27.3. Kickstart Syntax Reference

auth or authconfig (optional)

Sets up the authentication options for the system using the authconfig command, which can also be run on the command line after the installation finishes. See the authconfig(8) manual page and the authconfig --help command for more details. Passwords are shadowed by default.

Warning

When using OpenLDAP with the SSL protocol for security, make sure that the SSLv2 and SSLv3 protocols are disabled in the server configuration. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1234843 for details.

• --enablenis - Turns on NIS support. By default, --enablenis uses whatever domain it finds on the network. A domain should almost always be set by hand with the --nisdomain= option.
• --nisdomain= - NIS domain name to use for NIS services.
• --nisserver= - Server to use for NIS services (broadcasts by default).
• --useshadow or --enableshadow - Use shadow passwords.
• --enableldap - Turns on LDAP support in /etc/nsswitch.conf, allowing your system to retrieve information about users (for example, their UIDs, home directories, and shells) from an LDAP directory. To use this option, you must install the nss-pam-ldapd package. You must also specify a server and a base DN (distinguished name) with --ldapserver= and --ldapbasedn=.
• --enableldapauth - Use LDAP as an authentication method. This enables the pam_ldap module for authentication and changing passwords, using an LDAP directory. To use this option, you must have the nss-pam-ldapd package installed. You must also specify a server and a base DN with --ldapserver= and --ldapbasedn=. If your environment does not use TLS (Transport Layer Security), use the --disableldaptls switch to ensure that the resulting configuration file works.
• --ldapserver= - If you specified either --enableldap or --enableldapauth, use this option to specify the name of the LDAP server to use. This option is set in the /etc/ldap.conf file.
• --ldapbasedn= - If you specified either --enableldap or --enableldapauth, use this option to specify the DN in your LDAP directory tree under which user information is stored. This option is set in the /etc/ldap.conf file.
• --enableldaptls - Use TLS (Transport Layer Security) lookups. This option allows LDAP to send encrypted user names and passwords to an LDAP server before authentication.
• --disableldaptls - Do not use TLS (Transport Layer Security) lookups in an environment that uses LDAP for authentication.
• --enablekrb5 - Use Kerberos 5 for authenticating users. Kerberos itself does not know about home directories, UIDs, or shells. If you enable Kerberos, you must make users' accounts known to this workstation by enabling LDAP, NIS, or Hesiod or by using the useradd command. If you use this option, you must have the pam_krb5 package installed.
• --krb5realm= - The Kerberos 5 realm to which your workstation belongs.
• --krb5kdc= - The KDC (or KDCs) that serve requests for the realm. If you have multiple KDCs in your realm, use a comma-separated list without spaces.
• --krb5adminserver= - The KDC in your realm that is also running kadmind. This server handles password changing and other administrative requests. This server must be run on the master KDC if you have more than one KDC.
• --enablehesiod - Enables Hesiod support for looking up user home directories, UIDs, and shells. More information on setting up and using Hesiod on your network is in /usr/share/doc/glibc-2.x.x/README.hesiod, which is included in the glibc package. Hesiod is an extension of DNS that uses DNS records to store information about users, groups, and various other items.
• --hesiodlhs and --hesiodrhs - The Hesiod LHS (left-hand side) and RHS (right-hand side) values, set in /etc/hesiod.conf. The Hesiod library uses these values to search DNS for a name, similar to the way that LDAP uses a base DN.
  To look up user information for the user name jim, the Hesiod library looks up jim.passwdLHSRHS, which should resolve to a TXT record that contains a string identical to an entry for that user in the passwd file: jim:*:1001:1001:Jungle Jim:/home/jim:/bin/bash. To look up groups, the Hesiod library looks up jim.groupLHSRHS instead.
  To look up users and groups by number, make 1001.uid a CNAME for jim.passwd, and 1001.gid a CNAME for jim.group. Note that the library does not place a period (.) in front of the LHS and RHS values when performing a search. Therefore, if the LHS and RHS values need to have a period placed in front of them, you must include the period in the values you set for --hesiodlhs and --hesiodrhs.
• --enablesmbauth - Enables authentication of users against an SMB server (typically a Samba or Windows server). SMB authentication support does not know about home directories, UIDs, or shells. If you enable SMB, you must make users' accounts known to the workstation by enabling LDAP, NIS, or Hesiod or by using the useradd command.
• --smbservers= - The name of the servers to use for SMB authentication. To specify more than one server, separate the names with commas (,).
• --smbworkgroup= - The name of the workgroup for the SMB servers.
• --enablecache - Enables the nscd service. The nscd service caches information about users, groups, and various other types of information. Caching is especially helpful if you choose to distribute information about users and groups over your network using NIS, LDAP, or Hesiod.
• --passalgo= - Specify sha256 to set up the SHA-256 hashing algorithm or sha512 to set up the SHA-512 hashing algorithm.

autopart (optional)

Automatically creates partitions: a root (/) partition (1 GB or larger), a swap partition, and an appropriate /boot partition for the architecture. On large enough drives (50 GB and larger), this also creates a /home partition.

Important

The autopart option cannot be used together with the part/partition, raid, logvol, or volgroup options in the same Kickstart file.

• --type= - Selects one of the predefined automatic partitioning schemes you want to use. Accepts the following values:
  • lvm: The LVM partitioning scheme.
  • btrfs: The Btrfs partitioning scheme.
  • plain: Regular partitions with no LVM or Btrfs.
  • thinp: The LVM Thin Provisioning partitioning scheme.
  For a description of the available partition schemes, see Section 8.14.4.1.1, “File System Types”.
• --fstype= - Selects one of the available file system types. The available values are ext2, ext3, ext4, xfs, and vfat. The default file system is xfs. For information about these file systems, see Section 8.14.4.1.1, “File System Types”.
• --nohome - Disables automatic creation of the /home partition.
• --nolvm - Do not use LVM or Btrfs for automatic partitioning. This option is equal to --type=plain.
• --encrypted - Encrypts all partitions. This is equivalent to checking the Encrypt partitions check box on the initial partitioning screen during a manual graphical installation.

  Note

  When encrypting one or more partitions, Anaconda attempts to gather 256 bits of entropy to ensure the partitions are encrypted securely. Gathering entropy can take some time - the process will stop after a maximum of 10 minutes, regardless of whether sufficient entropy has been gathered.

  The process can be sped up by interacting with the installation system (typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse). If you are installing in a virtual machine, you can also attach a virtio-rng device (a virtual random number generator) to the guest as described in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Virtualization Deployment and Administration Guide.
• --passphrase= - Provides a default system-wide passphrase for all encrypted devices.
• --escrowcert=URL_of_X.509_certificate - Stores data encryption keys of all encrypted volumes as files in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate from the URL specified with URL_of_X.509_certificate. The keys are stored as a separate file for each encrypted volume. This option is only meaningful if --encrypted is specified.
• --backuppassphrase - Adds a randomly-generated passphrase to each encrypted volume. Store these passphrases in separate files in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate specified with --escrowcert. This option is only meaningful if --escrowcert is specified.
• --cipher= - Specifies the type of encryption to use if the Anaconda default aes-xts-plain64 is not satisfactory. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; by itself it has no effect. Available types of encryption are listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide, but Red Hat strongly recommends using either aes-xts-plain64 or aes-cbc-essiv:sha256.

  Note

  It is recommended to use the autopart --nohome Kickstart option when installing on a single FBA DASD of the CMS type. This ensures that the installer does not create a separate /home partition. The installation then proceeds successfully.

autostep (optional)

Normally, Kickstart installations skip unnecessary screens. This option makes the installation program step through every screen, displaying each briefly. This option should not be used when deploying a system because it can disrupt package installation.

• --autoscreenshot - Take a screenshot at every step during installation. These screenshots are stored in /tmp/anaconda-screenshots/ during the installation, and after the installation finishes you can find them in /root/anaconda-screenshots.
  Each screen is only captured right before the installer switches to the next one. This is important, because if you do not use all required Kickstart options and the installation therefore does not begin automatically, you can go to the screens which were not automatically configured, perform any configuration you want. Then, when you click Done to continue, the screen is captured including the configuration you just provided.

bootloader (required)

Specifies how the boot loader should be installed.

Important

Red Hat recommends setting up a boot loader password on every system. An unprotected boot loader can allow a potential attacker to modify the system's boot options and gain unauthorized access to the system.

Important

Device names in the sdX (or /dev/sdX) format are not guaranteed to be consistent across reboots, which can complicate usage of some Kickstart commands. When a command calls for a device node name, you can instead use any item from /dev/disk. For example, instead of:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=sda1

You could use an entry similar to one of the following:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:05.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160815AS_6RA0C882-part1

This way the command will always target the same storage device. This is especially useful in large storage environments. See the chapter about persistent storage device naming in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide for more in-depth information about different ways to consistently refer to storage devices.

Note

In some cases, a special partition is required to install the boot loader on 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems. The type and size of this partition depends on whether the disk you are installing the boot loader to uses the Master Boot Record (MBR) or a GUID Partition Table (GPT) schema. For more information, see Section 8.14.1, “Boot Loader Installation”.

• --append= - Specifies additional kernel parameters. To specify multiple parameters, separate them with spaces. For example:

  bootloader --location=mbr --append="hdd=ide-scsi ide=nodma"

  The rhgb and quiet parameters are always used, even if you do not specify them here or do not use the --append= command at all.
  This option is useful for disabling mechanisms which were implemented to mitigate the Meltdown and Spectre speculative execution vulnerabilities found in most modern processors (CVE-2017-5754, CVE-2017-5753, and CVE-2017-5715). In some cases, these mechanisms may be unnecessary, and keeping them enabled causes decreased performance with no improvement in security. To disable these mechanisms, add the options to do so into your Kickstart file - for example, bootloader --append="nopti noibrs noibpb" on AMD64/Intel 64 systems.

  Warning

  Ensure your system is not at risk of attack before disabling any of the vulnerability mitigation mechanisms. See the Red Hat vulnerability response article for information about the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.
• --boot-drive= - Specifies which drive the boot loader should be written to, and therefore which drive the computer will boot from. If you use a multipath device as the boot drive, specify the device using its disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-WWID name.

