Configure CentOS/RedHat VMs with Kickstart files on Virtualbox

Sat, 05 May 2018 18:54:50 +0000

Kickstart is a type of file that’s used to automatically install RedHat or CentOS Linux on a physical or virtual server. If you are managing more than a few servers, it’s a good idea to configure the servers via kickstart files instead of logging in and configuring each one manually. However, some unfortunate choices were made when defining the Kickstart file format, and it’s not the easiest thing to use. When creating a new Kickstart or making major changes, it’s good to have way to quickly iterate and test your changes. Iterating on a Kickstart file is slow and inconvenient in an enterprise environment in which a freshly booted server obtains an image and Kickstarter file via PXEboot. To speed up Kickstart testing and debugging, I’ve developed a simple way to use Kickstart files with CentOS/RedHat guest virtual machines that run in VirtualBox on my Mac. This process should also work with Windows or Linux hosts. When the RedHat installer is booting, it looks for a file called ks.cfg on a volume with label OEMDRV. First, we will create this volume as a small virtual disk image. On a Mac, you can create this image with Disk Utility as shown below. Note that the Name needs to be OEMDRV (though you can make the filename anything you want).

Create OEMDRV disk image OSX Disk Utility

Kickstart on shocksolution.com

Configure CentOS/RedHat VMs with Kickstart files on Virtualbox