On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 02:34:01AM -0400, J. Bakshi wrote: > Dear All, Hi!
> I have a running debain server which is doing many responsibilities, > started from gateway, then apache,mysql,vsftpd,samba,git etc.. server > and finally a DHCP too. I like to install the FAI ( Fully Automated > Installation) > too on this very server. http://fai-project.org > > I have some question in mind and like to solve it before going further. > > - I already have DHCP running. What modification should I add to work it with > FAI ? A couple of things. First of all, you need to tweak the dhcpd configuration to allow PXE booting. Something along these lines: next-server <<ip-address-of-FAI-server>>; filename "pxelinux.0"; The 2nd thing is a bit more involved: For FAI to work correctly, the DHCP server must hand out a name to each client which essentially means that the DHCP needs to know about the clients. So each client will need something like this in the DHCP configuration: host the.example { hardware ethernet 52:54:00:ee:d3:89; fixed-address 10.11.10.128; # Fixed IP addresses option host-name the-example; # Will be the hostname of the server } On a related note: How do you assign IP addresses? There are two basic choices: Fixed IP addresses or Dynamic DNS. Fixed IP addresses are faster to set up (and to get your head around), but not as flexible as dynamic DNS. > - How to disable the DHCP comes with FAI ? Hm. FAI does not "come with" DHCP - but it does _depend_ on a DHCP server for things to work. However, the DHCP server and FAI server do not need to be on the same server. PS: I feel that calling it a "FAI Server" is a bit of a meta concept. On the technical level we have: - a DHCP server - a TFTP server - a NFS server which together make up an "FAI" server. > - I like to provide debian, ubuntu as well as windows for the client. So How > can I make the > images and more than that how to configure so that during installation the > kernel adjust > itself with the client H/W. Clients are Desktop as well as laptop from > different make and > sometimes assembled too. As for how to make the images, there are plenty of howto's out there. But you probably will end up with a "boot menu" served out from the FAI (a.k.a. TFTP) server. Our pxelinux.cfg/default includes stuff like this: label ubuntu-64 menu label Ubuntu 11.04 Live - 64 bit kernel ubuntu-11.04/iso-amd64/casper/vmlinuz append root=/dev/nfs boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=X.X.X.X:/srv/tftp/ubuntu-11.04/iso-amd64 initrd=ubuntu-11.04/iso-amd64/casper/initrd.lz ip=dhcp quiet splash -- text help Try out Ubuntu 11.04 without touching your hard disk Requires 64-bit hardware endtext label memtest menu label Memory Test kernel memtest86+ text help Find bad RAM chips endtext label rescue menu label Debian Squeeze FAI Rescue (amd64) kernel fai-squeeze/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 append initrd=fai-squeeze/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64 ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=X.X.X.X:/srv/fai/nfsroot boot=live FAI_FLAGS=createvt FAI_ACTION=rescue text help Start up a decent-size nfs-mounted root file system to examine a broken system. Switch to virtual terminal #2 to get a shell endtext label install menu label Debian Squeeze FAI Install (amd64) - wipes everything kernel fai-squeeze/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 append initrd=fai-squeeze/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64 ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=X.X.X.X:/srv/fai/nfsroot boot=live FAI_FLAGS=reboot,createvt FAI_ACTION=install quiet text help Perform a fully automatic installation onto your system. WARNING: THIS WILL WIPE EVERYTHING endtext The paths listed above are somewhat specific to our installation, but should give you a general idea - dont forget to replace 'X.X.X.X' by the appropriate IP addresses on your network. > - clients must have firefox,filezilla,thunderbird etc.. for both linux and > windows. > How can I predefined it ? Linux has repos, but what should I do with windows ? Windows? Dunno. Never needed it. > - Is it possible to use the extended free partition to use for installation, > with out touching the existing partitions and data ? FAI is geared towards a clean install and will thus repartition the disk by default. It might be possible to write a disk configuration for it which leaves the existing partitions untouched, but I have never tried that. Either way, to make the resulting install bootable, it must be on a primary partition - I doubt that extended partitions will suffice for this (only 90% sure here - others are hereby invited to correct me if I'm wrong) > - In Linux; during installation it detects the installed window/Linux OS (if > any) and > add the grub.cfg accordingly. Is it possible with FAI ? Probably. Assuming that the initial partitioning did not wipe out the previous OS. You can have your own custom scripts run as part of the installation which manipulate anything on the target system - including tweaking the Grub/lilo configuration. > Please guide me to have a start. A beginners guide (web link) is very much > welcome. FAI is fairly well documented : http://fai-project.org - but you obviously have that URL already. Although it may not exactly be targetted towards beginners ... :-S Hope this helps -- Karl E. Jorgensen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20111031123316.gk25...@jorginator.office.fizzback.net