Steve's Solaris/Linux experiences: Oracle/Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 Kickstart Installation / without DHCP

RHEL7/OEL7 is out for few months now, with a lot of new features (Revamped Anaconda, Systemd...). But before really starting to enjoy all these nice features, let's perform some basic Automated Kickstart Installation. In this short post, I'm willing to describe just that type of Installation without relying on a DHCP Server (using Static Network Parameters). I'm also using an Installation tree and Kickstart file located on httpd servers and reachable from the System I'm installing. Enough talk! let's detailed this Kickstart Installation in the following 4 steps:

1. Make Installation Tree available on an httpd server:

We've RHEL7/OEL7 ISO Files and an httpd server (192.168.0.10) configured (with DocumentRoot being the classic /var/www/html). Mounting the ISO as loop device in the DocumentRoot is enough to have the Installation Tree available over httpd.

2. Create the Kickstart File and make it available on the httpd system:

For that, I used as template an anaconda-ks.cfg from another installed node and created the following kickstart.

#version=RHEL7
# System authorization information
auth --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512

# Use http tree for the installation
url --url=http://192.168.0.10/media_oel7u0
# Run the Setup Agent on first boot
firstboot --enable
ignoredisk --only-use=sda
# Keyboard layouts
keyboard --vckeymap=us --xlayouts='us'
# System language
lang en_US.UTF-8

# Network information
network  --bootproto=static --device=eno49 --gateway=192.168.0.1 --hostname=olnode--ip=192.168.0.20 --nameserver=192.168.0.1 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --noipv6 --activate
network  --bootproto=dhcp --device=eno50 --onboot=off --ipv6=auto
network  --bootproto=static --device=eno51 --ip=192.168.50.22 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --onboot=off --ipv6=auto
network  --bootproto=dhcp --device=eno52 --onboot=off --ipv6=auto
# Root password
rootpw --iscrypted $6$v797wiKZv7W0MK58$4drw.ys34Z4cMoR7ECwkCIbhYuY7Aoc2A3dWs3wCTTyRTt1OovohA518vsdqpEfFCKwqwfU4weCcFK6VAmdv/1
# System timezone
timezone Africa/Douala --isUtc --nontp
# System bootloader configuration
bootloader --location=mbr --boot-drive=sda
# Partition clearing information
clearpart --all --initlabel --drives=sda
# Disk partitioning information
part /boot --fstype="xfs" --ondisk=sda --size=500
part pv.26 --fstype="lvmpv" --ondisk=sda --size=254005
part /boot/efi --fstype="efi" --ondisk=sda --size=200 --fsoptions="umask=0077,shortname=winnt"
volgroup ol --pesize=4096 pv.26
logvol /var/lib/mysql  --fstype="xfs" --size=150000 --name=var_lib_mysql --vgname=ol
logvol swap  --fstype="swap" --size=64000 --name=swap --vgname=ol
logvol /home  --fstype="xfs" --size=20000 --name=home --vgname=ol
logvol /  --fstype="xfs" --size=10000 --name=root --vgname=ol
logvol /var  --fstype="xfs" --size=10000 --name=var --vgname=ol

%packages
@base
@compat-libraries
@core
@development
@file-server
@hardware-monitoring
@infiniband
@large-systems
@network-file-system-client
@performance

%end

Make this file available on http (copied under httpd DocumentRoot) and test to make sure it's reachable (i.e http://192.168.0.10/olnode.ks )

3. Start the Kickstart Installation

I'm using an UEFI system, so In order to provide the right Kickstart Parameters during the boot process, I'm selecting an installation option in the boot menu and then press either the E key ( For BIOS Systems, that'll be he Tab key). A prompt is displayed which enables to edit the boot options already defined and to add new options. In this case, I'm adding the following:

inst.ks=http://192.168.0.10/olnode.ks ip=192.168.0.20::192.168.0.1:255.255.255.0:olnode:eno49:none

inst.ks specifies the location of the kickstart file, and ip sets statics network parameters, it must be in this form: ip=ip::gateway:netmask:hostname:interface:none. Below are some screenshots taken to illustrate this process.
Note that parameters such as hostname and Interface could be empty