Modular KickStart

I am a big fan of the modular kickstart setup. This allows easier administration of multiple configurations and tends to keep things clean and consistent. KickStart allows this through the %include directive but in order to reference an external file, a small trick is required. You see, the kickstart configuration file is in fact read twice. Once looking for any %pre directives and another to actually parse the file. So, it's in this %pre section that you can setup your config file location.

I like to use NFS for my configuration and OS files. It is relatively easy to setup and can allow multiple kickstart servers to reference it if required. Here is a sample pre section:

%pre
mkdir /post_scripts
mount -t nfs -o nolock NFS_SERVER:/tftpboot/kickstart /post_scripts

Basically it says to mount a share to /post_scripts so I can reference the files. On the server I place my configuration files in /tftpboot/kickstart/ks_cfg/ and call them like this:

%include /post_scripts/ks_cfg/CONFIG_FILE

Here are the basic sections of my kickstart file:

# cat /tftpboot/ks_cfg/oracle_5.5.ks
install
nfs --server=NFS_SERVER --dir=/tftpboot/kickstart/OS/RHEL5.5/
key --skip
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
xconfig --startxonboot
network --bootproto dhcp 
rootpw --iscrypted YOUR_PASSWORD
firewall --disabled
firstboot --disable
authconfig --enableshadow --enablemd5
selinux --disabled
timezone --utc America/Vancouver
bootloader --location=mbr --append="rhgb quiet"
clearpart --all --initlabel
part /boot --fstype="ext3" --size=100
part pv.2 --size=0 --grow
volgroup rootvg --pesize=32768 pv.2
logvol swap --fstype="swap" --name=swap --vgname=rootvg --size=2048
logvol /var --fstype="ext3" --name=var --vgname=rootvg --size=2048
logvol / --fstype="ext3" --name=root --vgname=rootvg --size=1 --grow
reboot

%packages
%include /post_scripts/ks_cfg/packages.cfg

%post
chvt 3
%include /post_scripts/ks_cfg/generic.cfg
%include /post_scripts/ks_cfg/oracle.cfg
%include /post_scripts/ks_cfg/multipath.cfg

%pre
mkdir /post_scripts
mount -t nfs -o nolock NFS_SERVER:/vol/KICKSTART /post_scripts

# cat /tftpboot/ks_cfg/packages.cfg
@editors
@gnome-desktop
@core
@base
@ftp-server
@network-server
@java
@legacy-software-support
@base-x
@server-cfg
@admin-tools
@graphical-internet
emacs
kexec-tools
fipscheck
device-mapper-multipath
dnsmasq
xorg-x11-utils
system-config-boot
# Oracle Required Packages
elfutils-libelf-devel
gcc
gcc-c++
glibc-devel
libaio-devel
libstdc++-devel
sysstat
# these are for Oracle 10G
libXp
openmotif
# Oracle 11GR2
unixODBC
unixODBC-devel

I'll cover off some of the more 'advanced' features in a later post.