[ILUG] Linux@Work - kickstart

[kevin lyda]

David Murphy wrote:
> One additional feature I'd copy from JumpStart is centralising the
> config files. For those not familiar with JumpStart, ther's a rules
> file that is basically a table of identifiers against configuration
> profiles,. Identifiers can be things like IP address, ethernet
> address, architecture, size of the root disk, etc. etc. It's nicer
> 'cos you don't need to have a different boot procedure for different
> types of install client, i.e. you'd have just the one boot floppy on a
> typical PC, or execute just the one network boot command on machines
> that can boot off the net.

with kickstart the id can just be your ethernet address, but kickstart
can go fetch your ks.cfg file from an nfs server.  the dhcp server needs
to specify a "filename" attribute and a "next-server" attribute for the
ethernet card.  that seems slightly more difficult then just running a
script to make the floppy (since you'll need a floppy anyway).

with solaris the boxes had the smarts to boot off the net, so editing a
bootp config file and /etc/ethers was fine.  but since you have to make
a floppy anyway for intel boxes...

kevin
-- 
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