CentOS installation as kickstart pxe server

Introduction

Installation of Centos 5.2 as a PXE server to install Centos Servers via the network.
The reason for this project is that we need to teach the students Linux Clustering, and the students need to install a CentOS cluster. This server will reduce the time needed to install several cluster nodes.

Installation of CentOS 5.2

Harddisk partitionering

SATA Harddisk sda 115 GB SATA Harddisk sdb 305 GB

Hard disk partitions

Harddisk	Mount point	Type	Size
sda	/	ext3	5.000 MB
sda	/boot	ext3	4.000 MB
sda	/var	ext3	25.000 MB
sda	/tmp	ext3	25.000 MB
sda	/usr	ext3	40.000 MB
sdb	/home	ext3	150.000 MB
sda	swap	swap	5.000 MB
sdb	swap	swap	5.000 MB

Choosing installation categories

• Desktop - Gnome
• Desktop - KDE
• Server
• Server - GUI

No Selinux firewall. Running in secure environment.

Post installation

Upgrading software

Update the installed software to newest versions.

[root@localhost]# yum update

[root@localhost ~]#

Permit ssh login as root

Uncomment the #PermitRootLogin yes line in /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and restart sshd

[root@localhost ~]# vi +/PermitRootLogin /etc/ssh/sshd_config
[root@localhost ~]# service sshd restart

Changing hostname

Changing the hostname to ks.tekkom.dk

[root@localhost ~]# hostname ks.tekkom.dk
[root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/sysconfig/network

Preparing for network installation

Copying the ISO images to the server

Make a directory for NFS export or FTP access. Copy the dvd or the six cd's iso image to it.

[root@localhost home]# mkdir /home/iso
[root@localhost home]# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/iso/disk1
[root@localhost home]# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/iso/disk2
[root@localhost home]# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/iso/disk3
[root@localhost home]# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/iso/disk4
[root@localhost home]# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/iso/disk5
[root@localhost home]# dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/iso/disk6

export ISO images directory via NFS

Export /home/iso directory read-only and start NFS daemons. Now and permanently.

[root@ks init.d]# echo "/home/iso *(ro,no_root_squash)" >> /etc/export
[root@ks init.d]# chkconfig --level 345 nfs on
[root@ks init.d]# service nfs start
Starter NFS-tjenester:                                     [     O.k.    ]
Starter NFS-kvoter:                                        [     O.k.    ]
Starter NFS-dæmonen:                                       [     O.k.    ]
Starter NFS mountd:                                        [     O.k.    ]

Installing additional services

[root@ks init.d]# yum install tftp-server