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Automate CentOS and RHEL installation with PXE
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Conclusions
Installing Red Hat or CentOS automatically with standard tools is neither rocket science nor a task that requires complex frameworks. If you are confident working at the console, you will have no problems whatsoever setting up the necessary components.
Combining the automation in your own setup with Anaconda so that newly installed systems become part of your automation is also useful. Although Kickstart files provide sections for arbitrary shell commands that need to be called before, during, or after the installation, in theory, even configuration files of arbitrary programs can be rolled out in this way. In practice, however, it is a good idea to leave this work to automation engineers who specialize in the task. Inventory systems such as Netbox with an API that can be queried prove to be extremely useful, even if their initial setup is often difficult and tedious.
Infos
- DRBD on CentOS: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/how-to-install-and-setup-drbd-on-centos-6/
- "Automated Monitoring with Pacemaker Resource Agents" by Martin Loschwitz, Linux Magazine , issue 139, June 2012, pg. 14, https://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2012/139/Pacemaker
- grubx64.efi: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/BaseOS/x86_64/os/EFI/BOOT/
- CentOS pxeboot files: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/BaseOS/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
- Passwords in Anaconda: https://thornelabs.net/posts/hash-roots-password-in-rhel-and-centos-kickstart-profiles.html
- Anaconda installs: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/rawhide/install-guide/install/Installing_Using_Anaconda/
- Netbox: https://www.admin-magazine.com/content/search?SearchText=Netbox&x=0&y=0
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