  Important

  The --boot-drive= option is currently being ignored in Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations on IBM Z systems using the zipl boot loader. When zipl is installed, it determines the boot drive on its own.
• --leavebootorder - The installer will add Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to the top of the list of installed systems in the boot loader, and preserve all existing entries as well as their order.
• --driveorder= - Specifies which drive is first in the BIOS boot order. For example:

  bootloader --driveorder=sda,hda

• --location= - Specifies where the boot record is written. Valid values are the following:
  • mbr - The default option. Depends on whether the drive uses the Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme:
    • On a GPT-formatted disk, this option installs stage 1.5 of the boot loader into the BIOS boot partition.
    • On an MBR-formatted disk, stage 1.5 is installed into the empty space between the MBR and the first partition.
  • partition - Install the boot loader on the first sector of the partition containing the kernel.
  • none - Do not install the boot loader.
  In most cases, this option does not need to be specified.
• --password= - If using GRUB2, sets the boot loader password to the one specified with this option. This should be used to restrict access to the GRUB2 shell, where arbitrary kernel options can be passed.
  If a password is specified, GRUB2 also asks for a user name. The user name is always root.
• --iscrypted - Normally, when you specify a boot loader password using the --password= option, it is stored in the Kickstart file in plain text. If you want to encrypt the password, use this option and an encrypted password.
  To generate an encrypted password, use the grub2-mkpasswd-pbkdf2 command, enter the password you want to use, and copy the command's output (the hash starting with grub.pbkdf2) into the Kickstart file. An example bootloader Kickstart entry with an encrypted password looks similar to the following:

  bootloader --iscrypted --password=grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.5520C6C9832F3AC3D149AC0B24BE69E2D4FB0DBEEDBD29CA1D30A044DE2645C4C7A291E585D4DC43F8A4D82479F8B95CA4BA4381F8550510B75E8E0BB2938990.C688B6F0EF935701FF9BD1A8EC7FE5BD2333799C98F28420C5CC8F1A2A233DE22C83705BB614EA17F3FDFDF4AC2161CEA3384E56EB38A2E39102F5334C47405E

• --timeout= - Specifies the amount of time the boot loader waits before booting the default option (in seconds).
• --default= - Sets the default boot image in the boot loader configuration.
• --extlinux - Use the extlinux boot loader instead of GRUB2. This option only works on systems supported by extlinux.
• --disabled — This option is a stronger version of --location=none. While --location=none simply disables boot loader installation, --disabled disables boot loader installation and also disables installation of the package containing the boot loader, thus saving space.

btrfs (optional)

Create a Btrfs volume or subvolume. For a volume, the syntax is:

btrfs mntpoint --data=level --metadata=level --label=label partitions

One or more partitions can be specified in partitions. When specifying more than one partitions, the entries must be separated by a single space. See Example 27.1, “Creating Btrfs Volumes and Subvolumes” for a demonstration.

For a subvolume, the syntax is:

btrfs mntpoint --subvol --name=path parent

parent should be the identifier of the subvolume's parent volume and mntpoint is the location where the file system is mounted.

• --data= - RAID level to use for file system data (such as 0, 1, or 10). This parameter is optional, has no meaning for subvolumes, and requires more than one physical disk.
• --metadata= - RAID level to use for file system/volume metadata (such as 0, 1, or 10). Optional. This option has no meaning for subvolumes and requires more than one physical disk.
• --label= - Specify a label for the Btrfs file system. If the given label is already in use by another file system, a new label is created. This option has no meaning for subvolumes.
• --noformat or --useexisting - Use an existing Btrfs volume (or subvolume) and do not reformat the file system.
• --mkfsoptions= - Specifies additional parameters to be passed to the program that makes a filesystem on this partition. No processing is done on the list of arguments, so they must be supplied in a format that can be passed directly to the mkfs program. This means multiple options should be comma-separated or surrounded by double quotes, depending on the filesystem.

The following example shows how to create a Btrfs volume from member partitions on three disks with subvolumes for / and /home. The main volume is not mounted or used directly in this example.

Example 27.1. Creating Btrfs Volumes and Subvolumes

part btrfs.01 --size=6000 --ondisk=sda
part btrfs.02 --size=6000 --ondisk=sdb
part btrfs.03 --size=6000 --ondisk=sdc

btrfs none --data=0 --metadata=1 --label=rhel7 btrfs.01 btrfs.02 btrfs.03
btrfs / --subvol --name=root LABEL=rhel7
btrfs /home --subvol --name=home rhel7

clearpart (optional)

Removes partitions from the system, prior to creation of new partitions. By default, no partitions are removed.

Important

Device names in the sdX (or /dev/sdX) format are not guaranteed to be consistent across reboots, which can complicate usage of some Kickstart commands. When a command calls for a device node name, you can instead use any item from /dev/disk. For example, instead of:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=sda1

You could use an entry similar to one of the following:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:05.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160815AS_6RA0C882-part1

This way the command will always target the same storage device. This is especially useful in large storage environments. See the chapter about persistent storage device naming in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide for more in-depth information about different ways to consistently refer to storage devices.

Note

If the clearpart command is used, then the part --onpart command cannot be used on a logical partition.

For a detailed example of partitioning including the clearpart command, see Section 27.4.1, “Advanced Partitioning Example”.

• --all - Erases all partitions from the system.

  Warning

  This option will erase all disks which can be reached by the installer, including any attached network storage. Use this option with caution.

  You can prevent clearpart from wiping storage you want to preserve by using the --drives= option and specifying only the drives you want to clear, by attaching network storage later (for example, in the %post section of the Kickstart file), or by blacklisting the kernel modules used to access network storage.
• --drives= - Specifies which drives to clear partitions from. For example, the following clears all the partitions on the first two drives on the primary IDE controller:

  clearpart --drives=hda,hdb --all

  To clear a multipath device, use the format disk/by-id/scsi-WWID, where WWID is the world-wide identifier for the device. For example, to clear a disk with WWID 58095BEC5510947BE8C0360F604351918, use:

  clearpart --drives=disk/by-id/scsi-58095BEC5510947BE8C0360F604351918

  This format is preferable for all multipath devices, but if errors arise, multipath devices that do not use logical volume management (LVM) can also be cleared using the format disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-WWID, where WWID is the world-wide identifier for the device. For example, to clear a disk with WWID 2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017, use:

  clearpart --drives=disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017

  Warning

  Never specify multipath devices by device names like mpatha. Device names such as this are not specific to a particular disk. The disk named /dev/mpatha during installation might not be the one that you expect it to be. Therefore, the clearpart command could target the wrong disk.
• --initlabel - Initializes a disk (or disks) by creating a default disk label for all disks in their respective architecture that have been designated for formatting (for example, msdos for x86). Because --initlabel can see all disks, it is important to ensure only those drives that are to be formatted are connected.

  clearpart --initlabel --drives=names_of_disks

  For example:

  clearpart --initlabel --drives=dasda,dasdb,dasdc

• --list= - Specifies which partitions to clear. This option overrides the --all and --linux options if used. Can be used across different drives. For example:

  clearpart --list=sda2,sda3,sdb1

• --linux - Erases all Linux partitions.
• --none (default) - Do not remove any partitions.

Note

Using the clearpart --all command in a Kickstart file to remove all existing partitions during the installation can cause Anaconda to pause and prompt you for a confirmation in certain cases. If you need to perform the installation automatically with no interaction, add the zerombr command to your Kickstart file.

cmdline (optional)

Perform the installation in a completely non-interactive command line mode. Any prompt for interaction halts the installation. This mode is useful on IBM Z systems with the x3270 terminal. See Section 21.4, “Parameters for Kickstart Installations”.

Important

For a fully automatic installation, you must either specify one of the available modes (graphical, text, or cmdline) in the Kickstart file, or you must use the console= boot option as described in Console, Environment and Display Options. If no mode is specified, the system will prompt you to choose one before continuing.

device (optional)

On most PCI systems, the installation program automatically detects Ethernet and SCSI cards. However, on older systems and some PCI systems, Kickstart requires a hint to find the proper devices. The device command, which tells the installation program to install extra modules, uses the following format:

device moduleName --opts=options

• moduleName - Replace with the name of the kernel module which should be installed.
• --opts= - Options to pass to the kernel module. For example:

  device --opts="aic152x=0x340 io=11"

driverdisk (optional)

Driver disks can be used during Kickstart installations to provide additional drivers not included by default. You must copy the driver disks's contents to the root directory of a partition on the system's hard drive. Then, you must use the driverdisk command to specify that the installation program should look for a driver disk and its location.

driverdisk [partition|--source=url|--biospart=biospart]

Alternatively, a network location can be specified for the driver disk:

driverdisk --source=ftp://path/to/dd.img
driverdisk --source=http://path/to/dd.img
driverdisk --source=nfs:host:/path/to/img

• partition - Partition containing the driver disk. Note that the partition must be specified as a full path (for example, /dev/sdb1), not just the partition name (for example, sdb1).
• --source= - URL for the driver disk. NFS locations can be given in the form of nfs:host:/path/to/img.
• --biospart= - BIOS partition containing the driver disk (for example, 82p2).

Driver disks can also be loaded from a hard disk drive or a similar device instead of being loaded over the network or from initrd. Follow this procedure:

1. Load the driver disk on a hard disk drive, a USB or any similar device.
2. Set the label, for example, DD, to this device.
3. Add the following line to your Kickstart file:

   driverdisk LABEL=DD:/e1000.rpm

Replace DD with a specific label and replace dd.rpm with a specific name. Use anything supported by the inst.repo command instead of LABEL to specify your hard disk drive.

eula (optional)

Use this option to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) without user interaction. Specifying this option prevents Initial Setup from prompting you to accept the license agreement after you finish the installation and reboot the system for the first time. See Chapter 30, Initial Setup for more information.

• --agreed (required) - Accept the EULA. This option must always be used, otherwise the eula command is meaningless.

fcoe (optional)

Specify which FCoE devices should be activated automatically in addition to those discovered by Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD).

fcoe --nic=name [options]

• --nic= (required) - The name of the device to be activated.
• --dcb= - Establish Data Center Bridging (DCB) settings.
• --autovlan - Discover VLANs automatically.

firewall (optional)

Specify the firewall configuration for the installed system.

firewall --enabled|--disabled device [options]

• --enabled or --enable - Reject incoming connections that are not in response to outbound requests, such as DNS replies or DHCP requests. If access to services running on this machine is needed, you can choose to allow specific services through the firewall.
• --remove-service - Do not allow services through the firewall.
• --disabled or --disable - Do not configure any iptables rules.
• --trust= - Listing a device here, such as em1, allows all traffic coming to and from that device to go through the firewall. To list more than one device, use --trust em1 --trust em2. Do NOT use a comma-separated format such as --trust em1, em2.
• incoming - Replace with one or more of the following to allow the specified services through the firewall.
  • --ssh
  • --smtp
  • --http
  • --ftp
• --port= - You can specify that ports be allowed through the firewall using the port:protocol format. For example, to allow IMAP access through your firewall, specify imap:tcp. Numeric ports can also be specified explicitly; for example, to allow UDP packets on port 1234 through, specify 1234:udp. To specify multiple ports, separate them by commas.
• --service= - This option provides a higher-level way to allow services through the firewall. Some services (like cups, avahi, and so on.) require multiple ports to be open or other special configuration in order for the service to work. You can specify each individual port with the --port option, or specify --service= and open them all at once.
  Valid options are anything recognized by the firewall-offline-cmd program in the firewalld package. If firewalld is running, firewall-cmd --get-services provides a list of known service names.

firstboot (optional)

Determine whether the Initial Setup application starts the first time the system is booted. If enabled, the initial-setup package must be installed. If not specified, this option is disabled by default.

• --enable or --enabled - Initial Setup is started the first time the system boots.
• --disable or --disabled - Initial Setup is not started the first time the system boots.
• --reconfig - Enable the Initial Setup to start at boot time in reconfiguration mode. This mode enables the language, mouse, keyboard, root password, security level, time zone and networking configuration options in addition to the default ones.

group (optional)

Creates a new user group on the system. If a group with the given name or GID already exists, this command fails. In addition, the user command can be used to create a new group for the newly created user.

group --name=name [--gid=gid]

• --name= - Provides the name of the group.
• --gid= - The group's GID. If not provided, defaults to the next available non-system GID.

graphical (optional)

Perform the installation in graphical mode. This is the default.

