Note: This article uses Enterprise Linux 6. If you are looking for Enterprise Linux 7, check out the new edition!
A few days ago, I started my Puppet series. I described how to manually build a brand new golden image or how to add puppet to an existing image. I also said that I hoped everyone had that process automated, for example with kickstart. If you don’t have an automated process in place, I’ll show you how to get started with kickstart.
Kickstart is a tool for creating repeatable, but customized, installations. There is lots of documentation available (Fedora and RHEL sites, for example). There are a few methods to make a kickstart file available, but we’re going to focus on using the network. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
- vCenter
- A DHCP server in the network where the VM will be deployed.
- Firewall rules and routing allowing the provisioned VM to communicate with the web server.
- A web server to host the kickstart file.
- A CentOS netinstall ISO in your vSphere infrastructure, download from a mirror.
- Ability to create VMs in your vSphere infrastructure.
rnelson0 