Chapter 8. Performing an automated installation using Kickstart

1. Create a Kickstart file. You can write it by hand, copy a Kickstart file saved after a manual installation, or use an online generator tool to create the file, and edit it afterward. See Creating Kickstart files.
2. Make the Kickstart file available to the installation program on removable media, a hard drive or a network location using an HTTP(S), FTP, or NFS server. See Making Kickstart files available to the installation program.
3. Create the boot medium which will be used to begin the installation. See Creating a bootable installation medium and Preparing to install from the network using PXE.
4. Make the installation source available to the installation program. See Creating installation sources for Kickstart installations.
5. Start the installation using the boot medium and the Kickstart file. See Starting Kickstart installations.

Procedure

1. Open the Kickstart generator lab information page at https://access.redhat.com/labsinfo/kickstartconfig.
2. Click the Go to Application button to the left of heading and wait for the next page to load.
3. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 in the drop-down menu and wait for the page to update.

4. Describe the system to be installed using the fields in the form.

   You can use the links on the left side of the form to quickly navigate between sections of the form.

5. To download the generated Kickstart file, click the red Download button at the top of the page.

   Your web browser saves the file.

Procedure

1. Install RHEL. For more details, see Performing a standard RHEL 8 installation.

   During the installation, create a user with administrator privileges.

2. Finish the installation and reboot into the installed system.
3. Log into the system with the administrator account.

4. Copy the file /root/anaconda-ks.cfg to a location of your choice.

   Important

   The file contains information about users and passwords.

   • To display the file contents in terminal:

     # cat /root/anaconda-ks.cfg

     You can copy the output and save to another file of your choice.

   • To copy the file to another location, use the file manager. Remember to change permissions on the copy, so that the file can be read by non-root users.

Procedure

1. Install the nfs-utils package by running the following command as root:

   # yum install nfs-utils

2. Copy the Kickstart file to a directory on the NFS server.

3. Open the /etc/exports file using a text editor and add a line with the following syntax:

   /exported_directory/ clients

4. Replace /exported_directory/ with the full path to the directory holding the Kickstart file. Instead of clients, use the host name or IP address of the computer that is to be installed from this NFS server, the subnetwork from which all computers are to have access the ISO image, or the asterisk sign (*) if you want to allow any computer with network access to the NFS server to use the ISO image. See the exports(5) man page for detailed information about the format of this field.

   A basic configuration that makes the /rhel8-install/ directory available as read-only to all clients is:

   /rhel8-install *

5. Save the /etc/exports file and exit the text editor.

6. Start the nfs service:

   # systemctl start nfs-server.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/exports file, enter the following command, in order for the running NFS server to reload its configuration:

   # systemctl reload nfs-server.service

   The Kickstart file is now accessible over NFS and ready to be used for installation.

Procedure

1. To store the Kickstart file on an HTTP, install the httpd package:

   # yum install httpd

   To store the Kickstart file on an HTTPS, install httpd and mod_ssl packages:

   # yum install httpd mod_ssl

   Warning

   If your Apache web server configuration enables SSL security, verify that you only enable the TLSv1 protocol, and disable SSLv2 and SSLv3. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1232413 for details.

   Important

   If you use an HTTPS server with a self-signed certificate, you must boot the installation program with the inst.noverifyssl option.

2. Copy the Kickstart file to the HTTP(S) server into a subdirectory of the /var/www/html/ directory.

3. Start the httpd service:

   # systemctl start httpd.service

   The Kickstart file is now accessible and ready to be used for installation.

   Note

   When specifying the location of the Kickstart file, use http:// or https:// as the protocol, the server’s host name or IP address, and the path of the Kickstart file, relative to the HTTP server root. For example, if you are using HTTP, the server’s host name is myserver.example.com, and you have copied the Kickstart file as /var/www/html/rhel8-install/my-ks.cfg, specify http://myserver.example.com/rhel8-install/my-ks.cfg as the file location.

Procedure

1. Install the vsftpd package by running the following command as root:

   # yum install vsftpd

2. Open and edit the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file in a text editor.

   1. Change the line anonymous_enable=NO to anonymous_enable=YES
   2. Change the line write_enable=YES to write_enable=NO.

   3. Add lines pasv_min_port=min_port and pasv_max_port=max_port. Replace min_port and max_port with the port number range used by FTP server in passive mode, e. g. 10021 and 10031.

      This step can be necessary in network environments featuring various firewall/NAT setups.

   4. Optionally, add custom changes to your configuration. For available options, see the vsftpd.conf(5) man page. This procedure assumes that default options are used.

      Warning

      If you configured SSL/TLS security in your vsftpd.conf file, ensure that you enable only the TLSv1 protocol, and disable SSLv2 and SSLv3. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1234773 for details.

