[Beowulf] kickstart install using NFS

[Martin Siegert]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 04:53:39PM -0700, Orion Poplawski wrote:
> Pat Delaney wrote:
> >Did you ever get an answer to your post??  I'm trying to do the same thing?
> > 
> >Pat
> > 
> >
> >I'm preparing to install a large number of new nodes using redhat and have
> >planned on using the kickstart option.  I have gotten a kickstart file 
> >setup
> >just the way I want it with one exception and I can not get it to work.  I
> >ultimately want to boot from a floppy and in the kickstart file tell it to
> >get the rpm's from a nfs mount.
> >
> >So far I have:
> >
> >1.)  Booted from a cd and issued the command:
> >linux ks=floppy
> >This is how I built and debugged my ks file.  This gives me what I want,
> >except I get to swap CD's during the install.  No nfs option at this point.
> >
> 
> I vaguely remember trying this before.  I think I ultimately found the 
> floppy/nfs combo incompatible.
> 
> Instead, get the ks file from the server too:
> 
> linux ks=nfs:<server>:/exported/directory/ks.cfg

I have the following syslinux.cfg on the floppy:

===<syslinux.cfg>=========================================================
default ks
prompt 0
label ks
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks=floppy initrd=initrd.img lang= devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=8192
==========================================================================

and the ks.cfg file starts with

===<ks.cfg>===============================================================
### Language Specification
lang en_US
langsupport --default en_CA en_CA

### Network Configuration
network --bootproto static --device eth3 --ip 172.17.254.1 --netmask 255.255.0.0 --gateway 172.17.0.1 --hostname ks1 --nameserver 172.17.0.1

### Source File Location
nfs --server 172.17.0.1 --dir /usr/local/ks/dist/7.3

### Ethernet Device Configuration
device ethernet 3c59x

...
==========================================================================

Works without any problems.

-- 
Martin Siegert
Head, HPC at SFU
WestGrid Site Manager
Academic Computing Services                        phone: (604) 291-4691
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