Overview:

Kickstarting is the process in which we can rapidly manufacture an arbitrary number of machines as opposed to manually installing each one. As a result of the kickstart process, machines installed this way very closely resemble each other aside from minute host-specific attributes.

Purpose:

 By utilizing the kickstart process, we can easily produce a working machine with required software in a consistent manner with very little manual intervention. This reduces the amount of installation time and human errors in the process of installation and initial configuration.

Concept:

 A host that will be kickstarted must not be a dual-boot/OS type as multiple operating systems on a workstation introduces complexity and quickly becomes outdated as there will always be at least one operating system that is not running or readily available to be configured/updated.   The overall process consists of the computer loading an initial boot image which reads a file via the network (a "kickstart file"), a temporary DHCP IP address obtained, and automated installation ending with a few customizations via extended scripts.  The result is a completely installed and configured host ready for use.

Procedures for preparation:

Each version of  the operating system to be kickstarted has its own kickstart creation area, located under /infosys/auto_inst/; e.g., for Mandriva 2007.1, the appropriate files are located in /infosys/auto_inst/2007.1.

This kickstart area includes everything necessary for the operation of kickstart; boot media, kickstart file generator and kickstart files.

To prepare a host for kickstart:

1. Ensure the target host has a DNS entry that assigns it a hostname and IP address,
2. Ensure the target host has a "static DHCP" entry in which the MAC address of the host is in the proper group for the kickstart file to be located,
   
3. Edit the 'generate' script to include the target host, assuring that it has the proper classes associated,
4.  Create the kickstart file via  generate -h <hostname>

Once the kickstart file and appropriate network hostname entries have been created, kickstart is ready to proceed.

Insert the boot media (created from the image located in the same filetree as above) into the computer, and boot.  Everything else should proceed normally, and the boot media may be removed after about 30 seconds.