3. Configure the server firewall.

   1. Enable the firewall:

      # systemctl enable firewalld
      # systemctl start firewalld

   2. Enable in your firewall the FTP port and port range from previous step:

      # firewall-cmd --add-port min_port-max_port/tcp --permanent
      # firewall-cmd --add-service ftp --permanent
      # firewall-cmd --reload

      Replace min_port-max_port with the port numbers you entered into the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file.

4. Copy the Kickstart file to the FTP server into the /var/ftp/ directory or its subdirectory.

5. Make sure that the correct SELinux context and access mode is set on the file:

   # restorecon -r /var/ftp/your-kickstart-file.ks
   # chmod 444 /var/ftp/your-kickstart-file.ks

6. Start the vsftpd service:

   # systemctl start vsftpd.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file, restart the service to load the edited file:

   # systemctl restart vsftpd.service

   Enable the vsftpd service to start during the boot process:

   # systemctl enable vsftpd

   The Kickstart file is now accessible and ready to be used for installations by systems on the same network.

   Note

   When configuring the installation source, use ftp:// as the protocol, the server’s host name or IP address, and the path of the Kickstart file, relative to the FTP server root. For example, if the server’s host name is myserver.example.com and you have copied the file to /var/ftp/my-ks.cfg, specify ftp://myserver.example.com/my-ks.cfg as the installation source.

Procedure

1. List volume information and note the UUID of the volume to which you want to copy the Kickstart file.

   # lsblk -l -p -o name,rm,ro,hotplug,size,type,mountpoint,uuid

2. Navigate to the file system on the volume.
3. Copy the Kickstart file to this file system.
4. Make a note of the string to use later with the inst.ks= option. This string is in the form hd:UUID=volume-UUID:path/to/kickstart-file.cfg. Note that the path is relative to the file system root, not to the / root of file system hierarchy. Replace volume-UUID with the UUID you noted earlier.

5. Unmount all drive volumes:

   # umount /dev/xyz ...

   Add all the volumes to the command, separated by spaces.

Procedure

1. List volume information to which you want to copy the Kickstart file.

   # lsblk -l -p

2. Navigate to the file system on the volume.
3. Copy the Kickstart file into the root of this file system.
4. Rename the Kickstart file to ks.cfg.

5. Rename the volume as OEMDRV:

   • For ext2, ext3, and ext4 file systems:

     # e2label /dev/xyz OEMDRV

   • For the XFS file system:

     # xfs_admin -L OEMDRV /dev/xyz

   Replace /dev/xyz with the path to the volume’s block device.

6. Unmount all drive volumes:

   # umount /dev/xyz ...

   Add all the volumes to the command, separated by spaces.

Procedure

1. Install the nfs-utils package:

   # yum install nfs-utils

2. Copy the DVD ISO image to a directory on the NFS server.

3. Open the /etc/exports file using a text editor and add a line with the following syntax:

   /exported_directory/ clients

   • Replace /exported_directory/ with the full path to the directory with the ISO image.

   • Replace clients with one of the following:

     • The host name or IP address of the target system
     • The subnetwork that all target systems can use to access the ISO image
     • To allow any system with network access to the NFS server to use the ISO image, the asterisk sign (*)

     See the exports(5) man page for detailed information about the format of this field.

     For example, a basic configuration that makes the /rhel8-install/ directory available as read-only to all clients is:

     /rhel8-install *

4. Save the /etc/exports file and exit the text editor.

5. Start the nfs service:

   # systemctl start nfs-server.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/exports file, reload the NFS server configuration:

   # systemctl reload nfs-server.service

   The ISO image is now accessible over NFS and ready to be used as an installation source.

Procedure

1. Copy the DVD ISO image to the HTTP(S) server.

2. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

   # mkdir /mnt/rhel8-install/

3. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image_directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel8-install/

   Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

4. Copy the files from the mounted image to the HTTP(S) server root.

   # cp -r /mnt/rhel8-install/ /var/www/html/

   This command creates the /var/www/html/rhel8-install/ directory with the content of the image. Note that some other copying methods might skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for entire directories as shown in this procedure copies .treeinfo correctly.

5. Start the httpd service:

   # systemctl start httpd.service

   The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

   Note

   When configuring the installation source, use http:// or https:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory that contains the files from the ISO image, relative to the HTTP server root. For example, if you use HTTP, the server host name is myserver.example.com, and you have copied the files from the image to /var/www/html/rhel8-install/, specify http://myserver.example.com/rhel8-install/ as the installation source.

Procedure

1. Open and edit the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file in a text editor.

   1. Change the line anonymous_enable=NO to anonymous_enable=YES
   2. Change the line write_enable=YES to write_enable=NO.

