From owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 15 13:33:18 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 95AF9D59 for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:33:18 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-lb0-x229.google.com (mail-lb0-x229.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:4010:c04::229]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 00730235 for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:33:18 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-lb0-f169.google.com with SMTP id p9so13270047lbv.0 for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:33:15 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject :from:to:cc:content-type; bh=fvm/UswZx9ikhD85djGu1mY8iGjQJHVfMfMCkuEOunA=; b=y7sPsKaEVfzHX3upqBbsaBoyZCwis3cPayRM1pL1HW4wUSQKvlcShTvn12GGpEJ1AY sbJcvQi4O8s2ki1Ls2XEdPSubCjvCV/QzMQvMsvvwqXxkdszPt8YcdgcrNjTFJUcxafF d7ZtcaUcWgJd/rnr+6sL5a6597h1IAP/bfnCPnXRRwLLDv8Pp+/ClZ48MhNqmOCD5dXr 3SyzsmhDK8S8Ia1iTryxP+puIzvaBrzp+gEoVrv7i4WnEDbs7yK7srp3fI2ouIE8UN5+ 49Lakq2Z6CZVoDwnvxMUqp7n8sRp5RfzDPQusMYHvsdp+0GFtFbanRNbVgrc4earRlYm BDZg== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.112.97.163 with SMTP id eb3mr3545584lbb.47.1421328794928; Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:33:14 -0800 (PST) Sender: crodr001@gmail.com Received: by 10.112.129.3 with HTTP; Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:33:14 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20150115054836.GA2307@dragon.genyosha.home> References: <20150114023330.GA80986@FreeBSD.org> <20150115054836.GA2307@dragon.genyosha.home> Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:33:14 -0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: 6ffEs7u7KOG9_4ud6XV9aE79C4c Message-ID: Subject: Re: projects to better support FreeBSD sysadmins From: Craig Rodrigues To: Steve Rikli Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.18-1 Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org, Deb Goodkin X-BeenThere: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD Evangelism List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:33:18 -0000 On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 9:48 PM, Steve Rikli wrote: > > Instead, I think there needs to be more focus on the parts of the OS > automated installation which are FreeBSD-specific and different from > the Linux Kickstart equivalents; e.g. just off the top of my head: > > - how is the FreeBSD pxeboot loader different from Linux? E.g. > what args/options will it accept? Can it play nicely with > PXElinux these days? Example pxe.cfg files? What if you need > to have multiple FreeBSD versions and architectures Kickstarted > from the same server? > > - what is the modern FreeBSD equivalent of a Linux Kickstart > ks.cfg file, if any? > > - how does one script/automate the postinstall configuration with > sysinstall or PC-BSD's installer or ??? > > - likewise for preinstall steps, if applicable (Linux Kickstart > has sections for both in the kickstart config file) e.g. for > disk partitioning or other early actions during an automated > OS install > I just found out about something today. Can you review this work by Google Summer of Code student Kamil Czekirda and see how functional it is compared to Linux kickstart: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2015-January/053994.html If this work fits the needs, then maybe we can focus on getting it into the FreeBSD tree, improving the docs, and making sure that web searches for "FreeBSD kickstart" show this stuff. > > Whereas for better or worse, Linux Kickstart and PXElinux (or SYSlinux > etc.) seems to be the defacto standard for typical OS deployments, until > you get to cloud-y things and cloning VMs and whatnot. But even in > cloud/vm areas, you still may want to Kickstart at least the 1st > instance, right? > I definitely need to bootstrap/kickstart the first initial instance of VM's for things I am working on. I think other people need to do the same thing also. -- Craig