General Information

Installing on bare metal systems using the “net-install” method and kickstart.

Checklist

• Enterprise Linux 6/7

• Download the OS standard DVD install ISO (to provide the installation files over the network)
  • Put this image on your NFS server
• Download the OS net install image (to boot from)
  • Put this image on your local desktop/laptop or create a bootable USB flash drive
• Prepare ISO+images directory on NFS server (If they don't exist already)
  • Mount the DVD ISO image temporarily

    mount -t iso9660 -o loop /ISO/centos6.7-dvd/CentOS-6.7-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso /mnt

  • Copy the images/ directory from the mounted ISO image to the same directory as the ISO image

    cp -pr /mnt/images /ISO/centos6.7-dvd/

  • Unmount ISO image

    umount /mnt

  • Example: the following directory now contains: /ISO/centos6.7-dvd/
    • CentOS-6.7-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
    • images/ (directory copied from ISO)

Create a kickstart file and put it in the same location on the NFS server as the ISO image.

• Kickstart ⇒ Examples Here

• Connect to system console (via KVM, other remote access solution, or physically in front of it)
• Mount a netinstall ISO image from a location on your desktop/laptop
  • OR plugin a USB flash drive with a netinstall ISO on it to the server
• Boot server to the netinstall ISO

This network information is used temporarily to access the network and find the NFS server/OS install DVD files.

• Netinstall Options
  • Language > English
  • Keyboard > us
  • Media > NFS directory
• Networking Device
  • Select device to install through > eth0 (usually)
• Configure TCP/IP
  • Check Enable IPv4 Support
    • Check Manual configuration
  • Uncheck Enable IPv6 Support
• Manual TCP/IP Configuration (Enter in temp IP settings to use for network access during install)
  • IPv4 address: <address>/<mask>
  • Gateway: <gateway>
  • Name Server: <dns1>,<dns2>
• NFS Setup
  • NFS server name: <nfs-server-ip>
  • directory: /ISO/centos6.7-dvd
  • NFS mount options(optional): <leave blank>

• System will now be using the ISO image on the NFS location for install.
• Perform Install/kickstart as normal.

• On the Welcome to CentOS screen, highlight “Install or Upgrade an existing system” and press “tab” to edit boot options.
• After “vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img”, append:

  ks=nfs:<nfs-server-ip>:/ISO/centos6.7-dvd/centos6-ks.cfg ksdevice=eth0 ip=x.x.x.x netmask=x.x.x.x gateway=x.x.x.x nameserver=<dns-ip>,<dns-ip>

  • Note: This can be pasted into the console by using most KVM menus. (Keyboard > Send Text to Target… > Paste in text > click Ok)