Important

For a fully automatic installation, you must either specify one of the available modes (graphical, text, or cmdline) in the Kickstart file, or you must use the console= boot option as described in Console, Environment and Display Options. If no mode is specified, the system will prompt you to choose one before continuing.

halt (optional)

Halt the system after the installation has successfully completed. This is similar to a manual installation, where Anaconda displays a message and waits for the user to press a key before rebooting. During a Kickstart installation, if no completion method is specified, this option is used as the default.

The halt command is equivalent to the shutdown -h command.

For other completion methods, see the poweroff, reboot, and shutdown commands.

ignoredisk (optional)

Causes the installation program to ignore the specified disks. This is useful if you use automatic partitioning and want to be sure that some disks are ignored. For example, without ignoredisk, attempting to deploy on a SAN-cluster the Kickstart would fail, as the installation program detects passive paths to the SAN that return no partition table.

ignoredisk --drives=drive1,drive2,...

where driveN is one of sda, sdb,..., hda,... and so on.

Important

Device names in the sdX (or /dev/sdX) format are not guaranteed to be consistent across reboots, which can complicate usage of some Kickstart commands. When a command calls for a device node name, you can instead use any item from /dev/disk. For example, instead of:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=sda1

You could use an entry similar to one of the following:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:05.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160815AS_6RA0C882-part1

This way the command will always target the same storage device. This is especially useful in large storage environments. See the chapter about persistent storage device naming in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide for more in-depth information about different ways to consistently refer to storage devices.

To ignore a multipath device that does not use logical volume management (LVM), use the format disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-WWID, where WWID is the world-wide identifier for the device. For example, to ignore a disk with WWID 2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017, use:

ignoredisk --drives=disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017

Warning

Never specify multipath devices by device names like mpatha. Device names such as this are not specific to a particular disk. The disk named /dev/mpatha during installation might not be the one that you expect it to be. Therefore, the clearpart command could target the wrong disk.

• --only-use - Specifies a list of disks for the installation program to use. All other disks are ignored. For example, to use disk sda during installation and ignore all other disks:

  ignoredisk --only-use=sda

  To include a multipath device that does not use LVM:

  ignoredisk --only-use=disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017

  To include a multipath device that uses LVM:

  ignoredisk --only-use=/dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-

  bootloader --location=mbr

• --interactive - Allows you to manually navigate the advanced storage screen.

install (optional)

The default installation mode. You must specify the type of installation from cdrom, harddrive, nfs, liveimg, or url (for FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS installations). The install command and the installation method command must be on separate lines. For example:

install
liveimg --url=file:///images/install/squashfs.img --noverifyssl

• cdrom - Install from the first optical drive on the system.
• harddrive - Install from a Red Hat installation tree or full installation ISO image on a local drive. The drive must contain a file system the installation program can mount: ext2, ext3, ext4, vfat, or xfs.
  • --biospart= - BIOS partition to install from (such as 82).
  • --partition= - Partition to install from (such as sdb2).
  • --dir= - Directory containing the variant directory of the installation tree, or the ISO image of the full installation DVD.
  For example:

  harddrive --partition=hdb2 --dir=/tmp/install-tree

• liveimg - Install from a disk image instead of packages. The image can be the squashfs.img file from a live ISO image, a compressed tar file (.tar, .tbz, .tgz, .txz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, or .tar.xz.), or any file system that the installation media can mount. Supported file systems are ext2, ext3, ext4, vfat, and xfs.

  Note

  When using the liveimg installation mode with a driver disk, drivers on the disk will not automatically be included in the installed system. If necessary, these drivers should be installed manually, or in the %post section of a kickstart script.
  • --url= - The location to install from. Supported protocols are HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and file.
  • --proxy= - Specify an HTTP, HTTPS or FTP proxy to use while performing the installation.
  • --checksum= - An optional argument with the SHA256 checksum of the image file, used for verification.
  • --noverifyssl - Disable SSL verification when connecting to an HTTPS server.
  For example:

  liveimg --url=file:///images/install/squashfs.img --checksum=03825f567f17705100de3308a20354b4d81ac9d8bed4bb4692b2381045e56197 --noverifyssl

• nfs - Install from the NFS server specified.
  • --server= - Server from which to install (host name or IP).
  • --dir= - Directory containing the variant directory of the installation tree.
  • --opts= - Mount options to use for mounting the NFS export. (optional)
  For example:

  nfs --server=nfsserver.example.com --dir=/tmp/install-tree

• url - Install from an installation tree on a remote server using the FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS protocol. You can only specify one URL.
  • --url= - Specifies the HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, or file location to install from.
  • --mirrorlist= - Specifies the mirror URL to install from.
  • --proxy= - Specifies an HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP proxy to use during the installation.
  • --noverifyssl - Disables SSL verification when connecting to an HTTPS server.
  For example:

  url --url http://server/path

  or:

  url --url ftp://username:password@server/path

iscsi (optional)

iscsi --ipaddr=address [options]

Specifies additional iSCSI storage to be attached during installation. If you use the iscsi command, you must also assign a name to the iSCSI node, using the iscsiname command. The iscsiname command must appear before the iscsi command in the Kickstart file.

We recommend that wherever possible you configure iSCSI storage in the system BIOS or firmware (iBFT for Intel systems) rather than use the iscsi command. Anaconda automatically detects and uses disks configured in BIOS or firmware and no special configuration is necessary in the Kickstart file.

If you must use the iscsi command, ensure that networking is activated at the beginning of the installation, and that the iscsi command appears in the Kickstart file before you refer to iSCSI disks with commands such as clearpart or ignoredisk.

• --ipaddr= (required) - the IP address of the target to connect to.
• --port= (required) - the port number (typically, --port=3260)
• --target= - the target IQN (iSCSI Qualified Name).
• --iface= - bind the connection to a specific network interface instead of using the default one determined by the network layer. Once used, it must be specified in all instances of the iscsi command in the entire Kickstart file.
• --user= - the user name required to authenticate with the target
• --password= - the password that corresponds with the user name specified for the target
• --reverse-user= - the user name required to authenticate with the initiator from a target that uses reverse CHAP authentication
• --reverse-password= - the password that corresponds with the user name specified for the initiator

iscsiname (optional)

Assigns a name to an iSCSI node specified by the iscsi parameter. If you use the iscsi parameter in your Kickstart file, you must specify iscsiname earlier in the Kickstart file.

iscsiname iqn

%addon com_redhat_kdump (optional)

This command configures the kdump kernel crash dumping mechanism.

Note

The syntax for this command is unusual because it is an add-on rather than a built-in Kickstart command. For more information about add-ons, see Section 27.3.7, “Kickstart Add-ons”.

Kdump is a kernel crash dumping mechanism that allows you to save the contents of the system's memory for later analysis. It relies on kexec, which can be used to boot a Linux kernel from the context of another kernel without rebooting the system, and preserve the contents of the first kernel's memory that would otherwise be lost.

In case of a system crash, kexec boots into a second kernel (a capture kernel). This capture kernel resides in a reserved part of the system memory that is inaccessible to the first kernel. Kdump then captures the contents of the crashed kernel's memory (a crash dump) and saves it to a specified location. The location cannot be configured using this Kickstart command; it must be configured after the installation by editing the /etc/kdump.conf configuration file.

For more information about Kdump, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Kernel Crash Dump Guide.

Available options are:

• --enable - Enable kdump on the installed system.
• --disable - Disable kdump on the installed system.
• --reserve-mb= - The amount of memory you want to reserve for kdump, in MiB. For example:

  %addon com_redhat_kdump --enable --reserve-mb=128
  %end

  You can also specify auto instead of a numeric value. In that case, the installer will determine the amount of memory automatically based on the criteria described in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Kernel Crash Dump Guide.
  If you enable kdump and do not specify a --reserve-mb= option, the value auto will be used.
• --enablefadump - Enable firmware-assisted dumping on systems which allow it (notably, IBM Power Systems servers).

keyboard (required)

Sets one or more available keyboard layouts for the system.

• --vckeymap= - Specify a VConsole keymap which should be used. Valid names correspond to the list of files in the /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/ directory, without the .map.gz extension.
• --xlayouts= - Specify a list of X layouts that should be used as a comma-separated list without spaces. Accepts values in the same format as setxkbmap(1), either in the layout format (such as cz), or in the layout (variant) format (such as cz (qwerty)).
  All available layouts can be viewed on the xkeyboard-config(7) man page under Layouts.
• --switch= - Specify a list of layout-switching options (shortcuts for switching between multiple keyboard layouts). Multiple options must be separated by commas without spaces. Accepts values in the same format as setxkbmap(1).
  Available switching options can be viewed on the xkeyboard-config(7) man page under Options.

The following example sets up two keyboard layouts (English (US) and Czech (qwerty)) using the --xlayouts= option, and allows to switch between them using Alt+Shift:

keyboard --xlayouts=us,'cz (qwerty)' --switch=grp:alt_shift_toggle

Important

Either the --vckeymap= or the --xlayouts= option must be used.

lang (required)

Sets the language to use during installation and the default language to use on the installed system. For example, to set the language to English, the Kickstart file should contain the following line:

lang en_US

The file /usr/share/system-config-language/locale-list provides a list of the valid language codes in the first column of each line and is part of the system-config-language package.

Certain languages (for example, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indic languages) are not supported during text-mode installation. If you specify one of these languages with the lang command, the installation process continues in English, but the installed system uses your selection as its default language.

• --addsupport= - Add support for additional languages. Takes the form of comma-separated list without spaces. For example:

  lang en_US --addsupport=cs_CZ,de_DE,en_UK

logging (optional)

Controls the error logging of Anaconda during installation. It has no effect on the installed system.

logging [--host=host] [--port=port] [--level=debug|info|error|critical]

• --host= - Send logging information to the given remote host, which must be running a syslogd process configured to accept remote logging.
• --port= - If the remote syslogd process uses a port other than the default, set it using this option.
• --level= - Specify the minimum level of messages that appear on tty3. All messages are still sent to the log file regardless of this level, however. Possible values are debug, info, warning, error, or critical.

logvol (optional)

Create a logical volume for Logical Volume Management (LVM). For more information regarding LVM, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Logical Volume Manager Administration guide. This command uses the following syntax:

logvol mntpoint --vgname=name --name=name [options]

Note

Do not use the dash (-) character in logical volume and volume group names when installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux using Kickstart. If this character is used, the installation finishes normally, but the /dev/mapper/ directory will list these volumes and volume groups with every dash doubled. For example, a volume group named volgrp-01 containing a logical volume named logvol-01 will be listed as /dev/mapper/volgrp--01-logvol--01.

This limitation only applies to newly created logical volume and volume group names. If you are reusing existing ones using the --noformat option, their names will not be changed.

For a detailed example of logvol in action, see Section 27.4.1, “Advanced Partitioning Example”.

