Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.1.1 Reference Manual page 116

Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website
6.4.9.1.3. Building Bootable Kickstart ISOs
While you can schedule a registered system to be kickstarted to a new operating system and package
profile, it is also useful to be able to kickstart a system that is not registered with RHN, or does not yet
have an operating system installed. One common method of doing this is to create a bootable CD-
ROM that is inserted into the target system. When the system is rebooted, it boots from the CD-ROM,
loads the kickstart configuration from the RHN Servers or your Satellite, and proceeds to install Red
Hat Enterprise Linux according to the kickstart profile you have created.
To do this, copy the contents of /isolinux from the first CD-ROM of the target distribution. Then edit
the isolinux.cfg file to default to 'ks'. Change the 'ks' section to the following template:
label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append text ks={url} initrd=initrd.img lang= devfs=nomount
ramdisk_size=16438 \
{ksdevice}
IP addressed-based kickstart URLs will look something like this:
http://my.sat.server/kickstart/ks/mode/ip_range
The kickstart distribution selected by the IP range should match the distribution from which you are
building, or errors will occur. {ksdevice} is optional, but looks like:
ksdevice=eth0
It is possible to change the distribution for a kickstart profile within a family, such as Red Hat
Enterprise Linux AS 4 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4, by specifying the new distribution label. Note
that you cannot move between versions (2.1 to 3) or between updates (U1 to U2).
Next, you may customize isolinux.cfg further for your needs, such as by adding multiple kickstart
options, different boot messages, shorter timeout periods, etc.
Next, create the ISO as described in the Making an Installation Boot CD-ROM section of the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 3 Installation Guide. Alternatively, issue the command:
mkisofs -o file.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-
size 4 \
-boot-info-table -R -J -v -T isolinux/
Note that isolinux/ is the relative path to the directory containing the isolinux files from the
distribution CD, while file.iso is the output ISO file, which is placed into the current directory.
You may then burn the ISO to CD-ROM. To use the disc (assuming you left the label for the kickstart
boot as 'ks'), boot the system and type "ks" at the prompt. When you press Enter, the kickstart should
begin.
6.4.9.1.4. Integrating Kickstart with PXE
In addition to CD-ROM-based installs, RHN supports kickstarts through a Pre-Boot Execution
Environment (PXE). This is less error-prone than CDs, enables kickstarting from bare metal, and
integrates with existing PXE/DHCP environments.
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