From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 13 21:10:17 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CF711186 for ; Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:10:17 +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 52E5EC22 for ; Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:10:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-lb0-f169.google.com with SMTP id p9so4794294lbv.0 for ; Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:10:15 -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=lP7SmfqxnViG8YqOBb1MmXM6q6oVIn6wlLSR7mXwTzw=; b=M5EzWrQxH96crzbDy1UEinesOrdX0xohKaHmLFnZzAAJP/q35PcMwKdtLncL+5WHAX Dc6FCki0RnFu4LPhNv95WwQMEF4FMGYnBaxEFpNSXe9oN0YIH80tcFnWd2WBqZH0iw/Z IYnI7FkuyG6mDwvayjF7XXCJGYhn33AMyAn/GG2oG1cuTIyI3cqTukiNTsqOapfc3117 OmgWRScV6sjHtQiZ8sCodEsY6N45KwLprXbxPQPaYminX4H8hgHzJorCvn4LwTPQnQ8C 1ZpJu9BS9nIBp4dQchdIrh4c/HIAVEYAb5EnoNxnge4KEHtKbDu0HIHi+U8tjDygYYpr wc9g== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.112.51.44 with SMTP id h12mr393828lbo.5.1421183415212; Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:10:15 -0800 (PST) Sender: crodr001@gmail.com Received: by 10.112.129.3 with HTTP; Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:10:15 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:10:15 -0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: QSIwRpgv-nzT0toGKN2T4YXsaJ8 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Devops question: unattended installs of FreeBSD? From: Craig Rodrigues To: John Nielsen Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.18-1 Cc: freebsd-current Current X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:10:18 -0000 On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 12:12 PM, John Nielsen wrote: > > I'd be happy to provide more specific suggestions if needed. It really > depends on how fully automated you want things to be and how much > customization you want to include, as well as what you have available in > the install environment. If you're installing on live VMs then you first > have to get them booted. A custom ISO or MFS image is probably the simplest > for that, though PXE is also an option. (Actually, serving an mfsBSD image > via PXE is pretty straightforward.) > > Thanks! You provided some excellent concrete examples for how to do unattended FreeBSD installs. In the past 6 months, I have had two different people ask me how to: -> create a PXE boot server -> take the ISO image for FreeBSD 9.2, FreeBSD 10.1, etc. -> create a kickstart environment where it is possible to PXE boot a cluster of machines, and have an unattended "kickstart" install take place of the various FreeBSD versions I have coded this kind of stuff up myself in the past and written my own scripts. However, it would be really nice if we had more straightforward documentation and example scripts for doing this. That way, the average devops engineer experienced with Linux and kickstart can set this up with no problem, instead of having to struggle and figure things out. It looks like all this stuff is possible under FreeBSD. The main problem I see is that the access to the documentation for doing this is not straightforward at all. If I do a web search for "Linux kickstart", the search results I get lead me to documentation that is actually quite good. I am not a Linux expert, but I can read that stuff and figure out how to set it up reasonably quickly. If I do a web search for "FreeBSD kickstart", the top search results I get lead to a few broken web links, and some private notes from different people on the Internet. The notes are not bad, but not as straightforward to follow as the Linux documentation links. Since you have some good experience with this, can we create a thread on https://forums.freebsd.org with the title "FreeBSD kickstart" with some step-by-step examples for creating a "kickstart" environment? That way over time, a web search for "FreeBSD kickstart" will show the forum post with top-notch examples. Thanks. -- Craig