   3. Add lines pasv_min_port=<min_port> and pasv_max_port=<max_port>. Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port number range used by FTP server in passive mode, for example, 10021 and 10031.

      This step might be necessary in network environments featuring various firewall/NAT setups.

   4. Optional: Add custom changes to your configuration. For available options, see the vsftpd.conf(5) man page. This procedure assumes that default options are used.

      Warning

      If you configured SSL/TLS security in your vsftpd.conf file, ensure that you enable only the TLSv1 protocol, and disable SSLv2 and SSLv3. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1234773 for details.

2. Configure the server firewall.

   1. Enable the firewall:

      # systemctl enable firewalld

   2. Start the firewall:

      # systemctl start firewalld

   3. Configure the firewall to allow the FTP port and port range from the previous step:

      # firewall-cmd --add-port min_port-max_port/tcp --permanent
      # firewall-cmd --add-service ftp --permanent

      Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port numbers you entered into the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file.

   4. Reload the firewall to apply the new rules:

      # firewall-cmd --reload

3. Copy the DVD ISO image to the FTP server.

4. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

   # mkdir /mnt/rhel8-install

5. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image-directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel8-install

   Replace /image-directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

6. Copy the files from the mounted image to the FTP server root:

   # mkdir /var/ftp/rhel8-install
   # cp -r /mnt/rhel8-install/ /var/ftp/

   This command creates the /var/ftp/rhel8-install/ directory with the content of the image. Note that some copying methods can skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for whole directories as shown in this procedure will copy .treeinfo correctly.

7. Make sure that the correct SELinux context and access mode is set on the copied content:

   # restorecon -r /var/ftp/rhel8-install
   # find /var/ftp/rhel8-install -type f -exec chmod 444 {} \;
   # find /var/ftp/rhel8-install -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

8. Start the vsftpd service:

   # systemctl start vsftpd.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file, restart the service to load the edited file:

   # systemctl restart vsftpd.service

   Enable the vsftpd service to start during the boot process:

   # systemctl enable vsftpd

   The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

   Note

   When configuring the installation source, use ftp:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory in which you have stored the files from the ISO image, relative to the FTP server root. For example, if the server host name is myserver.example.com and you have copied the files from the image to /var/ftp/rhel8-install/, specify ftp://myserver.example.com/rhel8-install/ as the installation source.

Procedure

1. Boot the system using a local media (a CD, DVD, or a USB flash drive).

2. At the boot prompt, specify the required boot options.

   1. If the Kickstart file or a required repository is in a network location, you may need to configure the network using the ip= option. The installer tries to configure all network devices using the DHCP protocol by default without this option.
   2. Add the inst.ks= boot option and the location of the Kickstart file.
   3. In order to access a software source from which necessary packages will be installed, you may need to add the inst.repo= option. If you do not specify this option, you must specify the installation source in the Kickstart file.

   For information about editing boot options, see Editing boot options.

3. Start the installation by confirming your added boot options.

   The installation begins now, using the options specified in the Kickstart file. If the Kickstart file is valid and contains all required commands, the installation is completely automated from this point forward.

Procedure

1. Open the boot loader configuration file on your PXE server, and add the inst.ks= boot option to the appropriate line. The name of the file and its syntax depends on your system’s architecture and hardware:

   • On AMD64 and Intel 64 systems with BIOS, the file name can be either default or based on your system’s IP address. In this case, add the inst.ks= option to the append line in the installation entry. A sample append line in the configuration file looks similar to the following:

     append initrd=initrd.img inst.ks=http://10.32.5.1/mnt/archive/RHEL-8/8.x/x86_64/kickstarts/ks.cfg

   • On systems using the GRUB2 boot loader (AMD64, Intel 64, and 64-bit ARM systems with UEFI firmware and IBM Power Systems servers), the file name will be grub.cfg. In this file, append the inst.ks= option to the kernel line in the installation entry. A sample kernel line in the configuration file will look similar to the following:

     kernel vmlinuz inst.ks=http://10.32.5.1/mnt/archive/RHEL-8/8.x/x86_64/kickstarts/ks.cfg

2. Boot the installation from the network server.

   The installation begins now, using the installation options specified in the Kickstart file. If the Kickstart file is valid and contains all required commands, the installation is completely automated.

Procedure

1. Boot the system using a local media (a CD, DVD, or a USB flash drive).

2. At the boot prompt, specify the required boot options.

   1. If a required repository is in a network location, you may need to configure the network using the ip= option. The installer tries to configure all network devices using the DHCP protocol by default without this option.

   2. In order to access a software source from which necessary packages will be installed, you may need to add the inst.repo= option. If you do not specify this option, you must specify the installation source in the Kickstart file.

