Procedure 2.1. Installing Kickstart Trees Automatically

1. Choose which distribution you would like to base your kickstarts on and locate that distribution's base channel, and its corresponding RHN Tools channel.
   For example, if you want to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 with x86 architecture, you will require the rhel-i386-server-5 channel and its corresponding RHN Tools channel rhn-tools-rhel-i386-server-5.
2. If you are using a connected Satellite, synchronize your Satellite with the Red Hat servers directly with the satellite-sync command. If your Satellite is disconnected, you will need to obtain disconnected channel dumps from the Red Hat servers and synchronize with those.
3. Synchronizing the channel will automatically create a corresponding kickstart tree for that distribution.

Procedure 2.2. Installing Kickstart Trees Manually

1. Copy the installation ISO to your satellite server and mount it to /mnt/iso
2. Copy the contents of the ISO to a custom location. It is recommended that you create a directory within /var/satellite for all of your custom distributions. For example, you might copy a RHEL beta distribution's contents to /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/
3. Use the RHN Satellite web interface to create a custom software channel. Use Channels → Manage Software Channels → Create New Channel to create a parent channel with an appropriate name and label. For the example used above, you might use the label rhel-5.3-beta.
4. Push the software packages from the tree location to the newly created software channel using the rhnpush command:

   rhnpush --server=http://localhost/APP -c 'rhel-5.3-beta' \  -d /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/Server/

   The sub-directory within the tree could be different depending on your distribution.
5. Once the software packages have been pushed, they can be deleted from within the tree path using the rm command. The packages are still stored on the Satellite server within the channel, and are no longer required in the tree.

   rm /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/Server/*.rpm

   Note

   You can choose to leave the software packages within the kickstart tree. This will allow them to be installed with the yum command at any time later on.
6. Use the RHN Satellite web interface to create the distribution. Use Systems → Kickstart → Distributions → create new distribution to create the distribution, using an appropriate label and the full tree path (such as /var/satellite/custom-distro/rhel-i386-server-5.3-beta/. Select the base channel you created earlier, and the correct Installer Generation (such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5). To complete the creation, select Create Kickstart Distribution.
7. To maintain the same software across multiple environments and systems, the RHN Tools child channel from an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux base channel can be cloned as a child channel of the newly created base channel. Cloning a child channel can be done by:
   1. On the Satellite web interface, click on Channels → Manage Software Channels → Clone Channel
   2. Choose the Child Channel you wish to clone from the drop down box Clone From: and choose the clone state.
   3. Click Create Channel.
   4. Fill in the necessary information and choose the parent channel that the cloned child channel needs to be under.
   5. Click Create Channel.

Procedure 2.3. Creating a Kickstart Profile with a Wizard

1. Select Systems → Kickstart → Create a New Kickstart Profile
2. Provide an appropriate Label, and select the desired Base Channel and Kickstartable Tree
3. Select the desired Virtualization Type. See Virtualization Types for more information about virtualization types. Click next to continue.
4. Select the download location for the kickstart profile. If you are using a custom distribution, enter the location of its tree as a URI (both HTTP and FTP are supported), otherwise, use the default option. Click next to continue.
5. Enter the root password and click finish to complete the profile creation.
6. The complete kickstart profile will be created. View the profile by clicking Kickstart File.

Procedure 2.4. Creating a Kickstart Profile with the Raw Method

1. Select Systems → Kickstart → Upload a New Kickstart File
2. Provide an appropriate label, and select the desired distribution
3. Select the desired Virtualization Type. See Virtualization Types for more information about virtualization types.
4. If you have an existing kickstart profile, upload the file. Otherwise, write the kickstart profile in the File Contents text box.
   Here is a sample raw kickstart that can be used as a starting point:

   install
   text
   network --bootproto dhcp
   url --url http://$http_server/ks/dist/org/1/ks-rhel-i386-server-5
   lang en_US
   keyboard us
   zerombr
   clearpart --all
   part / --fstype=ext3 --size=200 --grow
   part /boot --fstype=ext3 --size=200
   part swap --size=1000   --maxsize=2000
   bootloader --location mbr
   timezone America/New_York
   auth --enablemd5 --enableshadow
   rootpw --iscrypted $1$X/CrCfCE$x0veQO88TCm2VprcMkH.d0
   selinux --permissive
   reboot
   firewall --disabled
   skipx
   key --skip
   
   %packages 
   @ Base
   
   %post
   $SNIPPET('redhat_register')
   

5. The RHN Satellite server does not handle the specified distribution as the url in the kickstart, so you will need to include the url --url option in your profile, similar to the following:

   url --url http://satellite.example.com/ks/dist/org/1/my_distro

   Replace my_distro with the distribution label and 1 with your org id.
6. Raw kickstart profiles use $http_server instead of the Satellite's host name. This will be filled in automatically when the kickstart template is rendered.
7. The redhat_register snippet is used to handle registration.

