Installation

To install the Node squashfs image you need a kickstart file.

Overview

Anaconda is the installation program used by Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS and some other distributions. It allows the user to install the operating system software on the target computer. Additionally, it can also upgrade existing installations of earlier versions of the same distribution.

Highlight features that ovirt-node-appliace take advance of Anaconda:

Automatically create partitions
LVM Thin Provisioning support helps users to make snapshot and rollbacks in the system.
Install disk image instead of packages.

Anaconda does not need any modifications to provide the required functional of this design. All other functionality of Anaconda works without limitations.

Anaconda Kickstart

The Anaconda kickstart is an automated installation method to install operating system.

System administrator and/or developers can create a single file (.ks) containing the answers to all the questions that would normally be asked during a typical installation.

The minimal requirement kickstart options are liveimg and autopart. Anaconda then will use that kickstart to proceed with the installation.

In the liveimg option it can be the squashfs.img from a Live iso, or any filesystem mountable by the install media (eg. ext4).

autopart automatically create partitions -- a root (/) partition, a swap partition, and an appropriate boot partition for the architecture. On large enough drives, this will also create a /home partition.

NOTE: Using only minimal kickstart requirement options (liveimg and autopart) will trigger the manual installation. For more detailed information about kickstart options or automatic installations, please see official kickstart documentation.

Anaconda Boot Options

To start a Kickstart installation, a special boot option inst.ks= must be specified when booting the system.

Example: Manual installation of Node from a webserver

Install httpd

httpd must be installed on a separate host

$ sudo yum -y install httpd
$ sudo systemctl start httpd
$ sudo systemctl enable httpd

Publish the `squashfs` image

Build locally the ovirt-node-ng squashfs image or download the last successfully image from ovirt jekins job and make it available in the httpd server.

$ cd /var/www/html
$ wget http://jenkins.ovirt.org/job/ovirt-appliance-node_master_create-squashfs-el7_merged/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/exported-artifacts/ovirt-node-ng-image.squashfs.img

Create the kickstart

Create the minimal-ngn.ks in the httpd public dir

$ cat minimal-ngn.ks
autopart --type=thinp --fstype=ext4
liveimg --url=http://server/ovirt-node-ng-image.squashfs.img

Start the installation

At this stage, you should be able to proceed with the manual installation adding into the boot kargs the kickstart flag inst.ks=http://server/minimal-ngn.ks

PXE Installation

FIXME

livecd-iso-to-pxeboot
Use correct anaconda boot options

USB Media creation and installation