I have some servers at remote sites where the networking folks refuse to set up bootp forwarding so that I can kickstart the servers. I was thinking about modifying an ISO image to add a dhcp server with a custom kickstart file so that the server would get its ip address from the ISO image and then can get the rest of the files across the network from the kickstart server. I'm not sure how to add a daemon to a bootable ISO image and get it to automatically start? Can't seem to word my google search correctly.

If anyone has a reference on how to add another startup service to a bootable ISO image, I'd appreciate hearing about it. (Using CentOS 7)

Thanks!

My understanding is that you wish to create a live usb to do some task at a remote site. Is that correct?

You can make a live usb from some iso and could add in a package or so. One could make a custom distro from an existing install.

What I think I'd do is just make a real install to some usb hard drive and use it (if I get the question correctly.)
Might be possible to make a VM or container of what you want or other flatpak or snap or such.


One might be able to make a gpxe/ipxe boot flash to boot over http or other media.

An iso system (live cd/usb) is read only and if you install software, it will work as long as you don't reboot which is probably not what you want.

Doing a full install suggested above would probably be best. Another alternative is a live system with persistence if you can do that with whatever Linux OS you are using. Otherwise, you would have to extract the iso file, copy all the files to another directory, make your modifications and then rebuild the iso. THe first 2 options would be much easier.

No, these are HPE Proliant DL systems. My plan was to create an ISO image and mount it through the virtual drive in iLO to kickstart the server. I was trying to automate it by adding a dhcp server to the ISO image, but this does not appear to be an easy task. I think it will be easier to add a %pre script that just interactively asks me for the ip address for this server and proceed from there. I only have about 6 servers to do. So, that seems the far easier path. Thanks!