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30.4. Kickstart Options

The following options can be placed in a kickstart file. If you prefer to use a graphical interface for creating your kickstart file, use the Kickstart Configurator application. Refer to Chapter 31, Kickstart Configurator for details.

Note

If the option is followed by an equals mark (=), a value must be specified after it. In the example commands, options in brackets ([]) are optional arguments for the command.
autopart (optional)
ignoredisk (optional)
ignoredisk --drives=drive1,drive2,...
autostep (optional)
auth or authconfig (required)
bootloader (required)
clearpart (optional)
cmdline (optional)
device (optional)
device <type> <moduleName> --opts=<options>
driverdisk (optional)
driverdisk <partition> [--type=<fstype>]
driverdisk --source=ftp://path/to/dd.img
driverdisk --source=http://path/to/dd.img
driverdisk --source=nfs:host:/path/to/img
firewall (optional)
firewall --enabled|--disabled [--trust=] <device> [--port=]
firstboot (optional)
halt (optional)
graphical (optional)
install (optional)
  • cdrom — Install from the first CD-ROM drive on the system.
  • harddrive — Install from a Red Hat installation tree on a local drive, which must be either vfat or ext2.
    • --biospart=
      BIOS partition to install from (such as 82).
    • --partition=
      Partition to install from (such as sdb2).
    • --dir=
      Directory containing the variant directory of the installation tree.
    For example:
    harddrive --partition=hdb2 --dir=/tmp/install-tree
    
  • nfs — Install from the NFS server specified.
    • --server=
      Server from which to install (hostname or IP).
    • --dir=
      Directory containing the variant directory of the installation tree.
    • --opts=
      Mount options to use for mounting the NFS export. (optional)
    For example:
    nfs --server=nfsserver.example.com --dir=/tmp/install-tree
    
  • url — Install from an installation tree on a remote server via FTP or HTTP.
    For example:
    url --url http://<server>/<dir>
    
    or:
    url --url ftp://<username>:<password>@<server>/<dir>
    
interactive (optional)
iscsi (optional)
key (optional)
keyboard (required)
be-latin1, bg, br-abnt2, cf, cz-lat2, cz-us-qwertz, de, de-latin1, 
de-latin1-nodeadkeys, dk, dk-latin1, dvorak, es, et, fi, fi-latin1, 
fr, fr-latin0, fr-latin1, fr-pc, fr_CH, fr_CH-latin1, gr, hu, hu101, 
is-latin1, it, it-ibm, it2, jp106, la-latin1, mk-utf, no, no-latin1, 
pl, pt-latin1, ro_win, ru, ru-cp1251, ru-ms, ru1, ru2,  ru_win, 
se-latin1, sg, sg-latin1, sk-qwerty, slovene, speakup,  speakup-lt, 
sv-latin1, sg, sg-latin1, sk-querty, slovene, trq, ua,  uk, us, us-acentos
lang (required)
lang en_US
langsupport (deprecated)
@french-support
logvol (optional)
logvol <mntpoint> --vgname=<name> --size=<size> --name=<name> <options>
part pv.01 --size 3000 
volgroup myvg pv.01
logvol / --vgname=myvg --size=2000 --name=rootvol
logging (optional)
mediacheck (optional)
monitor (optional)
mouse (deprecated)
network (optional)
multipath (optional)
part or partition (required for installs, ignored for upgrades)
  • <mntpoint> — The <mntpoint> is where the partition is mounted and must be of one of the following forms:
    • /<path>
      For example, /, /usr, /home
    • swap
      The partition is used as swap space.
      To determine the size of the swap partition automatically, use the --recommended option:
      swap --recommended
      
      The size of the automatically-generated swap partition is computed using the following logic:
      • If the system memory is less than 128MB, the size of the swap partition will be between 96MB and 192MB.
      • If the system memory is higher than 2GB, the size of the swap partition will be a between 1GB and 2GB plus system memory. For example, a system with 4GB of system memory will have a swap partition sized between 1GB and 6GB.
      • If the system memory is between 128MB and 2GB, the size of the swap partition will be between the system memory size and twice the amount of system memory. For example, a system with 1GB of system memory will have a swap partition sized between 1GB and 2GB.
    • raid.<id>
      The partition is used for software RAID (refer to raid).
    • pv.<id>
      The partition is used for LVM (refer to logvol).
  • --size= — The minimum partition size in megabytes. Specify an integer value here such as 500. Do not append the number with MB.
  • --grow — Tells the partition to grow to fill available space (if any), or up to the maximum size setting.

