SYS: Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically using Kickstart.

Share this link

Kickstart is a method to install automatically (without any manual intervention) a RHEL physical server or a VM guest.
It is based on a configuration file called a KICKSTART file. This file needs to be accessible through HTTP, FTP or NFS.
In this file are defined the various details of the configuration (language, keyboard settings, network configuration, password, selinux status, timezone, and disk organization). See below for an example.

To create a VM called postfix.example.com (here with an IP address of 192.168.1.10, a gateway at 192.168.1.1, a DNS server at 192.168.1.5, Pass1234 as a password, and a total disk size of 5GB), create the ks_postfix.cfg file and add the following lines:

# Kickstart file automatically generated by anaconda.
#version=DEVEL
install
lang en_US
keyboard us
network --onboot yes --device eth0 --bootproto static --ip 192.168.1.10 --netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 192.168.1.1 --ipv6 auto --nameserver 192.168.1.5 --hostname postfix.example.com
rootpw Pass1234
firewall --service=ssh
authconfig --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512
selinux --enforcing
timezone --utc America/Los_Angeles
bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=vda --append="crashkernel=auto rhgb quiet"
zerombr
text
skipx
part /boot --fstype=ext4 --size=200
part pv.000001 --grow --size=1
volgroup vg_root --pesize=4096 pv.000001
logvol / --fstype=ext4 --name=lv_root --vgname=vg_root --size=3072
logvol swap --name=lv_swap --vgname=vg_root --size=512
%packages
%end
reboot

To get some help to create this file, type:

# yum install -y system-config-kickstart
# system-config-kickstart

For a deeper understanding of the subject, you can look at how to set up a lab.

If you want to encrypt the password, you need to read Hash root’s Password in RHEL and CentOS Kickstart Profiles.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...
2 comments on “SYS: Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically using Kickstart.
  1. folu says:

    During installation by Kickstart, where is the boot.iso found for rhcsa exams?

    • CertDepot says:

      I don’t remember anybody asked to execute an installation by Kickstart in a RHCSA exam.
      However, if it were the case, Red Hat would provide you this information.

Leave a Reply

Upcoming Events (Local Time)

There are no events.

RHCSA7: Task of the day

Allowed time: 10 minutes.
Create an EXT4 file system mounted by UUID in /etc/fstab under /vol based on a logical volume of 28 logical extents.

RHCE7: Task of the day

Allowed time: 10 minutes.
Set up a caching-only DNS server to forward DNS queries.

Follow me on Twitter

Poll for favorite RHEL 7 book

What is your favorite RHEL 7 book to prepare RHCSA & RHCE exams?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Poll for most difficult RHCSA 7 topic

What do you think is the most difficult RHCSA 7 topic?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Poll for most difficult RHCE 7 topic

What do you think is the most difficult RHCE 7 topic?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...