mkelfs - create Kickstart Trees for EL-like distros comfortably

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Hi everyone,

I just created a Python tool for creating Kickstart Trees for EL-like distros (e.g. CentOS, Fedora, Scientific Linux) comfortably.

After specifying a particular release (e.g. 6.5) and architecture (e.g. x86_64) the tool creates needed folder structures automatically and downloads the needed files for kickstarting.

By default the script downloads files from the Kernel.org mirror for CentOS.

Some examples:

$ mkelfs.py --release 6.5 --arch x86_64

downloads the latest kickstart files for CentOS 6.5 x86_64 to /var/satellite/kickstart_tree.
Mirror http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos is used.

$ mkelfs.py --release 4.1 --arch i386 --target /var/museum/ks --mirror http://vault.centos.org

downloads the antiquated CentOS release 4.1 for i386 from the CentOS Vault mirror site.
Files are stored in /var/museum/ks

$ mkelfs.py -r 6.4 -a x86_64 -m http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/Linux/INSTALL/scientific -o scientific -fq

downloads the Scientific Linux release 6.4 x86_64 from a Finnish mirror. Pre-existing files are overwritten and no additional output is generated.

$ mkelfs.py -f -r 20 -a i386 -m http://mirror.digitalnova.at/fedora/linux -o fedora

downloads the 32-bit kickstart files for Fedora release 20 from a Austrian mirror.

Just wanted to share that with you - maybe someone finds it useful. :)

You can download the script for free at Github

By the way: that's my first python script - so feel free to give me some feedback to optimize it. :)

Best regards,
Christian.

Christian Stankowic's picture
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Responses

ir. Jan Gerrit Kootstra's picture Guru 6222 points
10 April 2014 8:03 PM

Hi Christian,

Great idea, only a little confusing title/script name.

You use both mkelfs and mkelks.

Also on Github. Could you please choose one name for the script and the usage examples?

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit

Christian Stankowic's picture Active Contributor 312 points
10 April 2014 8:40 PM

Hi Jan,

thanks for the feedback! I fixed that annoying typo. :)

Best regards,
Christian.

PS Guru 6494 points
11 April 2014 5:13 AM

Looks good.

Am I right in my thinking that it provides basic functionality similar to mrepo?
http://dag.wiee.rs/home-made/mrepo/

Christian Stankowic's picture Active Contributor 312 points
11 April 2014 3:37 PM

Hello PixelDrift.NET,
no, it's not similar with mrepo. mrepo offers the possibility to clone YUM, APT and up2date repositories using SSH, FTP, etc. and implementing netboot using a different technique.

mkelfs.py is for Spacewalk, Red Hat Satellite and SUSE Manager users who want to simplify the process of getting the files needed for kickstarting EL-like distros.

BTW: I just updated the script to also support Fedora and Scientific Linux.

Best regards,
Christian!

David Powles's picture Red Hat 25369 points
15 April 2014 1:20 PM

Looks handy, Christian. Thanks for sharing this!

Christian Stankowic's picture Active Contributor 312 points
15 April 2014 7:40 PM

Thanks for your feedback! :)

Best regards,
Christian.

Christian Stankowic's picture Active Contributor 312 points
23 April 2014 6:23 PM

Hi,

I just uploaded a short screencast about mkelfs on YouTube - it demonstrates the usage of the utility.

Maybe this helps: YouTube - Creating Enterprise Linux kickstart trees with mkelfs

Best regards,
Christian

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