1. Provisioning with custom builds and Kickstart
Richard Keech Red Hat Asia-Pacific

2. Agenda Traditional provisioning issues Building systems with Kickstart
Custom build CDs

3. Traditional enterprise provisioning
Multi-step: 1. Sysadmin installs base OS 2. Others install primary third-party software (TPS) 3. Someone else installs middleware and monitoring
Issues:
separate activities
install state of TPS external to OS's software control
TPS install often manual
slow (>= 1day)
repeatability: not assured – configuration control
Ties installed state to one host

4. The accumulated state dilemma
State accumulates
Entropy happens
Open loop
Management of black boxes

5. Thinking about system state
Program development
source code
binary executables
Management happens here

6. Thinking about system state
Typical system provisioning
Build process (manual)
Installed system
Management happens here

7. Thinking about system state
Better system provisioning
Build process (automated)
Installed system
Management happens here
Management happens here

8. Thinking about system state
Installed system state is like program binaries
Even more so with virtualisation
Need to close the loop

9. Improved provisioning
Sysadmin and others together prepare packaged profile of third-party software (TPS)
Custom CD of project-specific build
Refine and re-build – closed loop

10. Improved provisioning - Benefits
TPS software no longer a black box to OS – managability - RPMs
rapid and repeatable build
changes in build state feed back to build process
Re-hosting mid-life is easier
Traditional backups less necessary
Easy to assure system state matches definitions
Easy to reconcile production and development environments

11. Improving the process OS build: Kickstart Custom CDs TPS build:
RPM-ify
Scripted setup

12. Kickstart Unattended install for Red Hat Profile is human-readable
Profile on either removable medium or network
Install media on either removable medium or network
Base install plus scripts

13. Custom Build Discs Single CD can include: Base OS Kickstart profile
TP software
Scripts and localisations
Per-host context

14. Custom Build Discs (cont'd)
Ready-to-run deploy
Fast
Repeatable
Managed system state
Between hosts in each environment
Between hosts across environments
A project deliverable
Version-controlled
Easy to install

15. Recommendations / Observations
Sysadmin and others collaborate to prepare RPM of TPS
Sysadmin can prepare and maintain their own custom Red Hat CD
Easy to leverage one project for the next
Red Hat & TPS can meld for highly repeatable, productized deliverables
Leverages the benefits of virtualisation

16. The Fedora way of building custom spins
Pungi
Command-line spin composing tool
Repo(s) -> ISO
Pkg: pungi
Live CD Creator
Command-line live image tool
Pkg: livecd-tools
Revisor
GUI front end to pungi and livecd-tools

17. My way of building custom RHEL CDS
Keep standard RHEL pkg set for supportability and simplicity
Build multiple Kickstart files from one master using macros
Update isolinux to:
Show a new boot screen and options
Boot using profiles mapped to different Kickstart files
Get isolinux options to post-install script for adaptation selections
Tie it up in a Makefile to build the iso
Selecting the packages
Make it self-hosting

18. Using m4 macros in Kickstart
Lines in ks.cfg.m4 like: ifdef(`webprofile', \ `firewall --enabled --port=ssh:tcp,
Lines in Makefile like: ksweb.cfg: ks.cfg.m m4 -D webprofile $< >

19. Customising ISOLinux Edit boot.msg
Include version string from Makefile
Update isolinux.cfg with profiles like: label webgp kernel vmlinuz append text ks=cdrom:/kswebgp.cfg initrd=initrd.img

20. Accessing CD from %post
CD mounted under /mnt/source
%post chroot's to /mnt/sysimage
Problem: CD not available from %post
Solution: copy /mnt/source bits under /mnt/sysimage in %post --nochroot

21. Install command line Read from /proc/cmdline
CMDLINE=$(cat /proc/cmdline) HOSTNAME=$(sed -n 's/.*host=\([A-Za-z0-9\-]*\).*/\1/p' $CMDLINE) PROFILE=$(sed 's/^text ks=cdrom:\/ks\(.*\)\.cfg.*/\1/' $CMDLINE)

22. Things to do in postinstall
Set networking properties conditionally on host and profile
Create user accounts ; set default passwords
Install and configure TPS
Import GPG keys
Finesse services with chkconfig
Login banners
Access control and packet filtering
Create ssh keys
Assert kernel tunables (sysctl)
Password aging

23. Thank you
Any questions?