• The mntpoint is where the partition is mounted and must be of one of the following forms:
  • /path
    For example, / or /home
  • swap
    The partition is used as swap space.
    To determine the size of the swap partition automatically, use the --recommended option:

    swap --recommended

    To determine the size of the swap partition automatically and also allow extra space for your system to hibernate, use the --hibernation option:

    swap --hibernation

    The size assigned will be equivalent to the swap space assigned by --recommended plus the amount of RAM on your system.
    For the swap sizes assigned by these commands, see Section 8.14.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems, Section 13.15.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Power Systems servers, and Section 18.15.3.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Z.

The options are as follows:

• --noformat - Use an existing logical volume and do not format it.
• --useexisting - Use an existing logical volume and reformat it.
• --fstype= - Sets the file system type for the logical volume. Valid values are xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, swap, and vfat.
• --fsoptions= - Specifies a free form string of options to be used when mounting the filesystem. This string will be copied into the /etc/fstab file of the installed system and should be enclosed in quotes.
• --mkfsoptions= - Specifies additional parameters to be passed to the program that makes a filesystem on this partition. No processing is done on the list of arguments, so they must be supplied in a format that can be passed directly to the mkfs program. This means multiple options should be comma-separated or surrounded by double quotes, depending on the filesystem.
• --label= - Sets a label for the logical volume.
• --grow - Tells the logical volume to grow to fill available space (if any), or up to the maximum size setting, if one is specified. A minimum size must be given, using either the --percent= option or the --size= option.

  Note

  For more information about allocating space when writing to an image file, see section 3.5.4.Host Storage describing Image files in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide.
• --size= - The size of the logical volume in MiB. This option cannot be used together with the --percent= option.
• --percent= - The size of the logical volume, as a percentage of the free space in the volume group after any statically-sized logical volumes are taken into account. This option cannot be used together with the --size= option.

  Important

  When creating a new logical volume, you must either specify its size statically using the --size= option, or as a percentage of remaining free space using the --percent= option. You cannot use both of these options on the same logical volume.

  Note that this behavior is only applies to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 and later. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0, these two options interacted differently.
• --maxsize= - The maximum size in MiB when the logical volume is set to grow. Specify an integer value here such as 500 (do not include the unit).
• --recommended - Use this option when creating a swap logical volume to determine the size of this volume automatically, based on your system's hardware. For details about the recommended scheme, see Section 8.14.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems, Section 13.15.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Power Systems, and Section 18.15.3.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Z.
• --resize - Resize a logical volume. If you use this option, you must also specify --useexisting and --size.
• --encrypted - Specifies that this logical volume should be encrypted, using the passphrase provided in the --passphrase= option. If you do not specify a passphrase, the installation program uses the default, system-wide passphrase set with the autopart --passphrase command, or stops the installation and prompts you to provide a passphrase if no default is set.

  Note

  When encrypting one or more partitions, Anaconda attempts to gather 256 bits of entropy to ensure the partitions are encrypted securely. Gathering entropy can take some time - the process will stop after a maximum of 10 minutes, regardless of whether sufficient entropy has been gathered.

  The process can be sped up by interacting with the installation system (typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse). If you are installing in a virtual machine, you can also attach a virtio-rng device (a virtual random number generator) to the guest as described in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Virtualization Deployment and Administration Guide.
• --passphrase= - Specifies the passphrase to use when encrypting this logical volume. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; it has no effect by itself.
• --cipher= - Specifies which type of encryption will be used if the Anaconda default aes-xts-plain64 is not satisfactory. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; by itself it has no effect. Available types of encryption are listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide, but Red Hat strongly recommends using either aes-xts-plain64 or aes-cbc-essiv:sha256.
• --escrowcert=URL_of_X.509_certificate - Store data encryption keys of all encrypted volumes as files in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate from the URL specified with URL_of_X.509_certificate. The keys are stored as a separate file for each encrypted volume. This option is only meaningful if --encrypted is specified.
• --backuppassphrase - Add a randomly-generated passphrase to each encrypted volume. Store these passphrases in separate files in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate specified with --escrowcert. This option is only meaningful if --escrowcert is specified.
• --thinpool - Creates a thin pool logical volume. (Use a mount point of none)
• --metadatasize=size - Specify the metadata area size (in MiB) for a new thin pool device.
• --chunksize=size - Specify the chunk size (in KiB) for a new thin pool device.
• --thin - Create a thin logical volume. (Requires use of --poolname)
• --poolname=name - Specify the name of the thin pool in which to create a thin logical volume. Requires the --thin option.
• --profile=name - Specify the configuration profile name to use with thin logical volumes. If used, the name will also be included in the metadata for the given logical volume. By default, the available profiles are default and thin-performance and are defined in the /etc/lvm/profile/ directory. See the lvm(8) man page for additional information.
• --cachepvs= - A comma-separated list of physical volumes which should be used as a cache for this volume.
• --cachemode= - Specify which mode should be used to cache this logical volume - either writeback or writethrough.

  Note

  For more information about cached logical volumes and their modes, see the lvmcache(7) man page.
• --cachesize= - Size of cache attached to the logical volume, specified in MiB. This option requires the --cachepvs= option.

Create the partition first, create the logical volume group, and then create the logical volume. For example:

part pv.01 --size 3000
volgroup myvg pv.01
logvol / --vgname=myvg --size=2000 --name=rootvol

Create the partition first, create the logical volume group, and then create the logical volume to occupy 90% of the remaining space in the volume group. For example:

part pv.01 --size 1 --grow
volgroup myvg pv.01
logvol / --vgname=myvg --name=rootvol --percent=90

mediacheck (optional)

If given, this command forces the installation program to perform a media check (rd.live.check) before starting the installation. This command requires that installations be attended, so it is disabled by default.

mount (optional)

Assigns a mount point to an existing block device, and optionally reformats it to a given format.

mount [--reformat [REFORMAT]] [--mkfsoptions MKFS_OPTS] [--mountoptions MOUNT_OPTS] device mntpoint

Unlike most other storage configuration commands in Kickstart, mount does not require you to describe the entire storage configuration in the Kickstart file. You only need to ensure that the described block device exists on the system. However, if you want to create the storage stack with all the devices mounted, you must use other commands such as part to do so.

Important

You can not use mount together with other storage-related commands such as part, logvol, or autopart in the same Kickstart file.

Mandatory arguments:

• device - The block device to mount.
• mntpoint - Where to mount the device. It must be a valid mount point, such as / or /usr, or none if the device is unmountable (for example swap).

Optional arguments:

• --reformat= - Specifies a new format (such as ext4) to which the device should be reformatted.
• --mkfsoptions= - Specifies additional argument to be passed to the command which creates the new file system specified in --reformat=. The list of arguments provided here is not processed, so they must be specified in a format that can be passed directly to the mkfs program. The list of options should be either comma-separated or surrounded by double quotes, depending on the file system. Check the mkfs man page for the file system you want to create (for example mkfs.ext4(8) or mkfs.xfs(8)) for specific details.
• --mountoptions= - Specifies a free form string that contains options to be used when mounting the file system. The string will be copied to the /etc/fstab file on the installed system and should be enclosed in double quotes. See the mount(8) man page for a full list of mount options, and fstab(5) for basics.

network (optional)

Configures network information for the target system and activates network devices in the installation environment. The device specified in the first network command is activated automatically. Activation of the device can be also explicitly required by the --activate option.

Note

There are several types of network device naming standards used to identify network devices with persistent names such as em1 or wl3sp0. For information about these standards, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Networking Guide.

• --activate - activate this device in the installation environment.
  If you use the --activate option on a device that has already been activated (for example, an interface you configured with boot options so that the system could retrieve the Kickstart file) the device is reactivated to use the details specified in the Kickstart file.
  Use the --nodefroute option to prevent the device from using the default route.
• --no-activate - do not activate this device in the installation environment.
  By default, Anaconda activates the first network device in the Kickstart file regardless of the --activate option. You can disable the default setting by using the --no-activate option.
• --bootproto= - One of dhcp, bootp, ibft, or static. The default option is dhcp; the dhcp and bootp options are treated the same. To disable ipv4 configuration of the device, use --noipv4 option.

  Note

  This option configures ipv4 configuration of the device. For ipv6 configuration use --ipv6 and --ipv6gateway options.
  The DHCP method uses a DHCP server system to obtain its networking configuration. The BOOTP method is similar, requiring a BOOTP server to supply the networking configuration. To direct a system to use DHCP:

  network --bootproto=dhcp

  To direct a machine to use BOOTP to obtain its networking configuration, use the following line in the Kickstart file:

  network --bootproto=bootp

  To direct a machine to use the configuration specified in iBFT, use:

  network --bootproto=ibft

  The static method requires that you specify at least the IP address and netmask in the Kickstart file. This information is static and is used during and after the installation.
  All static networking configuration information must be specified on one line; you cannot wrap lines using a backslash (\) as you can on a command line.

  network --bootproto=static --ip=10.0.2.15 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=10.0.2.254 --nameserver=10.0.2.1

  You can also configure multiple nameservers at the same time. To do so, use the --nameserver= option once, and specify each of their IP addresses, separated by commas.

  network --bootproto=static --ip=10.0.2.15 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=10.0.2.254 --nameserver=192.168.2.1,192.168.3.1

• --device= - specifies the device to be configured (and eventually activated in Anaconda) with the network command.
  If the --device= option is missing on the first use of the network command, the value of the ksdevice= Anaconda boot option is used, if available. Note that this is considered deprecated behavior; in most cases, you should always specify a --device= for every network command.
  The behavior of any subsequent network command in the same Kickstart file is unspecified if its --device= option is missing. Make sure you specify this option for any network command beyond the first.
  You can specify a device to be activated in any of the following ways:
  • the device name of the interface, for example, em1
  • the MAC address of the interface, for example, 01:23:45:67:89:ab
  • the keyword link, which specifies the first interface with its link in the up state
  • the keyword bootif, which uses the MAC address that pxelinux set in the BOOTIF variable. Set IPAPPEND 2 in your pxelinux.cfg file to have pxelinux set the BOOTIF variable.
  For example:

  network --bootproto=dhcp --device=em1

• --ip= - IP address of the device.
• --ipv6= - IPv6 address of the device, in the form of address[/prefix length] - for example, 3ffe:ffff:0:1::1/128 . If prefix is omitted, 64 is used. You can also use auto for automatic configuration, or dhcp for DHCPv6-only configuration (no router advertisements).
• --gateway= - Default gateway as a single IPv4 address.
• --ipv6gateway= - Default gateway as a single IPv6 address.
• --nodefroute - Prevents the interface being set as the default route. Use this option when you activate additional devices with the --activate= option, for example, a NIC on a separate subnet for an iSCSI target.
• --nameserver= - DNS name server, as an IP address. To specify more than one name server, use this option once, and separate each IP address with a comma.
• --nodns - Do not configure any DNS server.
• --netmask= - Network mask for the installed system.
• --hostname= - The host name for the installed system. The host name can either be a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) in the format host_name.domainname, or a short host name with no domain. Many networks have a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service which automatically supplies connected systems with a domain name; to allow DHCP to assign the domain name, only specify a short host name.

