1. Managing auto-installation

1. Managing auto-installation
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Mandriva Corporate Server 4 provides an auto-installation method. It allows you to reproduce a given installation scenario that you can personnalize according to your needs. It is customizable for a full or partial installation. You will be able to install your server in a partly or fully non interactive way. This section reviews auto-install functionnality.

	Tip
	Comprenhensive documentation is availabe in the drakx-autoinstall-doc package. It contains detailed documentation about auto-install configuration and use.

The automated installation feature of DrakX is controlled by the contents of a file named auto_inst.cfg. This file is generally located on the boot floppy diskette. PXE can also provide it, so that you can install automatically.

The contents of the auto_inst.cfg file are comprised of a Perl Scalar Structure declaration (o). The declaration $o = {...}; is used by DrakX to preset various options and selections. Within the opening/closing braces are a series of simple and/or compound declarations (representing your selections).

During a manual install, the various declarations are created and the appropriate fields filled in as you make choices from the various screens. Then, when you created the Automated or Replay diskette, selected portions of this structure were simply dumped to a file that will control the actions of DrakX when an Automated or Replay install is done.

An Automated Install requires that all the choices be pre-selected using either the file generated by DrakX, or, manually by you. During each installation, DrakX creates a template based on your choice and called /root/drakx/auto_inst.cfg.pl. You can edit this file and modify some of the values.

Auto-installation allows you to automatically manage:

partitions
packages choice
network configuration
user creation
authentication
X configuration
...

You can also add some more actions for the post-installation steps, using some bash commands for example.

Here is a short extract of an example file:

$o = {
	'printer' => {
		'configured' => {}
},
	'default_packages' => [
		'kernel-2.6.12.26mdk',
		'vim-enhanced',
		'grub',
		'lilo',
		'vim-minimal',
		...
		]
		'net' => {
	'zeroconf' => {
		'hostname' => undef
	},
	'network' => {
		'NETWORKING' => 'yes',
		'DHCP' => 'yes',
		'NET_DEVICE' => 'eth0',
		'NET_INTERFACE' => 'eth0'
		},
		...
  }

In this example, printers are not configured, neither is zeroconf. Default packages choice contains packages like grub and vim-enhanced. Network is configured using dhcp on interface eth0.

Once your file is ready, you can use it in different ways:

Using the install CD or DVD and floppy: copy auto_install.cfg on a floopy. Then boot with both install medium and floppy. On first screen, press F1 and on prompt, use this command: linux kickstart=floppy.
Using PXE: you can define a specific image so that it takes into account the auto-installation file. For example: the PXE server and data are stored on an nfs share. You should use this configuration:
```
******TODO********
```
You should then copy auto_install.cfg in the install directory of your repository. You can rename it using testauto for example. Then, if the client uses cs4auto image, it will automatically use the auto-installation file without using other media.

Tip

You can quite easily check the syntax of auto_inst.cfg.pl using a perl check tool. Use the following command:

# perl -cw /root/drakx/auto_inst.cfg.pl
   auto_inst.cfg.pl syntax OK