I've installed CentOS 6.2, encrypting my swap partition and my /home. I'm trying to configure my server to run headless; I'd like it boot and push all of its boot spew to whoever is connected to it that has appropriate access privileges (users in the sudoers list).
There are two problems here:
-
How do I delay CentOS asking me to provide a password for swap? It pushes a modal dialog to the monitor, which shatters my dreams of headless boot.
-
How do I get CentOS to start up an SSH server process and push all the boot spew to whoever is connected (if someone is connected)? Someone mentioned DropBear to me. I looked at it and still wasn't sure how to configure this.
Best Answer
SSH is configured and enabled by default on centos, 'boot spew' wont be available over ssh, as ssh isnt started until very late in the boot process, certainly after 'network' is started.
You need a remote server management card, to see and interact with the 'boot spew'. Sun servers have ilom cards, HP servers ILO, Dell has Remote access card... etc.
You can run a headless server fine without one of these cards, it just means someone will have to go into the datacenter and attach keyboard/video/mouse if anything goes wrong.