  Important

  If your network does not provide a DHCP service, always use the FQDN as the system's host name.
• --ethtool= - Specifies additional low-level settings for the network device which will be passed to the ethtool program.
• --essid= - The network ID for wireless networks.
• --wepkey= - The WEP encryption key for wireless networks.
• --wpakey= - The WPA encryption key for wireless networks.
• --onboot= - Whether or not to enable the device at boot time.
• --dhcpclass= - The DHCP class.
• --mtu= - The MTU of the device.
• --noipv4 - Disable IPv4 on this device.
• --noipv6 - Disable IPv6 on this device.
• --bondslaves= - When this option is used, the network device specified in the --device= option is created using slaves defined in the --bondslaves= option. For example:

  network --device=mynetwork --bondslaves=em1,em2

  The above command creates a bond device named mynetwork using the em1 and em2 interfaces as its slaves.
• --bondopts= - a list of optional parameters for a bonded interface, which is specified using the --bondslaves= and --device= options. Options in this list must be separated by commas (",") or semicolons (";"). If an option itself contains a comma, use a semicolon to separate the options. For example:

  network --bondopts=mode=active-backup,balance-rr;primary=eth1

  Available optional parameters are listed in the Working with Kernel Modules chapter of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide.

  Important

  The --bondopts=mode= parameter only supports full mode names such as balance-rr or broadcast, not their numerical representations such as 0 or 3.
• --vlanid= - Specifies virtual LAN (VLAN) ID number (802.1q tag) for the device created using the device specified in --device= as a parent. For example, network --device=em1 --vlanid=171 creates a virtual LAN device em1.171.
• --interfacename= - Specify a custom interface name for a virtual LAN device. This option should be used when the default name generated by the --vlanid= option is not desirable. This option must be used along with --vlanid=. For example:

  network --device=em1 --vlanid=171 --interfacename=vlan171

  The above command creates a virtual LAN interface named vlan171 on the em1 device with an ID of 171.
  The interface name can be arbitrary (for example, my-vlan), but in specific cases, the following conventions must be followed:
  • If the name contains a dot (.), it must take the form of NAME.ID. The NAME is arbitrary, but the ID must be the VLAN ID. For example: em1.171 or my-vlan.171.
  • Names starting with vlan must take the form of vlanID - for example, vlan171.
• --teamslaves= - Team device specified by the --device= option will be created using slaves specified in this option. Slaves are separated by commas. A slave can be followed by its configuration, which is a single-quoted JSON string with double quotes escaped by the \ character. For example:

  network --teamslaves="p3p1'{\"prio\": -10, \"sticky\": true}',p3p2'{\"prio\": 100}'"

  See also the --teamconfig= option.
• --teamconfig= - Double-quoted team device configuration which is a single-quoted JSON string with double quotes escaped by the \ character. The device name is specified by --device= option and its slaves and their configuration by --teamslaves= option. For example:

  network --device team0 --activate --bootproto static --ip=10.34.102.222 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=10.34.102.254 --nameserver=10.34.39.2 --teamslaves="p3p1'{\"prio\": -10, \"sticky\": true}',p3p2'{\"prio\": 100}'" --teamconfig="{\"runner\": {\"name\": \"activebackup\"}}"

• --bridgeslaves= - When this option is used, the network bridge with device name specified using the --device= option will be created and devices defined in the --bridgeslaves= option will be added to the bridge. For example:

  network --device=bridge0 --bridgeslaves=em1

• --bridgeopts= - An optional comma-separated list of parameters for the bridged interface. Available values are stp, priority, forward-delay, hello-time, max-age, and ageing-time. For information about these parameters, see the bridge setting table in the nm-settings(5) man page or at https://developer.gnome.org/NetworkManager/0.9/ref-settings.html.
  Also see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Networking Guide for general information about network bridging.
• --bindto=mac - Bind the device configuration (ifcfg) file on the installed system to the device MAC address (HWADDR) instead of the default binding to the interface name (DEVICE). Note that this option is independent of the --device= option - --bindto=mac will be applied even if the same network command also specifies a device name, link, or bootif.

nvdimm (optional)

Performs an action on Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Module (NVDIMM) devices. This command uses the following format:

nvdimm action [options]

Note

By default, all NVDIMM devices are ignored by the installer. You must use the nvdimm command to enable installation on these devices.

The following actions are available:

• reconfigure - Reconfigure a specific NVDIMM device into a given mode. Additionally, the specified device is implicitly marked as to be used, so a subsequent nvdimm use command for the same device is redundant. This action uses the following format:

  nvdimm reconfigure [--namespace=NAMESPACE] [--mode=MODE] [--sectorsize=SECTORSIZE]

  • --namespace= - The device specification by namespace. For example:

    nvdimm reconfigure --namespace=namespace0.0 --mode=sector --sectorsize=512

  • --mode= - The mode specification. Currently, only the value sector is available.
  • --sectorsize= - Size of a sector for sector mode. For example:

    nvdimm reconfigure --namespace=namespace0.0 --mode=sector --sectorsize=512

    The supported sector sizes are 512 and 4096 bytes.
• use - Specify a NVDIMM device as a target for installation. The device must be already configured to the sector mode by the nvdimm reconfigure command. This action uses the following format:

  nvdimm use [--namespace=NAMESPACE|--blockdevs=DEVICES]

  • --namespace= - Specifies the device by namespace. For example:

    nvdimm use --namespace=namespace0.0

  • --blockdevs= - Specifies a comma-separated list of block devices corresponding to the NVDIMM devices to be used. The asterisk * wildcard is supported. For example:

    nvdimm use --blockdevs=pmem0s,pmem1s
    nvdimm use --blockdevs=pmem*

%addon org_fedora_oscap (optional)

The OpenSCAP installer add-on is used to apply SCAP (Security Content Automation Protocol) content - security policies - on the installed system. This add-on has been enabled by default since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2. When enabled, the packages necessary to provide this functionality will automatically be installed. However, by default, no policies are enforced, meaning that no checks are performed during or after installation unless specifically configured.

Important

Applying a security policy is not necessary on all systems. This screen should only be used when a specific policy is mandated by your organization rules or government regulations.

Unlike most other commands, this add-on does not accept regular options, but uses key-value pairs in the body of the %addon definition instead. These pairs are whitespace-agnostic. Values can be optionally enclosed in single quotes (') or double quotes (").

The following keys are recognized by the add-on:

• content-type - Type of the security content. Possible values are datastream, archive, rpm, and scap-security-guide.
  If the content-type is scap-security-guide, the add-on will use content provided by the scap-security-guide package, which is present on the boot media. This means that all other keys except profile will have no effect.
• content-url - Location of the security content. The content must be accessible using HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP; local storage is currently not supported. A network connection must be available to reach content definitions in a remote location.
• datastream-id - ID of the data stream referenced in the content-url value. Used only if content-type is datastream.
• xccdf-id - ID of the benchmark you want to use.
• xccdf-path - Path to the XCCDF file which should be used; given as a relative path in the archive.
• profile - ID of the profile to be applied. Use default to apply the default profile.
• fingerprint - A MD5, SHA1 or SHA2 checksum of the content referenced by content-url.
• tailoring-path - Path to a tailoring file which should be used, given as a relative path in the archive.

The following is an example %addon org_fedora_oscap section which uses content from the scap-security-guide on the installation media:

Example 27.2. Sample OpenSCAP Add-on Definition Using SCAP Security Guide

%addon org_fedora_oscap
content-type = scap-security-guide
profile = xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_pci-dss
%end

The following is a more complex example which loads a custom profile from a web server:

Example 27.3. Sample OpenSCAP Add-on Definition Using a Datastream

%addon org_fedora_oscap
content-type = datastream
content-url = http://www.example.com/scap/testing_ds.xml
datastream-id = scap_example.com_datastream_testing
xccdf-id = scap_example.com_cref_xccdf.xml
profile =  xccdf_example.com_profile_my_profile
fingerprint = 240f2f18222faa98856c3b4fc50c4195
%end

For more information about the profiles available in the SCAP Security Guide and what they do, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide.

part or partition (required)

Creates a partition on the system.

Warning

All partitions created are formatted as part of the installation process unless --noformat and --onpart are used.

Important

Device names in the sdX (or /dev/sdX) format are not guaranteed to be consistent across reboots, which can complicate usage of some Kickstart commands. When a command calls for a device node name, you can instead use any item from /dev/disk. For example, instead of:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=sda1

You could use an entry similar to one of the following:

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:05.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1

part / --fstype=xfs --onpart=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160815AS_6RA0C882-part1

This way the command will always target the same storage device. This is especially useful in large storage environments. See the chapter about persistent storage device naming in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide for more in-depth information about different ways to consistently refer to storage devices.

For a detailed example of part in action, see Section 27.4.1, “Advanced Partitioning Example”.

part|partition mntpoint [options]

• mntpoint - Where the partition is mounted. The value must be of one of the following forms:
  • /path
    For example, /, /usr, /home
  • swap
    The partition is used as swap space.
    To determine the size of the swap partition automatically, use the --recommended option:

    swap --recommended

    The size assigned will be effective but not precisely calibrated for your system.
    To determine the size of the swap partition automatically but also allow extra space for your system to hibernate, use the --hibernation option:

    swap --hibernation

    The size assigned will be equivalent to the swap space assigned by --recommended plus the amount of RAM on your system.
    For the swap sizes assigned by these commands, see Section 8.14.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems, Section 13.15.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Power Systems servers, and Section 18.15.3.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Z.
  • raid.id
    The partition is used for software RAID (see raid).
  • pv.id
    The partition is used for LVM (see logvol).
  • biosboot
    The partition will be used for a BIOS Boot partition. A 1 MiB BIOS boot partition is necessary on BIOS-based AMD64 and Intel 64 systems using a GUID Partition Table (GPT); the boot loader will be installed into it. It is not necessary on UEFI systems. See also the bootloader command.
  • /boot/efi
    An EFI System Partition. A 50 MiB EFI partition is necessary on UEFI-based AMD, Intel, and ARM; the recommended size is 200 MiB. It is not necessary on BIOS systems. See also the bootloader command.
• --size= - The minimum partition size in MiB. Specify an integer value here such as 500 (do not include the unit).

  Important

  If the --size value is too small, the installation fails. Set the --size value as the minimum amount of space you require. For size recommendations, see Section 8.14.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme”.
• --grow - Tells the partition to grow to fill available space (if any), or up to the maximum size setting, if one is specified.

