Saturday, March 29, 2014

CentOS / REDHAT 6.5 Linux Installation with Kickstart – NFS and DHCP.


CentOS / REDHAT 6.5 Installation with Kickstart – NFS and DHCP.

Friends .

Here today we will see CentOS Linux installation with Kickstart NFS and DHCP .

Linux Installation :- Many peoples or Linux engineers are prefer to automated OS installation on their machine / desktop. Redhat / CentOS Linux has a different types of installation methods. While reading Redhat manuals and searching on internet you will come to know different methods of Linux installation. However I will explain you the remote installation of CentOS / Redhat Linux using Kickstart method. This is very easy method. Once you understand I am sure you will enjoy.

What is kickstart ?
Kickstart is one installation method In Redhat Linux automatically perform operating system installation and configuration. Kickstart is normally used to allow easy remote installation and consistent configuration of new computer systems.

NFS:- Network file system
In my installation I am using NFS method because this is not require any firewall limitation port open / block in LAN.
For FTP or HTTP you require open ports for security reason.

DHCP:- This is require for to assigned IP address and SubNet .

Following steps are used for Kickstart installation.

In my case I have already installed CentOS 6.5 X86 32 bit on One of my server.

My server's IP address is 192.168.0.222

Packages require for kickstart. I hope you might be having yum configure at your system.

If yum is configured then simply type at root prompt .

# yum install *kiskstart* nfs* dhcp* ( this will install dependencies )

1. pykickstart-1.74.14-1.el6.noarch.rpm
2. system-config-kickstart-2.8.6.5-1.el6.noarch.rpm

Packages require for DHCP

1. dhcp-devel-4.1.1-38.P1.el6.centos.i686.rpm
2. dhcp-4.1.1-38.P1.el6.centos.i686.rpm
3. dhcp-common-4.1.1-38.P1.el6.centos.i686.rpm
4. dhcping-1.2-4.el6.i686..rpm

Packages require for NFS.

NFS packages is already installed while installing OS only thing is you have to configure NFS .

First I will configure NFS.

I have stored CD dump into /data/CentOS-6.5/ folder.

Next step is configure DHCP.

If you already having dhcp then no need to configure again.

My network range for assign IP is 192.168.0.100 192.168.0.254
subnet is 255.255.255.0

Here my /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file will looklike follows.

default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.100 192.168.0.254 ;
filename "/data/CentOS-6.5/kickstart.cfg" ;
next-server 192.168.0.222 ;
}

Now type following command at root prompt.

# system-config-kickstart 

This command pop up following window.



Once each section of the configuration is complete, simply save the configuration file in /data/CentOS-6.5/kickstart.cfg .

File can readable. It is in simple text format.

Remember main thing is “Installation method” select installation source “NFS”

NFS Server = “192.168.0.222” --- my dump server IP address.
NFS Directory = “/date/CentOS-6.5” --- CD dump directory.

Now the actual test of kickstart installation.

Start and boot second server with installation media or bootable CD or DVD.
At the boot prompt, press the "Tab" key to amend the boot options



Erase the default boot parameter and Press Enter


Simple type at boot prompt.
boot:- linux ks=nfs:192.168.0.222:/data/CentOS-6.5/kickstart.cfg

This will help you lot for remote installation.