Re: [gentoo-server] Basic Boot deployment

[Justin Filoseta]

On Tuesday 05 August 2003 06:53 am, Wade Mealing wrote:

<>
>
> This same method can be used to implement a windows install by
> downloading a windows image (previously uploaded) and writing it to the
> local disk.
>
<>

As much as I dislike working with windows and have little use for its space on 
a gold server, it is important to quite a few others. On that note, it is no 
longer necessary to image the systems, there is actually a kickstart type 
install for the beast. Details on diegostart can be found 
http://www.math.gatech.edu/~dijuremo/uwi.html 

Unfortunately the requirements for the windows kickstart include samba shares 
which may not be suitable for the gold server. However, it is something to 
consider rather than imaging windows boxes.

As far as kickstart for redhat goes, I have completely unattended install 
files with post install scripts completing all of the configuration needed to 
prep the system for desktop/server use. At the moment they still require a 
custom CD to boot and choose the layout rather than utilizing a database of 
MACs and PXE. A good chunk of the work is not mine, and everything added to 
kickstarts capabilities was done in bash or perl (as my knowledge of python 
is meager at best), but if this type of thing would be any help to you Wade 
just let me know. I don't think the above setup will easily convert to 
emerge, and personally think GLIS (or derivative) is definitely the way to go 
for Gentoo, but when it comes time to add support for RH I have access to 
quite a bit of the necessary setup and code. Note, this does require a http 
server on the gold box (or a machine controlled by gold box).

I will start looking at the GLIS script to see about creating a seperate 
config file although their next milestone is pretty much dedicated to this, 
so it should be a viable option shortly.

Dreaming of the day I can bring Gentoo to my network...
Justin Filoseta