Re: help with creating USB kickstart drive RHEL 6.5 (Andrew Simpson)

Spike,

Thanks for the reply.  I am always interested in hearing what other people
do as it gives me new ideas, so I'd love to see your doc.

My needs are pretty different.  I don't really care about minimal sizes,
etc...  I package up an entirely customized version of RHEL 6 onto dvd.
This install goes on multiple machines, etc...  I have an entire build
system that uses templating (jinja) to construct the kickstart files based
on ks snippets.  I am constantly making tweaks, updates, etc... and using
CDs is extremely cumbersome especially given how long it takes to burn a
dvd and then install from it.  Thus why I want to use USB drives.  much
faster to install and easier to test changes.  Also, for a few of the
systems I install to, the image exceeds dvd size and I either have to use
dual layer or make two separate install discs.  USB drives would make that
a smoother install.

I also do pxe boot installs.  Actually, my build script not only builds the
disk, it auto-generates the isolinux.cfg files for the pxe server and then
pushes the image/files to the tftp server.

250mb minimum!  that's not very... minimal lol.  We are planning a
transition to RHEL 7 soon, but the core application is not happy about
running on 7 yet, so I have to wait.  At least I should be able to get the
build system updated to support RHEL 7 in preparation.  much better than
trying to play catch up.


Andrew Simpson

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 8:15 PM, Spike White <[email protected]> wrote:

> >
> > From: Andrew Simpson <[email protected]>
> > To: [email protected]
> > Cc:
> > Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 08:48:04 -0500
> > Subject: help with creating USB kickstart drive RHEL 6.5
> > I have a complicated kickstart based install that I have been using with
> DVDs.  I Would like to use USB drives, but I have a few questions that I
> haven't gotten answers to yet.
> >
> > 1.  what's the best way to create a bootable USB key/drive?  I have been
> using dd to put the ISO onto the device, but that makes the usb drive a
> read only filesystem (iso9660).  I would really like it to be writable.  So
> I'm assuming I will need to format the drive, put an mbr on there, etc...?
> >
> > 2.  what kickstart install option should I be using?  normally, I put
> "cdrom" in.  Do I have to change that to the "harddrive" option?
> >
> > 3.  Is there a good reference for turning a dvd image into a live image?
> >
> > thanks in advance, the information on these topics is all over the place
> and I'm not finding exactly what I need.
> >
> > Drew
>
> Drew, it really depends on what you want to do.  What I do is stage all my
> build content on the network.  So my USB image has syslinux, vmlinuz,
> initramfs and my ks.cfg.
>
> I reference all I want to do via my ks.cfg.
>
> If I'm doing a generic DHCP build, even my (generic) ks.cfg will be on the
> network.
>
> Because boot media size is of great concern for us, we have a minimal boot
> USB media.  It's
> 39 MB for OL6.5.  We have a larger boot media, that will allow you to
> install anything from RHEL 5.4 up to RHEL 6.5.
>
> If this is of interest to you, drop me a note and I'll send doc with full
> instructions.
>
> Spike White
> PS For RHEL7 static builds, while good in other ways -- the new anaconda
> results on the squashfs.img having to be on USB. So the absolute min-sized
> USB boot media is ~250 MB.
> Ouch!
>
>
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