kickstart
kickstart forcing text mode
kickstartFromUrl
results of url ks, url http://1.2.3.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5
trying to mount CD device /dev/sr0 on /mnt/stage2
drive status is CDC_DISC_OK
transferring /mnt/stage2/images/install.img to /tmp
mounted loopback device /mnt/runtime on /dev/loop0 as /tmp/install.img   #Perfect
Looking for updates in /mnt/stage2/images/updates.img
Looking for product in /mnt/stage2/images/product.img
mounted loopback device /tmp/product-disk on /dev/loop7 as /mnt/stage2/images/product.img
umounting loopback /tmp/product-disk /dev/loop7
umounting loopback /mnt/runtime /dev/loop0                      #Why??
no stage2= given, assuming http://1.2.3.7/rhel-x86_64-server-6.5/images/install.img   #you have it in /tmp already!
setting language to en_US.UTF-8
starting STEP_METHOD
need to set up networking
...
Do you have any idea if it possible to somehow change this stage2 behavior? I found Anaconda boot options but I am unable to set stage2 either by stage2= or inst.stage2=.
(Any other idea how to set IP in ks.cfg and use it for packages downloading without DHCP would be also appreciated.)









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