kickstart slow to initialize
 

I'm kickstarting a few servers over nfs and have found that it is slow to get going.

I provide all the network information via the boot: prompt and point it at the kickstart file. Once everything gets started eth0 is configured and it reaches out to the nfs server to get its information.

This works. However, the transfer of /mnt/stage2/install.img to /tmp takes ages. Easily about 15 minutes. Once the transfer is complete the install goes rapidly. All the packages are sent over in short order.

What would be causing the insane slowdown at the beginning of the process? I was thinking it might be a difference in NFS versions since I'm kickstarting RHEL6 from an RHEL5 NFS server. If that's the case, is there an option I can pass to force the correct version?

I would think that once the server and client decide on a version to use then the transfer would just proceed normally. I would suggest using wireshark on the server side to see what is happening during the transfer.
You could also try specifying the version to use for your stage2 like:

stage2=nfs:nfsvers=2:server:/path/

At least, I think that's how it's supposed to go.

The issues is that I'm loading the initial boot environment from my workstation over the WAN to our remote systems. There aren't any configuration issues at play here.