How do I automate OS installation on 500+ machines?
My company has to image a large amount of machines by the end of the year. Each of the machines will have hardware RAID 1 and running CentOS 6.
What options do I have for automating the OS installation on these systems?
I have a little mini desktop I can set up as an install server, and we can get a switch to create an installation network, but I'm not sure how to go about actually performing the automated installs.
Cobbler was designed for this.
HowToForge has a great article to get such a process started here
Basically, the following is a high-level list of activities that would be required:
- Establish a DHCP server that can support the number of clients (VLANs and such)
- Create an HTTP server that can host the installation
- Create a kickstart script for the installation. The kickstart can be based off the ks-anaconda.cfg file created when the OS is installed for the first time in the root home directory (normally located at /root/)
- Integrate the kickstart script and HTTP server with a TFTP server, to support PXE booting.
- Reboot target machines and PROFIT!