Re: NFS installation

[Chris Kloiber <ckloiber redhat com>]

On Fri, 2001-12-28 at 22:23, N6REJ wrote:
> Can someone please tell me how to do an NFS installation of RedHat 7.2?  My
> server is currently located in California and has a wounded 6.2 dist.
> Thanks in advance.

It sounds to me like you don't have physical access to the system. If
that's true you may be out of luck unless you can get some assistance
from the hosting provider. 

I'm assuming the system to be installed has an NFS server with an
exported mirror of ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/7.2/en/os/i386 (and
all the subdirectories from there on). If not, you can also do it with
an ftp install from a nearby mirror site. 

>From a test machine you have physical access to, install a 7.2 box from
local media or another NFS server. Make sure you also install the rpm
package called mkkickstart. After the machine is installed run as root:
'mkkickstart > ks.cfg' to capture as many of the settings of the
currently installed system as possible. Read the kickstart docs and
modify this file as needed, and then put it on the floppy disk created
from the bootnet.img in the root direcory of the floppy and named ks.cfg
(very important). Also on the floppy, edit the syslinux.cfg and make the
default action to boot the system as 'linux ks=floppy'. Boot this floppy
and test it locally a few times to work out the bugs. You want the
install procedure to complete without asking any questions. When
satisfied, edit the ks.cfg one more time to set the correct IP, gateway,
netmask, nfs or ftp servername and path for the remote location. 

Somehow get this floppy to the hosting provider. Ideally you can dd it
back to a file, transfer it to them and they can dd it back to a floppy.
If they are linux-illiterate, the floppy image can be stuck back on
floppy using the dos program rawrite.exe found in the /dosutils
directory of the CD. Get them to boot it on the sick machine, then stand
back. When it's done they can pull the disk aut and reboot again. You
should now have a working 7.2 system. Log in via ssh and set up a
firewall asap. (If you're really good you can script a firewall and have
kiskstart install it for you. I'm not that good, but it can be done.)

Good luck.

-- 
Chris Kloiber, RHCE
Enterprise Support
Red Hat, Inc.