Profile Details

On the Autoinstallation Details  Details page, you have the following options:

  • Change the profile Label.

  • Change the operating system by clicking (Change).

  • Change the Virtualization Type.

    Changing the Virtualization Type may require changes to the Kickstart profile bootloader and partition options, potentially overwriting user customizations. Consult the Partitioning tab to verify any new or changed settings.

  • Change the amount of Virtual Memory (in Megabytes of RAM) allocated to virtual guests autoinstalled with this profile.

  • Change the number of Virtual CPUs for each virtual guest.

  • Change the Virtual Storage Path from the default in /var/lib/xen/ .

  • Change the amount of Virtual Disk Space (in GB) allotted to each virtual guest.

  • Change the Virtual Bridge for networking of the virtual guest.

  • Deactivate the profile so that it cannot be used to schedule a Kickstart by removing the Active check mark.

  • Check whether to enable logging for custom %post scripts to the /root/ks-post.log file.

  • Decide whether to enable logging for custom %pre scripts to the /root/ks-pre.log file.

  • Choose whether to preserve the ks.cfg file and all %include fragments to the /root/ directory of all systems autoinstalled with this profile.

  • Select whether this profile is the default for all of your organization’s Kickstarts by checking or unchecking the box.

  • Add any Kernel Options in the corresponding text box.

  • Add any Post Kernel Options in the corresponding text box.

  • Enter comments that are useful to you in distinguishing this profile from others.

Operating System

On this page, you can make the following changes to the operating system that the Kickstart profile installs:

Change the base channel

Select from the available base channels. SUSE Manager administrators see a list of all base channels that are currently synced to the SUSE Manager.

Child Channels

Subscribe to available child channels of the base channel, such as the Tools channel.

Available Trees

Use the drop-down menu to choose from available trees associated with the base channel.

Always use the newest Tree for this base channel.

Instead of selecting a specific tree, you can also check the box Always use the newest Tree for this base channel. This setting lets SUSE Manager automatically pick the latest tree that is associated with the specified base channels. If you add new trees later, SUSE Manager will always keep the most recently created or modified.

Software URL (File Location)

The exact location from which the Kickstart tree is mounted. This value is determined when the profile is created. You can view it on this page but you cannot change it.

Variables

Autoinstallation variables can substitute values in Kickstart and AutoYaST profiles. To define a variable, create a name-value pair (name/value) in the text box.

For example, if you want to autoinstall a system that joins the network of a specified organization (for example the Engineering department), you can create a profile variable to set the IP address and the gateway server address to a variable that any system using that profile will use. Add the following line to the Variables text box.

IPADDR=192.168.0.28
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

Now you can use the name of the variable in the profile instead of a specific value. For example, the network part of a Kickstart file looks like the following:

network --bootproto=static --device=eth0 --onboot=on --ip=$IPADDR \
  --gateway=$GATEWAY

The $IPADDR will be resolved to 192.168.0.28, and the $GATEWAY to 192.168.0.1

There is a hierarchy when creating and using variables in Kickstart files. System Kickstart variables take precedence over Profile variables, which in turn take precedence over Distribution variables. Understanding this hierarchy can alleviate confusion when using variables in Kickstarts.

Using variables are just one part of the larger Cobbler infrastructure for creating templates that can be shared between multiple profiles and systems. For more about Cobbler and templates, see client-configuration:cobbler.adoc.

Advanced Options

From this page, you can toggle several installation options on and off by checking and unchecking the boxes to the left of the option. For most installations, the default options are correct. Refer to Red Hat Enterprise Linux documentation for details.

Assigning Default Profiles to an Organization

You can specify an Organization Default Profile by clicking Autoinstallation  Profiles  profile name  Details, then checking the Organization Default Profile box and finally clicking Update.

Assigning IP Ranges to Profiles

You can associate an IP range to an autoinstallation profile by clicking on Autoinstallation  Profiles  profile name  Bare Metal Autoinstallation, adding an IPv4 range and finally clicking Add IP Range.

Bare Metal Autoinstallation

This subtab provides the information necessary to Kickstart systems that are not currently registered with SUSE Manager. Using the on-screen instructions, you may either autoinstall systems using boot media (CD-ROM) or by IP address.

Details

Displays subtabs that are available from the System Details tab.

On the System Details  Details page, you have the following options:

  • Select between DHCP and static IP, depending on your network.