  Note

  If you use --grow= without setting --maxsize= on a swap partition, Anaconda limits the maximum size of the swap partition. For systems that have less than 2 GB of physical memory, the imposed limit is twice the amount of physical memory. For systems with more than 2 GB, the imposed limit is the size of physical memory plus 2GB.
• --maxsize= - The maximum partition size in MiB when the partition is set to grow. Specify an integer value here such as 500 (do not include the unit).
• --noformat - Specifies that the partition should not be formatted, for use with the --onpart command.
• --onpart= or --usepart= - Uses existing blank device and format it to the new specified type. For example:

  partition /home --onpart=hda1

  puts /home on /dev/hda1.
  These options can also add a partition to a logical volume. For example:

  partition pv.1 --onpart=hda2

  The device must already exist on the system; the --onpart option will not create it.
  It is also possible to specify an entire drive, rather than a partition, in which case Anaconda will format and use the drive without creating a partition table. Note, however, that installation of GRUB2 is not supported on a device formatted in this way, and must be placed on a drive with a partition table.
• --ondisk= or --ondrive= - Creates a partition (specified by the part command) on an existing disk. This command always creates a partition. For example, --ondisk=sdb puts the partition on the second SCSI disk on the system.
  To specify a multipath device that does not use logical volume management (LVM), use the format disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-WWID, where WWID is the world-wide identifier for the device. For example, to specify a disk with WWID 2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017, use:

  part / --fstype=xfs --grow --asprimary --size=8192 --ondisk=disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-2416CD96995134CA5D787F00A5AA11017

  Warning

  Never specify multipath devices by device names like mpatha. Device names such as this are not specific to a particular disk. The disk named /dev/mpatha during installation might not be the one that you expect it to be. Therefore, the clearpart command could target the wrong disk.
• --asprimary - Forces the partition to be allocated as a primary partition. If the partition cannot be allocated as primary (usually due to too many primary partitions being already allocated), the partitioning process fails. This option only makes sense when the disk uses a Master Boot Record (MBR); for GUID Partition Table (GPT)-labeled disks this option has no meaning. For information about primary (and extended) partitions, see Section A.1.2, “Partitions: Turning One Drive Into Many”.
• --fsprofile= - Specifies a usage type to be passed to the program that makes a filesystem on this partition. A usage type defines a variety of tuning parameters to be used when making a filesystem. For this option to work, the filesystem must support the concept of usage types and there must be a configuration file that lists valid types. For ext2, ext3, ext4, this configuration file is /etc/mke2fs.conf.
• --mkfsoptions= - Specifies additional parameters to be passed to the program that makes a filesystem on this partition. This is similar to --fsprofile but works for all filesystems, not just the ones that support the profile concept. No processing is done on the list of arguments, so they must be supplied in a format that can be passed directly to the mkfs program. This means multiple options should be comma-separated or surrounded by double quotes, depending on the filesystem.
• --fstype= - Sets the file system type for the partition. Valid values are xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, swap, vfat, efi and biosboot.
• --fsoptions - Specifies a free form string of options to be used when mounting the filesystem. This string will be copied into the /etc/fstab file of the installed system and should be enclosed in quotes.
• --label= - assign a label to an individual partition.
• --recommended - Determine the size of the partition automatically. For details about the recommended scheme, see Section 8.14.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM, Section 13.15.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Power Systems, and Section 18.15.3.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for IBM Z.

  Important

  This option can only be used for partitions which result in a file system such as the /boot partition and swap space. It cannot be used to create LVM physical volumes or RAID members.
• --onbiosdisk - Forces the partition to be created on a particular disk as discovered by the BIOS.
• --encrypted - Specifies that this partition should be encrypted, using the passphrase provided in the --passphrase option. If you do not specify a passphrase, Anaconda uses the default, system-wide passphrase set with the autopart --passphrase command, or stops the installation and prompts you to provide a passphrase if no default is set.

  Note

  When encrypting one or more partitions, Anaconda attempts to gather 256 bits of entropy to ensure the partitions are encrypted securely. Gathering entropy can take some time - the process will stop after a maximum of 10 minutes, regardless of whether sufficient entropy has been gathered.

  The process can be sped up by interacting with the installation system (typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse). If you are installing in a virtual machine, you can also attach a virtio-rng device (a virtual random number generator) to the guest as described in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Virtualization Deployment and Administration Guide.
• --passphrase= - Specifies the passphrase to use when encrypting this partition. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; by itself it has no effect.
• --cipher= - Specifies which type of encryption will be used if the Anaconda default aes-xts-plain64 is not satisfactory. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; by itself it has no effect. Available types of encryption are listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide, but Red Hat strongly recommends using either aes-xts-plain64 or aes-cbc-essiv:sha256.
• --escrowcert=URL_of_X.509_certificate - Store data encryption keys of all encrypted partitions as files in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate from the URL specified with URL_of_X.509_certificate. The keys are stored as a separate file for each encrypted partition. This option is only meaningful if --encrypted is specified.
• --backuppassphrase - Add a randomly-generated passphrase to each encrypted partition. Store these passphrases in separate files in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate specified with --escrowcert. This option is only meaningful if --escrowcert is specified.
• --resize= - Resize an existing partition. When using this option, specify the target size (in MiB) using the --size= option and the target partition using the --onpart= option.

Note

If partitioning fails for any reason, diagnostic messages appear on virtual console 3.

poweroff (optional)

Shut down and power off the system after the installation has successfully completed. Normally during a manual installation, Anaconda displays a message and waits for the user to press a key before rebooting. During a Kickstart installation, if no completion method is specified, the halt option is used as default.

The poweroff option is equivalent to the shutdown -p command.

Note

The poweroff command is highly dependent on the system hardware in use. Specifically, certain hardware components such as the BIOS, APM (advanced power management), and ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface) must be able to interact with the system kernel. Consult your hardware documentation for more information on you system's APM/ACPI abilities.

For other completion methods, see the halt, reboot, and shutdown Kickstart commands.

raid (optional)

Assembles a software RAID device. This command is of the form:

raid mntpoint --level=level --device=device-name partitions*

• mntpoint - Location where the RAID file system is mounted. If it is /, the RAID level must be 1 unless a boot partition (/boot) is present. If a boot partition is present, the /boot partition must be level 1 and the root (/) partition can be any of the available types. The partitions* (which denotes that multiple partitions can be listed) lists the RAID identifiers to add to the RAID array.

  Important

  On IBM Power Systems, if a RAID device has been prepared and has not been reformatted during the installation, ensure that the RAID metadata version is 0.90 if you intend to put the /boot and PReP partitions on the RAID device.

  The default Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 mdadm metadata version is not supported for the boot device.
  For a detailed example of raid in action, see Section 27.4.1, “Advanced Partitioning Example”.
• --level= - RAID level to use (0, 1, 4, 5, 6, or 10). See Section 8.14.4.2, “Create Software RAID” for information about various available RAID levels.
• --device= - Name of the RAID device to use - for example, --device=root.

  Important

  Do not use mdraid names in the form of md0 - these names are not guaranteed to be persistent. Instead, use meaningful names such as root or swap. Using meaningful names creates a symbolic link from /dev/md/name to whichever /dev/mdX node is assigned to the array.

  If you have an old (v0.90 metadata) array that you cannot assign a name to, you can specify the array by a filesystem label or UUID (for example, --device=rhel7-root --label=rhel7-root).
• --chunksize= - Sets the chunk size of a RAID storage in KiB. In certain situations, using a different chunk size than the default (512 Kib) can improve the performance of the RAID.
• --spares= - Specifies the number of spare drives allocated for the RAID array. Spare drives are used to rebuild the array in case of drive failure.
• --fsprofile= - Specifies a usage type to be passed to the program that makes a filesystem on this partition. A usage type defines a variety of tuning parameters to be used when making a filesystem. For this option to work, the filesystem must support the concept of usage types and there must be a configuration file that lists valid types. For ext2, ext3, and ext4, this configuration file is /etc/mke2fs.conf.
• --fstype= - Sets the file system type for the RAID array. Valid values are xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, swap, and vfat.
• --fsoptions= - Specifies a free form string of options to be used when mounting the filesystem. This string will be copied into the /etc/fstab file of the installed system and should be enclosed in quotes.
• --mkfsoptions= - Specifies additional parameters to be passed to the program that makes a filesystem on this partition. No processing is done on the list of arguments, so they must be supplied in a format that can be passed directly to the mkfs program. This means multiple options should be comma-separated or surrounded by double quotes, depending on the filesystem.
• --label= - Specify the label to give to the filesystem to be made. If the given label is already in use by another filesystem, a new label will be created.
• --noformat - Use an existing RAID device and do not format the RAID array.
• --useexisting - Use an existing RAID device and reformat it.
• --encrypted - Specifies that this RAID device should be encrypted, using the passphrase provided in the --passphrase option. If you do not specify a passphrase, Anaconda uses the default, system-wide passphrase set with the autopart --passphrase command, or stops the installation and prompts you to provide a passphrase if no default is set.

  Note

  When encrypting one or more partitions, Anaconda attempts to gather 256 bits of entropy to ensure the partitions are encrypted securely. Gathering entropy can take some time - the process will stop after a maximum of 10 minutes, regardless of whether sufficient entropy has been gathered.

  The process can be sped up by interacting with the installation system (typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse). If you are installing in a virtual machine, you can also attach a virtio-rng device (a virtual random number generator) to the guest as described in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Virtualization Deployment and Administration Guide.
• --cipher= - Specifies which type of encryption will be used if the Anaconda default aes-xts-plain64 is not satisfactory. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; by itself it has no effect. Available types of encryption are listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide, but Red Hat strongly recommends using either aes-xts-plain64 or aes-cbc-essiv:sha256.
• --passphrase= - Specifies the passphrase to use when encrypting this RAID device. You must use this option together with the --encrypted option; by itself it has no effect.
• --escrowcert=URL_of_X.509_certificate - Store the data encryption key for this device in a file in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate from the URL specified with URL_of_X.509_certificate. This option is only meaningful if --encrypted is specified.
• --backuppassphrase - Add a randomly-generated passphrase to this device. Store the passphrase in a file in /root, encrypted using the X.509 certificate specified with --escrowcert. This option is only meaningful if --escrowcert is specified.

The following example shows how to create a RAID level 1 partition for /, and a RAID level 5 for /home, assuming there are three SCSI disks on the system. It also creates three swap partitions, one on each drive.

Example 27.4. Using the raid Kickstart command

part raid.01 --size=6000 --ondisk=sda
part raid.02 --size=6000 --ondisk=sdb
part raid.03 --size=6000 --ondisk=sdc

part swap --size=512 --ondisk=sda
part swap --size=512 --ondisk=sdb
part swap --size=512 --ondisk=sdc

part raid.11 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sda
part raid.12 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sdb
part raid.13 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sdc

raid / --level=1 --device=rhel7-root --label=rhel7-root raid.01 raid.02 raid.03
raid /home --level=5 --device=rhel7-home --label=rhel7-home raid.11 raid.12 raid.13

realm (optional)

Join an Active Directory or IPA domain. For more information about this command, see the join section of the realm(8) man page.

realm join [options] domain

• --computer-ou=OU= - Provide the distinguished name of an organizational unit in order to create the computer account. The exact format of the distinguished name depends on the client software and membership software. The root DSE portion of the distinguished name can usually be left out.
• --no-password - Join automatically without a password.
• --one-time-password= - Join using a one-time password. This is not possible with all types of realm.
• --client-software= - Only join realms which can run this client software. Valid values include sssd and winbind. Not all realms support all values. By default, the client software is chosen automatically.
• --server-software= - Only join realms which can run this server software. Possible values include active-directory or freeipa.
• --membership-software= - Use this software when joining the realm. Valid values include samba and adcli. Not all realms support all values. By default, the membership software is chosen automatically.

reboot (optional)

Reboot after the installation is successfully completed (no arguments). Normally, Kickstart displays a message and waits for the user to press a key before rebooting.

