Linux workstations deployment
 

Hi,

still about linux workstations in enterprise environment.

There is more and more linux machines to be introduced in the IS of the site i work for.

These are development workstations.

I have been asked for a mean to automatize the installation process.
The problem is that my colleagues and more important, my boss, are thinking in Windows terms : so, i'm afraid of "a install a master 'n' ghost méthod". The aim is to make it easy for Windows technicians. The ghost method seems really bad to me as they will have to edit many conf files to set it up. I guess it would be much longer than a classical install. I'm not even sure ghost can handle journalized filesystems....

The classical network install methods appears to be sure and not that long methods (you configure before you copy instead of the windows ghost that does the reverse method).

For maximum time gain, i would suggest the kickstart way of doing.

If someone has some ideas or arguments.

Guillaume

By the way, is there any how to about linux worstations deployment in enterprise wide environment???

Lot's of question i havent think about while using Linux for server purposes and at home...

Guillaume

Hmmm.... depends on what you're looking for. If you expect a management tool to be free, I don't know what you're going to use.

Novell's Zenworks - take a look - version 7 has been released, and may be able to do imaging - booting PXE with something like Novell's Linux Desktop.

What about something like VMWare's ACE? They are working on linux host support.




Jon Johnston
Creative Business Solutions
IBM, Microsoft, Novell/Suse and Sophos Consulting
952-544-1108
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If I must do it with the ghost method, i'll write some script that allow technicians to change parameters (hostname, create some users, ask questions about sudo, etc...).

I thought about something i like to see confirmed :
If i ghost a whole linux system, i should be able to use this system image onto any x86 system : whatever its a desktop or a laptop (we use RHWS4 and the kernel is pretty heavy!).
Is this right?

Have you heard of the Debian Fully Automated Installation?

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/240

Each distro has their own method - FAI for Debian, ZenWorks for Novell, etc., so it depends on which distribution you want to deploy. The standard method for Red Hat and Fedora systems is to boot the system (with discs or PXE) and feed it a kickstart file that points to a Web server or RHN server to get the files. This is integrated into the installer, and the configuration tools are supplied as standard. See the documentation for further details etc.

IME, disk imaging quickly becomes a headache once the systems are no longer identical, which is inevitable due to changing requirements and hardware swapouts, so I'd avoid going down that road if at all possible.

I have to use RH enterprise WorkStation 4 U1. So i looked through kickstart.

Anakonda generates a kickstart file in /root after you just installed your system. So, it's this file, taken from a well mastered workstation i might use. There is also a RH app you can run to edit KS files through GUI menu.

Therefore, the idea would be to put a RH diskboot on a usbkey
To allow the automation of the linux workstation by windows technicians, i could copy an interactive script that set up some variables (as HOSTNAME, etc...) and and edit a KS file with the right fields. Then install from remote server.

The pb is that i can't test it this weekend as i don't have usb bootable machine at home. But i wonder what does contain this diskboot. Is there awk and sed apps in it?

The kickstart file can actually be fetched from a remote Web server, and some support teams write CGI files that pick up information from the installer and return a customized kickstart file with exactly the right settings - if you Google around you'll probably find code for this.

If you can change the settings on your DHCP server, and the workstations support PXE, it's well worth looking into setting up a PXE netboot server - the supplied tool (system-config-netboot) makes it very easy to do. You can then associate a kickstart file/URL with each boot image and dispense with the USB pendrives altogether.

The really nice thing about this technology is how modular it is - you can have the package (Web) server, DHCP service, Netboot service, and kickstart files all in separate places if you want, and it just works.

The Enterprise documentation covers all of this, and there is a more concise (alpha) tutorial here written against Fedora:

http://www.mythic-beasts.com/~hobb/f...on-servers-en/

You'll buy the lcd, hard disk, fan, nic, mouse, keyboard, motherboard, ram, psu, cpu. Brief, remember "Mother Can Not Run Hastily Looking For the Pen or Keyboard and Mice" to deduce the 10 components that make up a workstation. You'll do all the wiring jobs to connect these components together and to create a fiber optics network of an extendable amount of computers. From the master computer, you'll access other computer via its PXE and paste the install program there. The later will run and access the Kickstart files and download packages from the server.