    Note

    If you use --grow= without setting --maxsize= on a swap partition, Anaconda will limit the maximum size of the swap partition. For systems that have less than 2GB of physical memory, the imposed limit is twice the amount of physical memory. For systems with more than 2GB, the imposed limit is the size of physical memory plus 2GB.
  • --maxsize= — The maximum partition size in megabytes when the partition is set to grow. Specify an integer value here, and do not append the number with MB.
  • --noformat — Tells the installation program not to format the partition, for use with the --onpart command.
  • --onpart= or --usepart= — Put the partition on the already existing device. For example:
    partition /home --onpart=hda1
    
    puts /home on /dev/hda1, which must already exist.
  • --ondisk= or --ondrive= — Forces the partition to be created on a particular disk. For example, --ondisk=sdb puts the partition on the second SCSI disk on the system.
  • --asprimary — Forces automatic allocation of the partition as a primary partition, or the partitioning fails.
  • --type= (replaced by fstype) — This option is no longer available. Use fstype.
  • --fstype= — Sets the file system type for the partition. Valid values are ext2, ext3, swap, and vfat.
  • --start= — Specifies the starting cylinder for the partition. It requires that a drive be specified with --ondisk= or ondrive=. It also requires that the ending cylinder be specified with --end= or the partition size be specified with --size=.
  • --end= — Specifies the ending cylinder for the partition. It requires that the starting cylinder be specified with --start=.
  • --bytes-per-inode= — Specifies the size of inodes on the filesystem to be made on the partition. Not all filesystems support this option, so it is silently ignored for those cases.
  • --recommended — Determine the size of the partition automatically.
  • --onbiosdisk — Forces the partition to be created on a particular disk as discovered by the BIOS.

Note

If partitioning fails for any reason, diagnostic messages appear on virtual console 3.
poweroff (optional)
raid (optional)
raid <mntpoint> --level=<level> --device=<mddevice> <partitions*>
part raid.01 --size=60 --ondisk=sda
part raid.02 --size=60 --ondisk=sdb 
part raid.03 --size=60 --ondisk=sdc
part swap --size=128 --ondisk=sda  
part swap --size=128 --ondisk=sdb  
part swap --size=128 --ondisk=sdc
part raid.11 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sda  
part raid.12 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sdb  
part raid.13 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sdc
raid / --level=1 --device=md0 raid.01 raid.02 raid.03  
raid /usr --level=5 --device=md1 raid.11 raid.12 raid.13
reboot (optional)
repo (optional)
repo --name=<repoid> [--baseurl=<url>| --mirrorlist=<url>]
rootpw (required)
rootpw [--iscrypted] <password>
selinux (optional)
selinux [--disabled|--enforcing|--permissive]
services (optional)
shutdown (optional)
skipx (optional)
text (optional)
timezone (required)
timezone [--utc] <timezone>
upgrade (optional)
user (optional)
user --name=<username> [--groups=<list>] [--homedir=<homedir>] [--password=<password>] [--iscrypted] [--shell=<shell>] [--uid=<uid>]
vnc (optional)
vnc [--host=<hostname>] [--port=<port>] [--password=<password>]
volgroup (optional)
volgroup <name> <partition> <options>
part pv.01 --size 3000 
volgroup myvg pv.01 
logvol / --vgname=myvg --size=2000 --name=rootvol
xconfig (optional)
zerombr (optional)
zfcp (optional)
%include (optional)
The following is a single, integrated example showing the clearpart, raid, part, volgroup, and logvol kickstart options in action:
clearpart --drives=hda,hdc --initlabel  
# Raid 1 IDE config 
part raid.11    --size 1000     --asprimary     --ondrive=hda 
part raid.12    --size 1000     --asprimary     --ondrive=hda 
part raid.13    --size 2000     --asprimary     --ondrive=hda 
part raid.14    --size 8000                     --ondrive=hda 
part raid.15    --size 1 --grow                 --ondrive=hda             
part raid.21    --size 1000     --asprimary     --ondrive=hdc 
part raid.22    --size 1000     --asprimary     --ondrive=hdc 
part raid.23    --size 2000     --asprimary     --ondrive=hdc 
part raid.24    --size 8000                     --ondrive=hdc 
part raid.25    --size 1 --grow                 --ondrive=hdc  

# You can add --spares=x  
raid /          --fstype ext3 --device md0 --level=RAID1 raid.11 raid.21 
raid /safe      --fstype ext3 --device md1 --level=RAID1 raid.12 raid.22 
raid swap       --fstype swap --device md2 --level=RAID1 raid.13 raid.23 
raid /usr       --fstype ext3 --device md3 --level=RAID1 raid.14 raid.24 
raid pv.01      --fstype ext3 --device md4 --level=RAID1 raid.15 raid.25  

# LVM configuration so that we can resize /var and /usr/local later 
volgroup sysvg pv.01     
logvol /var             --vgname=sysvg  --size=8000     --name=var 
logvol /var/freespace   --vgname=sysvg  --size=8000     --name=freespacetouse 
logvol /usr/local       --vgname=sysvg  --size=1 --grow --name=usrlocal
This advanced example implements LVM over RAID, as well as the ability to resize various directories for future growth.