The reboot option is equivalent to the shutdown -r command.

Specify reboot to automate installation fully when installing in command line mode on IBM Z.

For other completion methods, see the halt, poweroff, and shutdown Kickstart options.

The halt option is the default completion method if no other methods are explicitly specified in the Kickstart file.

Note

Use of the reboot option might result in an endless installation loop, depending on the installation media and method.

• --eject - Attempt to eject the bootable media (DVD, USB, or other media) before rebooting.
• --kexec - Uses the kexec system call instead of performing a full reboot, which immediately loads the installed system into memory, bypassing the hardware initialization normally performed by the BIOS or firmware.

  Important

  Due to the complexities involved with booting systems using kexec, it cannot be explicitly tested and guaranteed to function in every situation.

  When kexec is used, device registers (which would normally be cleared during a full system reboot) might stay filled with data, which could potentially create issues for some device drivers.

repo (optional)

Configures additional yum repositories that can be used as sources for package installation. You can add multiple repo lines.

repo --name=repoid [--baseurl=<url>|--mirrorlist=url] [options]

• --name= - The repository id. This option is required. If a repository has a name which conflicts with another previously added repository, it is ignored. Because the installation program uses a list of preset repositories, this means that you cannot add repositories with the same names as the preset ones.
• --baseurl= - The URL to the repository. The variables that can be used in yum repo config files are not supported here. This option cannot be used together with the --mirrorlist option in the same repository definition.
• --mirrorlist= - The URL pointing at a list of mirrors for the repository. The variables that can be used in yum repository configuration files are not supported here. This option cannot be used together with the --baseurl option in the same repository definition.
• --install - Save the provided repository configuration on the installed system in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory. Without using this option, a repository configured in a Kickstart file will only be available during the installation process, not on the installed system.
• --cost= - An integer value to assign a cost to this repository. If multiple repositories provide the same packages, this number is used to prioritize which repository will be used before another. Repositories with a lower cost take priority over repositories with higher cost.
• --excludepkgs= - A comma-separated list of package names that must not be pulled from this repository. This is useful if multiple repositories provide the same package and you want to make sure it comes from a particular repository. Both full package names (such as publican) and globs (such as gnome-*) are accepted.
• --includepkgs= - A comma-separated list of package names and globs that must be pulled from this repository. This is useful if multiple repositories provide the same package and you want to make sure it comes from this repository.
• --proxy=[protocol://][username[:password]@]host[:port] - Specify an HTTP/HTTPS/FTP proxy to use just for this repository. This setting does not affect any other repositories, nor how the install.img is fetched on HTTP installations.
• --ignoregroups=true - This option is used when composing installation trees and has no effect on the installation process itself. It tells the compose tools to not look at the package group information when mirroring trees so as to avoid mirroring large amounts of unnecessary data.
• --noverifyssl - Disable SSL verification when connecting to an HTTPS server.

Important

Repositories used for installation must be stable. The installation can fail if a repository is modified before the installation concludes.

rescue (optional)

Automatically enters the installation program's rescue mode. This gives you a chance to repair the system in case of any problems.

rescue [--nomount|--romount]

• --nomount or --romount - Controls how the installed system is mounted in the rescue environment. By default, the installation program finds your system and mount it in read-write mode, telling you where it has performed this mount. You can optionally select to not mount anything (the --nomount option) or mount in read-only mode (the --romount option). Only one of these two options can be used.

reqpart (optional)

Automatically creates partitions required by your hardware platform. These include a /boot/efi partition for systems with UEFI firmware, a biosboot partition for systems with BIOS firmware and GPT, and a PRePBoot partition for IBM Power Systems.

reqpart [--add-boot]

• --add-boot - Creates a separate /boot partition in addition to the platform-specific partition created by the base command.

Note

This command cannot be used toegether with autopart, because autopart does everything the reqpart command does and, in addition, creates other partitions or logical volumes such as / and swap. In contrast with autopart, this command only creates platform-specific partitions and leaves the rest of the drive empty, allowing you to create a custom layout.

rootpw (required)

Sets the system's root password to the password argument.

rootpw [--iscrypted|--plaintext] [--lock] password

• --iscrypted - If this option is present, the password argument is assumed to already be encrypted. This option is mutually exclusive with --plaintext. To create an encrypted password, you can use python:

  $ python -c 'import crypt,getpass;pw=getpass.getpass();print(crypt.crypt(pw) if (pw==getpass.getpass("Confirm: ")) else exit())'

  This generates a sha512 crypt-compatible hash of your password using a random salt.
• --plaintext - If this option is present, the password argument is assumed to be in plain text. This option is mutually exclusive with --iscrypted.
• --lock - If this option is present, the root account is locked by default. This means that the root user will not be able to log in from the console. This option will also disable the Root Password screens in both the graphical and text-based manual installation.

selinux (optional)

Sets the state of SELinux on the installed system. The default SELinux policy is enforcing.

selinux [--disabled|--enforcing|--permissive]

• --enforcing - Enables SELinux with the default targeted policy being enforcing.
• --permissive - Outputs warnings based on the SELinux policy, but does not actually enforce the policy.
• --disabled - Disables SELinux completely on the system.

For more information regarding SELinux, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 SELinux User's and Administrator's Guide.

services (optional)

Modifies the default set of services that will run under the default systemd target. The list of disabled services is processed before the list of enabled services. Therefore, if a service appears on both lists, it will be enabled.

services [--disabled=list] [--enabled=list]

• --disabled= - Disable the services given in the comma separated list.
• --enabled= - Enable the services given in the comma separated list.

Important

Do not include spaces in the list of services. If you do, Kickstart will enable or disable only the services up to the first space. For example:

services --disabled=auditd, cups,smartd, nfslock

disables only the auditd service. To disable all four services, this entry should include no spaces:

services --disabled=auditd,cups,smartd,nfslock

shutdown (optional)

Shut down the system after the installation has successfully completed. During a Kickstart installation, if no completion method is specified, the halt command is used.

The shutdown Kickstart option is equivalent to the shutdown command.

For other completion methods, see the halt, poweroff, and reboot Kickstart options.

skipx (optional)

If present, X is not configured on the installed system.

Important

If you install a display manager among your package selection options, this package creates an X configuration, and the installed system defaults to graphical.target. The effect of the skipx option is overridden.

snapshot (optional)

Using the snapshot command, you can create LVM thin volume snapshots during the installation process. This enables you to back up a logical volume before or after the installation.

To create multiple snapshots, add the snaphost Kickstart command multiple times.

snapshots vg_name/lv_name --name=snapshot_name --when=pre-install|post-install

• vg_name/lv_name - Sets the name of the volume group and logical volume to create the snapshot from.
• --name=snapshot_name - Sets the name of the snapshot. This name must be unique within the volume group.
• --when=pre-install|post-install - Sets if the snapshot is created before the installation begins or after the installation is completed.

sshpw (optional)

During the installation, you can interact with the installation program and monitor its progress over an SSH connection. Use the sshpw command to create temporary accounts through which to log on. Each instance of the command creates a separate account that exists only in the installation environment. These accounts are not transferred to the installed system.

sshpw --username=name password [--iscrypted|--plaintext] [--lock]

• --username - Provides the name of the user. This option is required.
• --iscrypted - If this option is present, the password argument is assumed to already be encrypted. This option is mutually exclusive with --plaintext. To create an encrypted password, you can use python:

  $ python -c 'import crypt,getpass;pw=getpass.getpass();print(crypt.crypt(pw) if (pw==getpass.getpass("Confirm: ")) else exit())'

  This generates a sha512 crypt-compatible hash of your password using a random salt.
• --plaintext - If this option is present, the password argument is assumed to be in plain text. This option is mutually exclusive with --iscrypted
• --lock - If this option is present, this account is locked by default. This means that the user will not be able to log in from the console.
• --ssh - If this is option is present, then the password string is interpreted as an ssh key value.

Important

By default, the ssh server is not started during the installation. To make ssh available during the installation, boot the system with the kernel boot option inst.sshd. See Console, Environment and Display Options for details.

Note

If you want to disable root ssh access, while allowing another user ssh access, use the following:

sshpw --username=example_username example_password --plaintext
sshpw --username=root example_password --lock

To simply disable root ssh access, use the following:

sshpw --username=root example_password --lock

text (optional)

Perform the Kickstart installation in text mode. Kickstart installations are performed in graphical mode by default.

Important

For a fully automatic installation, you must either specify one of the available modes (graphical, text, or cmdline) in the Kickstart file, or you must use the console= boot option as described in Console, Environment and Display Options. If no mode is specified, the system will prompt you to choose one before continuing.

timezone (required)

Sets the system time zone to timezone.

timezone timezone [options]

• --utc - If present, the system assumes the hardware clock is set to UTC (Greenwich Mean) time.
• --nontp - Disable the NTP service automatic starting.
• --ntpservers= - Specify a list of NTP servers to be used as a comma-separated list without spaces.

Starting with Red Hat Entrerprise Linux 7.5, time zone names are validated using the pytz.all_timezones list, provided by the pytz package. In previous releases, the names were validated against pytz.common_timezones, which is a subset of the currently used list. Note that the graphical and text mode interfaces still use the more restricted pytz.common_timezones list; you must use a Kickstart file to use additional time zone definitions.

unsupported_hardware (optional)

Tells the installation program to suppress the Unsupported Hardware Detected alert. If this command is not included and unsupported hardware is detected, the installation stalls at this alert.

user (optional)

Creates a new user on the system.

user --name=username [options]

• --name= - Provides the name of the user. This option is required.
• --gecos= - Provides the GECOS information for the user. This is a string of various system-specific fields separated by a comma. It is frequently used to specify the user's full name, office number, and so on. See the passwd(5) man page for more details.
• --groups= - In addition to the default group, a comma separated list of group names the user should belong to. The groups must exist before the user account is created. See the group command.
• --homedir= - The home directory for the user. If not provided, this defaults to /home/username.
• --lock - If this option is present, this account is locked by default. This means that the user will not be able to log in from the console. This option will also disable the Create User screens in both the graphical and text-based manual installation.
• --password= - The new user's password. If not provided, the account will be locked by default.
• --iscrypted - If this option is present, the password argument is assumed to already be encrypted. This option is mutually exclusive with --plaintext. To create an encrypted password, you can use python:

  $ python -c 'import crypt,getpass;pw=getpass.getpass();print(crypt.crypt(pw) if (pw==getpass.getpass("Confirm: ")) else exit())'

  This generates a sha512 crypt-compatible hash of your password using a random salt.
• --plaintext - If this option is present, the password argument is assumed to be in plain text. This option is mutually exclusive with --iscrypted
• --shell= - The user's login shell. If not provided, the system default is used.
• --uid= - The user's UID (User ID). If not provided, this defaults to the next available non-system UID.
• --gid= - The GID (Group ID) to be used for the user's group. If not provided, this defaults to the next available non-system group ID.

