How to Automate CentOS 6.6 Deployment with Kickstart: Step‑by‑Step Guide

In production environments where many identical systems need to be deployed, manually installing the operating system on each server is extremely time‑consuming; CentOS provides an unattended installation feature that can be configured with Kickstart.

1. Configure the local yum repository

Mount the installation CD to the /media/ directory and set up the yum source so that required packages can be installed.

2. Install required software

Install the following services:

tftp : simple file transfer protocol for providing boot files to clients.

dhcp : dynamic host configuration protocol for assigning IP addresses.

http : serves installation files to clients.

system-config-kickstart : tool for generating Kickstart configuration files.

3. Disable firewall and SELinux

Stop the firewall service and set SELinux to permissive or disabled mode.

4. Configure the TFTP server

1) Edit the TFTP configuration file and set disable="no".

2) Restart the TFTP service.

3) Verify the TFTP port.

4) Copy pxelinux.0 to /var/lib/tftpboot. If /usr/share/syslinux does not exist, install it with yum -y install syslinux.

5) Copy the isolinux directory from the installation CD to /var/lib/tftpboot.

6) Copy isolinux.cfg to /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default and rename it to default.

7) Edit the default file to customize the boot menu.

5. Configure DHCP

Edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf with the appropriate network settings and restart the DHCP service.

6. Configure HTTP

Create a directory under the HTTP document root and mount the installation CD into it so that installation files are accessible via HTTP.

7. Generate the Kickstart configuration file

1) Launch the Kickstart configuration tool from a terminal.

2) Fill in basic information such as language, timezone, and root password.

3) Choose the installation method (the example uses HTTP).

4) Define partitioning scheme, add network devices, disable SELinux and firewall, select software packages, and add post‑installation scripts.

5) Save the configuration file.

Note: any settings not explicitly covered can remain at their default values.

The partitioning commands used in the Kickstart file are: part – create a partition. part pv.ID – create a physical volume. volgroup VolGroup –pesize=4096 pv.01 – create a volume group.

logvol / –fstype="ext4" –name=lv_root –vgname=VolGroup –size=10240

– create the root logical volume. logvol swap –name=lv_swap –vgname=VolGroup –size=2048 – create the swap logical volume.

8. Perform unattended installation of CentOS 6.6

Boot a bare‑metal machine; the custom boot menu defined in the default file appears. After the pre‑installation checks, the text‑mode installer runs automatically, and the system reboots into the newly installed OS.

Verification shows that the configured IP address, partitions, and post‑installation scripts (e.g., automatic yum repository creation) are all applied correctly.

Note: the steps above cover the most basic deployment; more complex installations can be achieved by extending the Kickstart file and post‑scripts.