Network-based Initial Server Build

This section provides guidance to install the initial SIMP server via an existing kickstart infrastructure.

Prepare the Kickstart

To kickstart the initial server, copy the netboot.cfg file into the kickstart location from ks/ at the root level of the extracted DVD.

Replace the KS_SERVER and KS_BASE variables in the netboot.cfg file to match the system settings.

Kickstart the System

Kickstart the system against the netboot.cfg file; this will build a functional SIMP server identical to the one that the user would have received from the DVD.

Post-Installation

This section describes the post installation procedures to use the server.

Setting up the new YUM repo

All of the SIMP systems must be able to reference two YUM locations after install. The first is the Local repo, which is spawned from the Local directory at the top of the DVD. This is expected to be referenced as http://yum_server/yum/SIMP/<Architecture> by the clients.

The second location is the Updates repo, which contains a repo with all of the base operating system RPMs. This is expected to be referenced as http://yum_server/yum/(RedHat|CentOS)/<Version>/<Architecture>/Updates by the clients.

The user is responsible for adjusting these locations in the pre-existing system; however, the table below lists the steps to adjust these locations on the newly built SIMP server.

Note

These steps assume that the SIMP DVD material is copied in its unpacked form to the /srv/SIMP directory and that the version unpacked is RHEL 5.8. Adjust the paths appropriately if the CentOS or 5.7 version is being used.

  1. Copy the entire SIMP DVD material to the SIMP server.
  2. Type cd /srv;
  3. Type mkdir -p www/yum/RedHat/5.8/x86_64;
  4. Type mv /srv/SIMP/SIMP www/yum;
  5. Type mv /srv/SIMP/ks www;
  6. Type cd www/yum/RedHat
  7. Type ln -s 5.8 6; and then cd 5.8/x86_64; to be able to move to newer versions more easily.
  8. Type mkdir Updates;
  9. Type cd Updates;
  10. Type find .. -type f -name “*.rpm” -exec ln -s {} \;
  11. Type createrepo -p .
  12. Type cd /var/www/yum/SIMP;
  13. Type updaterepos;
  14. Type chown -R root.apache /var/www;
  15. Type chmod -R u+rwX,g+rX,o-rwx /var/www;
  16. Enter the following commands into the command line to adjust the file.
cat << EOF >> /etc/yum.repos.d/filesystem.repo
[flocal-x86_64]
name=Local within the filesystem
baseurl=file:///var/www/yum/SIMP/x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
EOF
  1. Enter the following commands into the command line to adjust the file.
cat << EOF >> /etc/yum.repos.d/filesystem.repo
[frhbase]
name=$ostype $rhversion base repo
baseurl=file:///var/www/yum/RedHat/6/x86_64/Server
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
EOF

Follow the instructions in the Client Management for additional assistance.