  Note

  Consider using the --uid and --gid options to set IDs of regular users and their default groups at range starting at 5000 instead of 1000. That is because the range reserved for system users and groups, 0-999, might increase in the future and thus overlap with IDs of regular users.

  For changing the minimum UID and GID limits after the installation, which ensures that your chosen UID and GID ranges are applied automatically on user creation, see the Users and Groups chapter of the System Administrator's Guide.

Note

Files and directories are created with various permissions, dictated by the application used to create the file or directory. For example, the mkdir command creates directories with all permissions enabled. However, applications are prevented from granting certain permissions to newly created files, as specified by the user file-creation mask setting.

The user file-creation mask can be controlled with the umask command. The default setting of the user file-creation mask for new users is defined by the UMASK variable in the /etc/login.defs configuration file on the installed system. If unset, it defaults to 022. This means that by default when an application creates a file, it is prevented from granting write permission to users other than the owner of the file. However, this can be overridden by other settings or scripts. More information can be found in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide.

vnc (optional)

Allows the graphical installation to be viewed remotely through VNC. This method is usually preferred over text mode, as there are some size and language limitations in text installations. With no additional options, this command starts a VNC server on the installation system with no password and displays the details required to connect to it.

vnc [--host=host_name] [--port=port] [--password=password]

• --host= - Connect to the VNC viewer process listening on the given host name.
• --port= - Provide a port that the remote VNC viewer process is listening on. If not provided, Anaconda uses the VNC default port of 5900.
• --password= - Set a password which must be provided to connect to the VNC session. This is optional, but recommended.

For more information about VNC installations, including instructions on how to connect to the installation system, see Chapter 25, Using VNC.

volgroup (optional)

Creates a Logical Volume Management (LVM) group.

volgroup name partition [options]

Important

Do not use the dash (-) character in logical volume and volume group names when installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux using Kickstart. If this character is used, the installation finishes normally, but the /dev/mapper/ directory will list these volumes and volume groups with every dash doubled. For example, a volume group named volgrp-01 containing a logical volume named logvol-01 will be listed as /dev/mapper/volgrp--01-logvol--01.

This limitation only applies to newly created logical volume and volume group names. If you are reusing existing ones using the --noformat option, their names will not be changed.

For a detailed partitioning example including volgroup, see Section 27.4.1, “Advanced Partitioning Example”.

The options are as follows:

• --noformat - Use an existing volume group and do not format it.
• --useexisting - Use an existing volume group and reformat it. If you use this option, do not specify a partition. For example:

  volgroup rhel00 --useexisting --noformat

• --pesize= - Set the size of the volume group's physical extents in KiB. The default value is 4096 (4 MiB), and the minimum value is 1024 (1 MiB).
• --reserved-space= - Specify an amount of space to leave unused in a volume group in MiB. Applicable only to newly created volume groups.
• --reserved-percent= - Specify a percentage of total volume group space to leave unused. Applicable only to newly created volume groups.

Create the partition first, then create the logical volume group, and then create the logical volume. For example:

part pv.01 --size 10000
volgroup volgrp pv.01 
logvol / --vgname=volgrp --size=2000 --name=root

xconfig (optional)

Configures the X Window System. If you install the X Window System with a Kickstart file that does not include the xconfig command, you must provide the X configuration manually during installation.

Do not use this command in a Kickstart file that does not install the X Window System.

• --defaultdesktop= - Specify either GNOME or KDE to set the default desktop (assumes that the chosen environment, either the GNOME Desktop Environment or the KDE Desktop Environment, has been installed in the %packages section).

  Important

  It is currently not possible to specify KDE as your default desktop environment using this option. This is a known issue. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1125833 for a workaround. The workaround can be used as a Kickstart post-installation script as described in Section 27.3.5, “Post-installation Script”.
• --startxonboot - Use a graphical login on the installed system.

zerombr (optional)

The zerombr initializes any invalid partition tables that are found on disks and destroys all of the contents of disks with invalid partition tables. This command is required when performing an installation on an IBM Z system with unformatted Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) disks, otherwise the unformatted disks are not formatted and used during the installation.

Warning

On IBM Z, if zerombr is specified, any Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) visible to the installation program which is not already low-level formatted is automatically low-level formatted with dasdfmt. The command also prevents user choice during interactive installations.

If zerombr is not specified and there is at least one unformatted DASD visible to the installation program, a non-interactive Kickstart installation exits unsuccessfully.

If zerombr is not specified and there is at least one unformatted DASD visible to the installation program, an interactive installation exits if the user does not agree to format all visible and unformatted DASDs. To circumvent this, only activate those DASDs that you will use during installation. You can always add more DASDs after installation is complete.

zfcp (optional)

Define a Fibre channel device. This option only applies on IBM Z. All of the options described below must be specified.

zfcp --devnum=devnum --wwpn=wwpn --fcplun=lun

• --devnum - The device number (zFCP adapter device bus ID).
• --wwpn - The device's World Wide Port Name (WWPN). Takes the form of a 16-digit number, preceded by 0x.
• --fcplun - The device's Logical Unit Number (LUN). Takes the form of a 16-digit number, preceded by 0x.

For example:

zfcp --devnum=0.0.4000 --wwpn=0x5005076300C213e9 --fcplun=0x5022000000000000

%include (optional)

Use the %include /path/to/file command to include the contents of another file in the Kickstart file as though the contents were at the location of the %include command in the Kickstart file.

Specifying an Environment

In addition to groups, you specify an entire environment to be installed:

%packages
@^Infrastructure Server
%end

This command installs all packages which are part of the Infrastracture Server environment. All available environments are described in the repodata/*-comps-variant.architecture.xml file on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Installation DVD. Only a single environment can be specified in the Kickstart file.

Specifying Groups

Specify groups, one entry to a line, starting with an @ symbol, and then the full group name or group id as given in the *-comps-variant.architecture.xml file. For example:

%packages
@X Window System
@Desktop
@Sound and Video
%end

The Core group is always selected - it is not necessary to specify it in the %packages section.

The *-comps-variant.architecture.xml file also defines groups called Conflicts (variant) for each variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This group contains all packages which are known to cause file conflicts, and is intended to be excluded.

Specifying Individual Packages

Specify individual packages by name, one entry to a line. You can use the asterisk character (*) as a wildcard in package names. For example:

%packages
sqlite
curl
aspell
docbook*
%end

The docbook* entry includes the packages docbook-dtds, docbook-simple, docbook-slides and others that match the pattern represented with the wildcard.

Excluding Environments, Groups, or Packages

Use a leading dash (-) to specify packages or groups to exclude from the installation. For example:

%packages
-@Graphical Internet
-autofs
-ipa*fonts
%end

Common Package Selection Options

%packages --multilib --ignoremissing

--default

Install the default set of packages. This corresponds to the package set which would be installed if no other selections were made in the Package Selection screen during an interactive installation.

--excludedocs

Do not install any documentation contained within packages. In most cases, this excludes any files normally installed in the /usr/share/doc directory, but the specific files to be excluded depend on individual packages.

--ignoremissing

Ignore any packages, groups and environments missing in the installation source, instead of halting the installation to ask if the installation should be aborted or continued.

--instLangs=

Specify a list of languages to install. Note that this is different from package group level selections. This option does not describe which package groups should be installed; instead, it sets RPM macros controlling which translation files from individual packages should be installed.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages use the ISO 639 language codes. Running the locale -a command provides you with a comprehensive list of language codes applicable with %packages --instLangs= arguments.

Example 27.5. Specifying a list of languages to install

• A colon separated list of language codes installs specified locales:

  %packages --instLangs=es:fr:it

• Omitting the --instLangs= option installs all locales:

  %packages

• Omitting language codes installs no locales:

  %packages --instLangs=

--multilib

Configure the installed system for multilib packages, to allow installing 32-bit packages on a 64-bit system, and install packages specified in this section as such.

Normally, on an AMD64 and Intel 64 system, you can install only the x86_64 and the noarch packages. However, with the --multilib option, you can automatically install the 32-bit AMD and the i686 Intel system packages available, if any.

This only applies to packages explicitly specified in the %packages section. Packages which are only being installed as dependencies without being specified in the Kickstart file are only installed in architecture versions in which they are needed, even if they are available for more architectures.

This option works both during the installation and on the running system using the `yum` command.

--nocore

Disables installation of the @Core package group which is otherwise always installed by default. Disabling the @Core package group with --nocore should be only used for creating lightweight containers; installing a desktop or server system with --nocore will result in an unusable system.

Note

• Using -@Core to exclude packages in the @Core package group does not work. The only way to exclude the @Core package group is with the --nocore option.
• The @Core package group is defined as a minimal set of packages needed for installing a working system. It is not related in any way to core packages as defined in the Package Manifest and Scope of Coverage Details.

--retries=

Sets the number of times Yum will attempt to download packages (retries). The default value is 10. This option only applies during the installation, and will not affect Yum configuration on the installed system.

--timeout=

Sets the Yum timeout in seconds. The default value is 30. This option only applies during the installation, and will not affect Yum configuration on the installed system.

Options for Specific Package Groups

%packages
@Graphical Internet --optional
%end

--nodefaults

Only install the group's mandatory packages, not the default selections.

--optional

Install packages marked as optional in the group definition in the *-comps-variant.architecture.xml file, in addition to installing the default selections.

Note that some package groups, such as Scientific Support, do not have any mandatory or default packages specified - only optional packages. In this case the --optional option must always be used, otherwise no packages from this group will be installed.

--interpreter=

Allows you to specify a different scripting language, such as Python. Any scripting language available on the system can be used; in most cases, these are /usr/bin/sh, /usr/bin/bash, and /usr/bin/python.

--erroronfail

Display an error and halt the installation if the script fails. The error message will direct you to where the cause of the failure is logged.

--log=

Logs the script's output into the specified log file. For example:

%pre --log=/mnt/sysimage/root/ks-pre.log

--interpreter=

Allows you to specify a different scripting language, such as Python. For example:

%post --interpreter=/usr/bin/python

Any scripting language available on the system can be used; in most cases, these are /usr/bin/sh, /usr/bin/bash, and /usr/bin/python.

--nochroot

Allows you to specify commands that you would like to run outside of the chroot environment.

The following example copies the file /etc/resolv.conf to the file system that was just installed.

%post --nochroot
cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/sysimage/etc/resolv.conf
%end

--erroronfail

Display an error and halt the installation if the script fails. The error message will direct you to where the cause of the failure is logged.

--log=

Logs the script's output into the specified log file. Note that the path of the log file must take into account whether or not you use the --nochroot option. For example, without --nochroot:

%post --log=/root/ks-post.log

with --nochroot:

%post --nochroot --log=/mnt/sysimage/root/ks-post.log

--erroronfail

Display an error and halt the installation if the script fails. The error message will direct you to where the cause of the failure is logged.

--interpreter=

Allows you to specify a different scripting language, such as Python. For example:

%post --interpreter=/usr/bin/python

Any scripting language available on the system can be used; in most cases, these are /usr/bin/sh, /usr/bin/bash, and /usr/bin/python.

--log=

Logs the script's output into the specified log file.