Linux – Unattended Linux installation from PXE using IPMI

installationipmiipmitoollinuxunattended

This is what I have:

  1. Kickstart server with multiple Linux distros on it.
  2. Multiple Supermicro server machines I'm connecting using IPMI.

What I need:

I need some way to run unattended installation of the particular Linux distro on particular server machine. To clarify, I need some command line way to select Linux distro it will be installed from. Currently I know to send ipmitool command to the server machine make it to boot direct to the PXE, but then I have to go to it's console and select manually the desired distro.

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

How many systems are you looking to bootstrap and install in an unattended manner?

The tool I use for this is Cobbler, which handles the specific DNS/DHCP/TFTP/PXE portions of the installation with the correct image, based on the target host's MAC address. E.g. it would bypass any PXE selection menus.

You can have different server profile types and a form of modular kickstart files (snippets).

This sounds like the closest thing to what you're asking for.