  • Choose the level of SELinux that is configured on kickstarted systems.

  • Enable configuration management or remote command execution on kickstarted systems.

  • Change the root password associated with this profile.

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Locale

Change the timezone for kickstarted systems.

Partitioning

From this subtab, indicate the partitions that you wish to create during installation. For example:

partition /boot --fstype=ext3 --size=200
partition swap --size=2000
partition pv.01 --size=1000 --grow
volgroup myvg pv.01 logvol / --vgname=myvg --name=rootvol --size=1000 --grow

File Preservation

If you have previously created a file preservation list, include this list as part of the Kickstart. This will protect the listed files from being over-written during the installation process. For more on file preservation lists, see reference:systems/autoinst-file-preservation.adoc.

GPG & SSL

From this subtab, select the GPG keys and/or SSL certificates to be exported to the kickstarted system during the %post section of the Kickstart. For SUSE Manager customers, this list includes the SSL Certificate used during the installation of SUSE Manager.

Any GPG key you wish to export to the kickstarted system must be in ASCII rather than binary format.

Troubleshooting

From this subtab, change information that may help with troubleshooting hardware problems:

Bootloader

For some headless systems, it is better to select the non-graphic LILO bootloader.

Kernel Parameters

Enter kernel parameters here that may help to narrow down the source of hardware issues.

Package Groups

details ks 5

The image above shows subtabs that are available from the Software tab.

Enter the package groups, such as @office or @admin-tools you would like to install on the kickstarted system in the large text box. If you would like to know what package groups are available, and what packages they contain, refer to the RedHat/base/ file of your Kickstart tree.

Package Profiles

If you have previously created a Package Profile from one of your registered systems, you can use that profile as a template for the files to be installed on a kickstarted system. For more about package profiles, see reference:systems/system-details/sd-packages.adoc#s1-package-profiles.

Activation Keys

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Figure 1. Activation Keys

The Activation Keys tab allows you to select Activation Keys to include as part of the Kickstart profile. These keys, which must be created before the Kickstart profile, will be used when re-registering kickstarted systems.

Scripts

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Figure 2. Scripts

The Scripts tab is where %pre and %post scripts are created. This page lists any scripts that have already been created for this Kickstart profile. To create a Kickstart script, perform the following procedure:

  1. Click the add new kickstart script link in the upper right corner.

  2. Enter the path to the scripting language used to create the script, such as /usr/bin/perl.

  3. Enter the full script in the large text box.

  4. Indicate whether this script is to be executed in the %pre or %post section of the Kickstart process.

  5. Indicate whether this script is to run outside of the chroot environment. Refer to the Post-installation Script section of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide for further explanation of the nochroot option.

SUSE Manager supports the inclusion of separate files within the Partition Details section of the Kickstart profile. For instance, you may dynamically generate a partition file based on the machine type and number of disks at Kickstart time. This file can be created via %pre script and placed on the system, such as /tmp/part-include. Then you can call for that file by entering the following line in the Partition Details field of the System Details  Partitioning tab:

%include /tmp/part-include

Autoinstallation File

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Figure 3. Autoinstallation File

The Autoinstallation File tab allows you to view or download the profile that has been generated from the options chosen in the previous tabs.

Upload Kickstart/AutoYaST File

Click the Upload Kickstart/Autoyast File link from the Systems  Autoinstallation page to upload an externally prepared AutoYaST or Kickstart profile.

  1. In the first line, enter a profile Label for the automated installation. This label[] drop-down menu is only populated if one or more distributions have been created for the selected base channel (see reference:systems/autoinst-distributions.adoc).

  2. Instead of selecting a specific tree, you can also check the box Always use the newest Tree for this base channel. This setting lets SUSE Manager automatically pick the latest tree that is associated with the specified base channels. If you add new trees later, SUSE Manager will always keep the most recently created or modified.

  3. Select the Virtualization Type from the drop-down menu. For more information about virtualization with traditional clients, see .

    If you do not intend to use the autoinstall profile to create virtual guest systems, you can leave the drop-down set to the default choice KVM Virtualized Guest.

  4. Either cut-and-paste the file contents, or update the file from the local storage medium:

    • Paste it into the File Contents box and click Create, or

    • enter the file name in the File to Upload field and click Upload File.

Four subtabs are now available:

  • Details

  • Bare Metal

  • Variables

  • Autoinstallable File