Procedure 3.1. Configuring the Master Server

1. Enable the inter-satellite synchronization (ISS) feature. Open the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf file, and add or amend the following line to read:

   disable_iss=0
   

2. In the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf file, locate the allowed_iss_slaves= line. By default, no slave satellites are specified for synchronization. Enter the hostname of each slave satellite server, separated by commas:

   allowed_iss_slaves=slave1.satellite.example.org,slave2.satellite.example.org
   

3. Save the configuration file, and restart the httpd service:

   service httpd restart
   

Procedure 3.2. Configuring Slave Servers

1. In order to securely transfer content to the slave servers, you will require the ORG-SSL certificate from the master server. You can download the certificate over HTTP from the /pub/ directory of any satellite. The file is called RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT, but can be renamed and placed anywhere in the local filesystem of the slave, such as the /usr/share/rhn/ directory.
2. View the list of channels available for synchronization from the master server with the following command. This will display official Red Hat channels as well as any available custom channels:

   satellite-sync --iss-parent=master.satellite.example.com --ca-cert=/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT --list-channels
   

   Replace master.satellite.example.com with the hostname of the master server.

Procedure 3.3. Performing an Inter-Satellite Synchronization

1. On the slave servers, open the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf file in your preferred text editor, and add the master server hostname and SSL certificate file path details:

   iss_parent      = master.satellite.example.com
   iss_ca_chain    = /usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
   

2. Begin the synchronization by running the satellite-sync command:

   satellite-sync -c your-channel

   Note

   Command line options you provide with the satellite-sync command will override any custom settings in the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf file.

Procedure 4.1. Configuring SELinux for use with Cobbler

1. To enable SELinux for Cobbler support, set the SELinux Boolean to allow HTTPD web service components, using the following command:

   setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect true
   

   The -P switch is essential, as it enables HTTPD connection persistently across all system reboots.
2. Set SELinux file context rules for TFTP to serve the boot image file, using the following command on the Cobbler server:

   semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_t "var/lib/tftpboot/.*"
   

3. IPTables must be configured to allow incoming and outgoing network traffic on the Cobbler server.
   If you have an existing firewall ruleset using iptables, add the following rules to open the Cobbler-related ports, as follows:
   For TFTP:

   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 69 -j ACCEPT
   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m udp -p udp --dport 69 -j ACCEPT
   

   For HTTPD:

   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
   

   For Cobbler:

   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m udp -p udp --dport 25150 -j ACCEPT
   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 25150 -j ACCEPT
   

   For Koan:

   /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 25151 -j ACCEPT
   

4. Save the firewall configuration:

   /sbin/iptables-save
   

5. Ensure that the configuration files are all synchronized by running the following command:

   cobbler sync
   

6. Start the Satellite server:

   /usr/sbin/rhn-satellite start
   

   Warning

   Do not start or stop the cobblerd service independent of the Satellite service, as doing so may cause errors and other issues.

   Always use /usr/sbin/rhn-satellite to start or stop RHN Satellite.

Procedure 4.2. Configuring Cobbler System Records

1. Go to System Details → Provisioning for each system and select the kickstart profile to be associated.
2. Click Create Cobbler System Record to make the association.
3. This association will remain in place indefinitely unless you set the pxe_just_once option to true for any given machine. In that case the association will be broken after a successful kickstart. See Procedure 4.3, “Configuring Cobbler to use PXE” for more information about this setting.

Procedure 4.3. Configuring Cobbler to use PXE

1. Often, the BIOS order will be set to have the PXE boot occur first. This means that the system will not boot off the local disk unless the PXE server instructs it to do so remotely. This setup can create a boot loop, where the system continually reinstalls.
   In order to prevent boot loops, open the /etc/cobbler/settings file and add the following line:

   pxe_just_once: 1
   

   This setting adds a $kickstart_done macro in the kickstart template, which tells the system to boot locally after it has completed the installation, instead of booting from the network.
2. If you include the pxe_just_once: 1 setting, and you want to reinstall the system later on, you will need to toggle the netboot-enabled flag on the system. This can be done using either the RHN Satellite web interface, or in Cobbler directly. When the system next reboots, it will perform a PXE install, and then return to booting from the local disk until the flag is reset.
   If the BIOS is set to boot from local hard drives first, there is no need to have the pxe_just_once enabled. However, to reprovision the system using PXE, it will be necessary to zero out the MBR (master boot record).