Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.1.1 Reference Manual page 115

Kickstart —
1. After being placed on the network and turned on, the machine's PXE logic broadcasts its MAC
address and a request to be discovered.
2. If a static IP address is not being used, the DHCP server recognizes the discovery request and
extends an offer of network information needed for the new machine to boot. This includes an IP
address, the default gateway to be used, the netmask of the network, the IP address of the TFTP
or HTTP server holding the bootloader program, and the full path and file name of that program
(relative to the server's root).
3. The machine applies the networking information and initiates a session with the server to request
the bootloader program.
4. The bootloader, once loaded, searches for its configuration file on the server from which it was
itself loaded. This file dictates which kernel and kernel options, such as the initial RAM disk
(initrd) image, should be executed on the booting machine. Assuming the bootloader program
is SYSLINUX, this file is located in the pxelinux.cfg directory on the server and named the
hexadecimal equivalent of the new machine's IP address. For example, a bootloader configuration
file for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1 should contain:
port 0
prompt 0
timeout 1
default My_Label
label My_Label
5. The machine accepts and uncompresses the init image and kernel, boots the kernel, and initiates
a kickstart installation with the options supplied in the bootloader configuration file, including the
server containing the kickstart configuration file.
6. This kickstart configuration file in turn directs the machine to the location of the installation files.
7. The new machine is built based upon the parameters established within the kickstart configuration
file.
6.4.9.1.2. Kickstart Prerequisites
Although Red Hat Network has taken great pains to ease the provisioning of systems, some
preparation is still required for your infrastructure to handle kickstarts. For instance, before creating
kickstart profiles, you may consider:
• A DHCP server is not required for kickstarting, but it can make things easier. If you are using static
IP addresses, you should select static IP while developing your kickstart profile.
• An FTP server can be used in place of hosting the kickstart distribution trees via HTTP.
• If conducting a bare metal kickstart, you should 1)Configure DHCP to assign required networking
parameters and the bootloader program location. 2)Specify within the bootloader configuration file
the kernel to be used and appropriate kernel options.
kernel vmlinuz
append ks=http://myrhnsatellite/ initrd=initrd.img network apic
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