[CentOS] [ANN] Footprint - kickstart management tool

Dag Wieers

dag at wieers.com
Tue Feb 7 08:42:11 UTC 2006


Hi,

I'm planning to create a new tool to simplify creation and management of 
kickstart-files (as well as automate some of the tasks that come with 
automated installation).

If you know of another mailinglist that fits this subject, or you know of 
similar projects (because I can imagine there are countless 
implementations inside companies) please let me know. I'm just in the 
design phase and i'm interested in what already exists and how it was 
implemented (the structure/interface/features).

Let me first explain what I aim for (and how it is currently in my head).

First of all, it should be straight-forward to manage a list of systems 
(or groups of systems) that have similar configurations. A config-file 
could be something like:

	/etc/footprint/system/proxy-servers.conf

	[main]
	boot options = panic=10 acpi=off
	dist = rhel4as
	#modules = e100
	profile = proxy-servers

	[proxy01]
	ip = 10.0.0.1
	netmask = 255.255.255.0
	mac address = 00:01:02:03:004:05
	...

(or even more simple, only hold 1 system)

There would be a collection of profiles, each specifying a set of 
variables that influence the kickstart file. This could be 
hardware-related or functional.

And a directory-structure for different methods, like LVM setup for 
rhel3as, rhel4as for different disk configurations, or a debug-method 
(to ease development), or a method that sets up callback and log 
functionality (to follow progress from remote), lots of things are 
possible here to extend anaconda.

The tool would then be able to construct a working kickstart file, 
depending on the combination of profiles/variables it could generate a 
custom initial ramdisk, use another kernel, create the PXE and DHCP 
configuration, or make a floppy or ISO file used for custom hardware 
booting.

Also, it would be nice to have a script in Apache that is able to (based 
on the IP address or mac address) to generate the correct kickstart file 
(and automatically save/timestamp it for debug/management purposes).

In the end, the command-line tool (based on the config files) would 
automatically control DHCP/PXE, all the files that make remote booting 
possible and the management (and revisions) of kickstart files.

And that's how I got the name, what is left after a good kickstart ?
A footprint :)

The aim is to integrate it to work with Yam, so that setting this up 
becomes very easy. And custom packages and updates are merged with the 
default packagelist so you don't have to do customisations afterwards.

Additionally, I'd like to have methods for doing extra configuration 
tweaks (like populating hosts files, dropping SSH keys, configuring user 
management and much much more). For all these things I can use help and 
ideas, so let me know what additional features you have in mind.

Discussions go onto the rpmforge tools mailinglist:

	http://lists.rpmforge.net/mailman/listinfo/tools

And I have a non-functional website at:

	http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/footprint/

(required for registering the freshmeat project)

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]



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