2.2. Kickstart Trees

Procedure 2.1. Installing Kickstart Trees Automatically

1. Choose which distribution to base the kickstarts on and locate that distribution's base channel, as well as its corresponding RHN Tools channel.
   For example, to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 with x86 architecture, the rhel-i386-server-5 channel and its corresponding RHN Tools channel rhn-tools-rhel-i386-server-5 are required.
2. If it is a connected Satellite, synchronize the Satellite server with the Red Hat servers directly using the satellite-sync. If the Satellite server is disconnected, it is necessary to obtain disconnected channel dumps from the Red Hat servers and synchronize with those.
3. Synchronizing the channel will automatically create a corresponding kickstart tree for that distribution.

Procedure 2.2. Installing Kickstart Trees Manually

1. Copy the installation ISO to the Satellite server and mount it to /mnt/iso
2. Copy the contents of the ISO to a custom location. It is recommended to create a directory within /var/satellite for all custom distributions. For example, copying a RHEL beta distribution's contents to /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/
3. Use the RHN Satellite web interface to create a custom software channel. Use Channels Manage Software Channels Create New Channel to create a parent channel with an appropriate name and label. For the example used above, use the label rhel-5.3-beta.
4. Push the software packages from the tree location to the newly created software channel using the rhnpush command:

   rhnpush --server=http://localhost/APP -c 'rhel-5.3-beta' \  -d /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/Server/

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   The sub-directory within the tree could be different depending on the distribution.
5. Once the software packages have been pushed, they can be deleted from within the tree path using the rm command. The packages are still stored on the Satellite server within the channel, and are no longer required in the tree.

   rm /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/Server/*.rpm

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   Note

   You can choose to leave the software packages within the kickstart tree. This will allow them to be installed with the yum command at any time later on.
6. Use the RHN Satellite web interface to create the distribution. Use Systems Kickstart Distributions create new distribution to create the distribution, using an appropriate label and the full tree path (such as /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/. Select the base channel that was created earlier, and the correct Installer Generation (such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5). To complete the creation, select Create Kickstart Distribution.
7. To maintain the same software across multiple environments and systems, the RHN Tools child channel from an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux base channel can be cloned as a child channel of the newly created base channel. Cloning a child channel can be done by:
   1. On the Satellite web interface, click on Channels Manage Software Channels Clone Channel
   2. Choose the Child Channel you wish to clone from the drop down box Clone From: and choose the clone state.
   3. Click Create Channel.
   4. Fill in the necessary information and choose the parent channel that the cloned child channel needs to be under.
   5. Click Create Channel.