========================== Kickstart using Spacewalk: ========================== Lessons learned: ================ Useful commands: ================ Notes: ====== 03/29/15: --------- Go figure, once again, getting a simple procedure like do this, then do that, is nigh on impossible. The closest thing is https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/wiki/HowToKickstartCobbler which, I kid you not, is over 5 fucking years old. .. and is for fedora. Trying the kickstart users' guide Users' guide failed. I'm in the getting started guide, believe it or not. Chapter 3 talks about kickstarting. So, basic procedure: 1. Create a base channel. 2. Copy the installation media to a directory accessible by the spacewalk web server. /var/satellite/custom-distro/centos6 3. Push distro packages to the base channel. Do not tie it to a repo. a. Command: :: rhnpush --server localhost -c centos6_kickstart \ -d /var/ftp/pub/inst/centos6.5/Packages/ -u admin -p 3Pizda!! b. Pushed repos appear to go to the cache directory. Using channel as above, it's at/var/cache/rhn/repodata/centos6_kickstart. Make sure you have sufficient apace. c. Or, maybe not. Only thing in that directory is: :: # ll /var/cache/rhn/repodata/centos6_kickstart total 24 drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Mar 29 12:26 ./ drwxr-xr-x. 17 root root 4096 Mar 29 12:26 ../ -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 122 Mar 29 12:25 filelists.xml.gz -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 120 Mar 29 12:25 other.xml.gz -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 129 Mar 29 12:25 primary.xml.gz -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 871 Mar 29 12:25 repomd.xml d. Failed. unhelpful errors. Trying an altherate execution: :: rhnpush --server localhost -u admin -p 3Pizda!! \ -c centos6_kickstart \ /var/ftp/pub/inst/centos6.5/Packages/*.rpm e. Also failed. Next try: :: rhnpush --server http://localhost/APP -u admin -p 3Pizda!! \ -c centos6_kickstart /var/ftp/pub/inst/centos6.5/Packages/*.rpm f. Started to hang then continued... I've also found that the packages are getting uploaded as unmanaged packages. I can add them through a well hidden menu pick. *Channels -> Manage s/w channels* select the channel, then packages -> add g. Multiple iterations of the rhnpush command and all 3995 packages got pushed up to the channel. That part's a little concerning. h. If/when completed, permissible to remove Packages directory and contents. 3. Create kickstart distribution: *Systems -> Kickstart -> Distributions* -> *create new distirbution*. * Appropriate label * tree path = the location of the installation media from step 2. 4. Kickstart profiles... here's where I'm flipping confused...