I am looking for a thorough document that explains:
1) Creating a local repo
2) Using kickstart to access that repo
3) Performing a network install using kickstart

I've web searched and come up with disjoint pieces, but its been hard to put them into a cohesive whole. Are there any Fedora books or web sites that cover these topics together?

Some background:

I have several racks of servers that I need to install Fedora on. These servers CANNOT be placed on the internet; hence the need for the creation of a local repo on some other machine (which will be connected to the servers via a local network). I am not sure how to create a local repo, so that one of my questions.

I'd also like to automate as much of the install as possible and kickstart is the only thing I know of for that. I am no guru with kickstart, but I have used it before to successfully install Fedora Core 6 -- I am hoping there are no great changes with the current releases of Fedora (12-14)?

A local repo of Fedora Core 6 was created by someone (some time ago) on a workstation (running FC6). This is what I've used in the past to install FC6 on previous servers (via a kickstart CD). However, I dont have the documentation on how the repo was created or how the kickstart CD was created I've gleaned some ideas ok kickstart from the pieces I've read on web, but none of it has been specific to the latest releases of Fedora.

So, basically, I am thoroughly confused at this point.

Personally I'd suggest you look at cobbler. it does pretty much all you want.

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Thanks. I will be checking that; however I really want to understand the pieces, so I started to mess with PXI -- and I actually got it to work! (By divine providence, no doubt!) I got FC6 to install completely on a new HP server that is connected to our local network.

Still, one question remains. Is it possible to automate the configuration of a servers raid drives (HP Smart Array P400 controller) or does that have to be done manually? Right now, when I get a rack of new servers, I go through each one and use the ORCA tool to setup the logical drives. I'm hoping there is some way to automate that. And forgive the lame question, but I am assuming you have to configure the logical drives before you can install the OS?

I am going to post this the hardware forum too -- not sure if this is really the place for it.

This is linux... everything can be automated. If it's BIOS level and there are no appropriate tools, then you should be able to go via the ILO on the box. Which again can be automated. I use the ILO over ssh to turn some DL380's on and off via a hook in cobbler.

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