Re: NFS installation

[E Nigma <enigma os2 ami com au>]

On Saturday 29 December 2001 11:52, you wrote:
> 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

Probably the one Aconda leaves there's good enough.



> 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. 


You probably want to do an update, not an install. Ideally you will practice 
with a local clone of the remote system - you can run mkkickstart there to 
get the 6.2 kickstart file, then use it locally to create the clone.


For reference, I can do an install of RHL 7.2 on a Pentium II 233 over 100 
Mbit Ethernet in 5-20 minutes depending on software configuration. Server 
configurations are at the faster end, KDE+ Gnome around 20.

I've not tried updating.

> 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

Snail mail works well.

You could also create a bootable CD with your customised ks configuration on 
it.

Be sure you have all the drivers you need on the boot disk. You don't really 
want the people on-site doing anything more than necessary. An advantage to 
the bootable CD is that you get to play with a 2.8 Mbyte floppy image if you 
want.


The CD doesn't HAVE to be an install CD - it might be a good vehicle for 
getting any updates or user mods to the system.


> 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.)


When you start playing with firewall rules, it's a good idea to 
echo fw off | at now +5 minutes

where "fw off" is a script invocation to open the system wide, or at least 
wide enough you can get back in.

When the rules work, then you stop flushing them.


When I first started playiing with firewall rules, I found it necessary to 
use the LRB to recover.






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Happy new year all. 

Issued at 4:50am WST on Saturday the 29th of December 2001...
Tuesday   :  Fine.                               Min: 16  Max: 31