Linux Network Install Options?

verch writes "I work at a Large Corporation that is considering Linux as a competing platform to our large Solaris and Wintel install bases. One of the biggest concerns is how easily a large number of linux machines can be installed mostly unattended. For Solaris we mostly use jumpstart which allows us after minor preparation to simply remotely attach to the console of a machine and boot and install it over the network. x86 hardware tends not to be as nice, I don't know of any linux hardware that has remote console capabalities as nice as Sun's, and network boot options are limited (PXE?). Installation procedures that involve having to lood a CD or boot floppy into every machine could potentially be dealbreakers. So, what options exist for completely remote unattended installs of linux machines?" Had a similar question a while ago; have things improved since then?

Comments

Mandrake 8.2 (and probably 8.1)

[dodald]

I just installed Mandrake 8.1 and it has an option to create a auto-install boot disk for unattended installs. I believe you could make a CD with only the packages you need, and use it to create the auto-install boot disk, it would be fairly unattended (you would need to put the disk in and probably confirm the install)

Re:It's not supposed to be that easy

[battjt]

Don't think of the CD as a boot device, think of it as a boot rom. It should have the same stuff that the sun rom has (ie, not the kernel or any of the real OS).

It is just a more easily replaced boot rom.

(A floppy would work, but there may be reliability isses.)

Joe

LTSP project and network booting

[Anonymous Coward]

The Linux Terminal Server Project (ltps.org) has some parts that could be used to create and automated network boot/install. Etherboot is used to enable an Intel arch. machine to load and boot a kernel from a network server. RARP and tftp are used much the same as Jumpstart. You would need to create a bootable mini-system that would install the OS and configure it to your specs.

Sun and Solaris and painless mass install/upgrades

[Nonesuch]

Sparc hardware and Solaris makes it easy, but secure. Once you put the effort in to build a Solaris Jumpstart server, installing any number of machines is trivial.

My servers have Sun LOM/RSC serial consoles connected to a 'secure' (OpenBSD) serial console server, so forcing a re-install of the base OS is as simple as shuttting down, entering 'boot net - install' at the 'ok' prompt, and waiting 45 minutes or so. I can do this as easily from across the office or across the country.

I routinely build, hack, and rebuild test servers several times a day. Others report doing 500 machine rollouts with little or no human intervention.

Some of the features of the Sparc PROM and Jumpstart can be duplicated with a boot floppy, but many of the coolest features are not as easily imitated. The PC Weasel is a pale imitation of the boot PROM. APC remote power cycling doesn't come close to the functionality of Sun's Remote System Control. Linux 'netboot' is years behind Sun's Jumpstart software.