trying to setup for a remote installation

[dan]

bruce wrote:
> phill....
> 
> thanks for the followup/being patient... initially, i'd like to be able to
> walk through the entire process from a remote system. thus the need for/use
> of vnc.
> 
> i was hoping that i could somehow reboot the remote server, and have vnc pop
> up on my server/vnc window, allowing me to select the various attributes of
> the remote Fedora install on the remote machine...
> 
> this would allow me to be able to do a manual remote install of Fedora,
> using VNc..
> 
> the reason i wanted to do this, is to allow me to check out the drive
> configuration, and to determine what apps i wanted to select at the
> beginning...
> 
> if this isn't possible, then i guess the next step would be to create a
> kickstart file, and somehow do the install that way.
> 
> the machine wil be booting off a harddrive. once i get the machine up, i
> could then always use yum to keep it updated...
> 
> 
> thanks
> 
> -bruce
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:kickstart-list-bounces at redhat.com]On Behalf Of Philip Rowlands
> Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 5:27 PM
> To: Discussion list about Kickstart
> Subject: RE: trying to setup for a remote installation
> 
> 
> On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, bruce wrote:
> 
> 
>>in order to do a remote FC3 installation, using vnc, it appears that i need
>>to create a floppy bootdisk, copy a kickstart file to it, place the FC3
> 
> ISOs
> 
>>on a HTTP server, and add the required VNC commands to the bootloader of
> 
> the
> 
>>kickstart file.
> 
> 
> Hi Bruce,
> 
> I think I may have clouded rather than clarified the kickstart process:
> 
> - Do you want to automate the installation (i.e. launch it and
> walk away), or go through the prompts (disk layout, package
> selection) manually?
> 
> Kickstart files are necessary only in the first case; kickstart is not
> needed simply to perform a remote install.
> 
> - How will the machine be booted up?
> 
> Floppy images are severely lacking when it comes to network
> installation; you'd have to mess around with driver disks, which isn't
> much fun. CD would be simplest; PXE (i.e. boot entirely from the
> network) is another option, but requires DHCP, TFTP, HTTP/NFS servers.
> 
> - What's the purpose of the VNC invocation?
> 
> Is the machine in an inaccessible rack/office somewhere? Does the bootup
> to install have to work entirely "hands-off", or is there someone to
> insert a floppy/CD?
> 
> To put a kickstart file on the harddisk, this is the syntax (from
> kickstart-docs.txt):
>        ks=hd:<device>:/<file>
>   e.g. ks=hd:sda3:/mydir/ks.cfg
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Phil

Bruce -

Are you able to get your hands on another machine that you can test 
with, or even VMWare, from which you can load a virtual machine for 
testing?  This is a step I always take.  In fact, I've been doing 
kickstarts with varying success for ~2 years, and I've still not been 
able to muster the manhood to attempt a total remote installation such 
as the one that you're asking.

I'd highly suggest testing the remote install method on a machine which 
you can just fool around with, before going about the real thing.

Thanks
-dant