      For more information about installation sources, see Kickstart commands for installation program configuration and flow control.

3. Start the installation by confirming your added boot options.

   The installation begins now, and the Kickstart file is automatically detected and used to start an automated Kickstart installation.

Procedure

1. Open the Kickstart file.

2. Edit the file to add the rhsm Kickstart command and its options to the file:

   Organization (required)

   Enter the organization id. An example is:

   --organization=1234567

   Note

   For security reasons, Red Hat username and password account details are not supported by Kickstart when registering and installing from the CDN.

   Activation Key (required)

   Enter the Activation Key. You can enter multiple keys as long as the activation keys are registered to your subscription. An example is:

   --activation-key="Test_key_1" --activation-key="Test_key_2"

   Red Hat Insights (recommended)

   Connect the target system to Red Hat Insights.

   Note

   Red Hat Insights is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering that provides continuous, in-depth analysis of registered Red Hat-based systems to proactively identify threats to security, performance and stability across physical, virtual and cloud environments, and container deployments. Unlike manual installation using the installer GUI, connecting to Red Hat Insights is not enabled by default when using Kickstart.

   An example is:

   --connect-to-insights

   HTTP proxy (optional)

   Set the HTTP proxy. An example is:

   --proxy="user:password@hostname:9000"

   Note

   Only the hostname is mandatory. If the proxy is required to run on a default port with no authentication, then the option is: --proxy="hostname"

   System Purpose (optional)

   Set the System Purpose role, SLA, and usage using the command:

   subscription-manager syspurpose role ₋₋set="Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" --sla="Premium" --usage="Production"

   Example

   The following example displays a minimal Kickstart file with all rhsm Kickstart command options.

   graphical
   lang en_US.UTF-8
   keyboard us
   rootpw 12345
   timezone America/New_York
   zerombr
   clearpart --all --initlabel
   autopart
   syspurpose --role="Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" --sla="Premium" --usage="Production"
   rhsm --organization="12345" --activation-key="test_key" --connect-to-insights --proxy="user:password@hostname:9000"
   reboot
   %packages
   vim
   %end

3. Save the Kickstart file and start the installation process.

Procedure

1. From the terminal window, log in as a root user and verify the registration:

   # subscription-manager list

   The output displays the attached subscription details, for example:

   Installed Product Status
   
   Product Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64
   Product ID: 486
   Version: X
   Arch: x86_64
   Status: Subscribed
   Status Details
   Starts: 11/4/2019
   Ends: 11/4/2020

2. To view a detailed report, run the command:

   # subscription-manager list --consumed

Procedure

1. From the RHEL boot menu on the target system, press the Tab key on your keyboard to edit the boot options.

2. Append the inst.vnc option to the end of the command line.

   1. If you want to restrict VNC access to the system that is being installed, add the inst.vncpassword=PASSWORD boot option to the end of the command line. Replace PASSWORD with the password you want to use for the installation. The VNC password must be between 6 and 8 characters long.

      Important

      Use a temporary password for the inst.vncpassword= option. It should not be an existing or root password.

3. Press Enter to start the installation. The target system initializes the installation program and starts the necessary services. When the system is ready, a message is displayed providing the IP address and port number of the system.
4. Open the VNC viewer on the remote system.
5. Enter the IP address and the port number into the VNC server field.
6. Click Connect.
7. Enter the VNC password and click OK. A new window opens with the VNC connection established, displaying the RHEL installation menu. From this window, you can install RHEL on the target system using the graphical user interface.

Procedure

1. Start the VNC viewer on the remote system in listening mode by running the following command:

   $ vncviewer -listen PORT

2. Replace PORT with the port number used for the connection.

3. The terminal displays a message indicating that it is waiting for an incoming connection from the target system.

   TigerVNC Viewer 64-bit v1.8.0
   Built on: 2017-10-12 09:20
   Copyright (C) 1999-2017 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.txt)
   See http://www.tigervnc.org for information on TigerVNC.
   
   Thu Jun 27 11:30:57 2019
    main:        Listening on port 5500

4. Boot the target system from the network.
5. From the RHEL boot menu on the target system, press the Tab key on your keyboard to edit the boot options.
6. Append the inst.vnc inst.vncconnect=HOST:PORT option to the end of the command line.
7. Replace HOST with the IP address of the remote system that is running the listening VNC viewer, and PORT with the port number that the VNC viewer is listening on.
8. Press Enter to start the installation. The system initializes the installation program and starts the necessary services. When the initialization process is finished, the installation program attempts to connect to the IP address and port provided.
9. When the connection is successful, a new window opens with the VNC connection established, displaying the RHEL installation menu. From this window, you can install RHEL on the target system using the graphical user interface.