AutoYaST allows you to install SUSE® Linux Enterprise on a large number of machines in parallel. The AutoYaST technology offers great flexibility to adjust deployments to heterogeneous hardware. This chapter tells you how to prepare a simple automated installation and lay out an advanced scenario involving different hardware types and installation purposes.
![]() | Identical Hardware |
---|---|
This scenario assumes you are rolling out SUSE Linux Enterprise to a set of machines with exactly the same hardware configuration. |
To prepare for an AutoYaST mass installation, proceed as follows:
Create an AutoYaST profile that contains the installation details needed for your deployment as described in Section 5.1.1, “Creating an AutoYaST Profile”.
Determine the source of the AutoYaST profile and the parameter to pass to the installation routines as described in Section 5.1.2, “Distributing the Profile and Determining the autoyast Parameter”.
Determine the source of the SUSE Linux Enterprise installation data as described in Section 5.1.3, “Providing the Installation Data”.
Determine and set up the boot scenario for autoinstallation as described in Section 5.1.4, “Setting Up the Boot Scenario”.
Pass the command line to the installation routines
by adding the parameters manually or by creating an
info
file as described in Section 5.1.5, “Creating the info
File”.
Start the autoinstallation process as described in Section 5.1.6, “Initiating and Monitoring the Autoinstallation”.
An AutoYaST profile tells AutoYaST what to install and how to configure the installed system to get a completely ready-to-use system in the end. It can be created in several different ways:
Clone a fresh installation from a reference machine to a set of identical machines
Use the AutoYaST GUI to create and modify a profile to meet your requirements
Use an XML editor and create a profile from scratch
To clone a fresh reference installation, proceed as follows:
Perform a normal installation.
After you complete the hardware configuration and read the release
notes, check /root/autoyast.xml
that can be used to create clones
of this particular installation.
To use the AutoYaST GUI to create a profile from an existing system configuration and modify it to your needs, proceed as follows:
As root
, start YaST.
Select
+ to start the graphical AutoYaST front-end.Select
+ to prepare AutoYaST to mirror the current system configuration into an AutoYaST profile.As well as the default resources, like boot loader, partitioning, and software selection, you can add various other aspects of your system to the profile by checking the items in the list in
.Click
to have YaST gather all the system information and write it to a new profile.To proceed, choose one of the following:
If the profile is complete and matches your requirements, select
autoyast.xml
.
Modify the reference profile by selecting the appropriate configuration aspects (such as “Hardware/Printer”) from the tree view to the left and clicking . The respective YaST module starts but your settings are written to the AutoYaST profile instead of applied to your system. When done, select + and enter a suitable name for the profile.
Leave the AutoYaST module with
+ .
The AutoYaST profile can be distributed in several different ways.
Depending on the protocol used to distribute the profile data,
different AutoYaST parameters are used to make the profile location known
to the installation routines on the client. The location of the profile
is passed to the installation routines by means of the boot prompt
or an info
file that is loaded upon boot. The
following options are available:
Profile Location |
Parameter |
Description |
---|---|---|
File |
|
Makes the installation routines look for the control file in
specified path (relative to source root
directory— |
Device |
|
Makes the installation routines look for the control file on
a storage device. Only the device name is
needed— |
Floppy |
|
Makes the installation routines look for the control file on a floppy in the floppy drive. This option is especially useful, if you want to boot from CD-ROM. |
NFS |
|
Has the installation routines retrieve the control file from an NFS server. |
HTTP |
|
Has the installation routines retrieve the control file from an HTTP server. |
HTTPS |
|
Has the installation routines retrieve the control file from an HTTPS server. |
TFTP |
|
Has the installation routines retrieve the control file from a TFTP server. |
FTP |
|
Has the installation routines retrieve the control file from an FTP server. |
Replace the server
and
path
placeholders with values matching your
actual setup.
AutoYaST includes a feature that allows binding certain profiles to the
client's MAC address. Without having to alter the
autoyast=
parameter, you can have the same setup install
several different instances using different profiles.
To use this, proceed as follows:
Create separate profiles with the MAC address of the client as the filename and put them on the HTTP server that holds your AutoYaST profiles.
Omit the exact path including the filename when creating
the autoyast=
parameter, for
example:
autoyast=http://192.0.2.91/
Start the autoinstallation.
YaST tries to determine the location of the profile in the following way:
YaST
searches for the profile using its own IP address in uppercase
hexadecimal, for example, 192.0.2.91
is
C000025B
.
If this file is not found, YaST removes one hex digit and tries again. This action is repeated eight times until the file with the correct name is found.
If that still fails, it tries looking for a file with the MAC address of
the clients as the filename. The MAC address of the example client is
0080C8F6484C
.
If the MAC address–named file cannot be found, YaST searches for
a file named default
(in lowercase). An example
sequence of addresses where
YaST searches for the AutoYaST profile looks as follows:
C000025B C000025 C00002 C0000 C000 C00 C0 C 0080C8F6484C default
The installation data can be provided by means of the product CDs or DVDs or using a network installation source. If the product CDs are used as the installation source, physical access to the client to install is needed, because the boot process needs to be initiated manually and the CDs need to be changed.
To provide the installation sources over the network, set up a network
installation server (HTTP, NFS, FTP) as described in Section 4.2.1, “Setting Up an Installation Server Using YaST”. Use an
info
file to pass the server's
location to the installation routines.
The client can be booted in several different ways:
As for a normal remote installation, autoinstallation can be initiated with Wake on LAN and PXE, the boot image and control file can be pulled in via TFTP, and the installation sources from any network installation server.
You can use the original SUSE Linux Enterprise media to boot the system for autoinstallation and pull in the control file from a network location or a floppy. Alternatively, create your own custom CD-ROM holding both the installation sources and the AutoYaST profile.
The following sections provide a basic outline of the procedures for network boot or boot from CD-ROM.
Network booting with Wake on LAN, PXE, and TFTP is
discussed in
Section 4.1.3, “Remote Installation via VNC—PXE Boot and
Wake on LAN”. To make the
setup introduced there work for autoinstallation, modify the featured
PXE Linux configuration file
(/srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default
) to contain
the autoyast
parameter pointing to the location of
the AutoYaST profile. An example entry for a standard installation
looks like this:
default linux # default label linux kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 insmod=e100 \ install=http://192.168.0.22/install/suse-enterprise/
The same example for autoinstallation looks like this:
default linux # default label linux kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 insmod=e100 \ install=http://192.168.0.22/install/suse-enterprise/ \ autoyast=nfs://192.168.0.23/profiles/autoyast.xml
Replace the example IP addresses and paths with the data used in your setup.
There are several ways in which booting from CD-ROM can come into play in AutoYaST installations. Choose from the following scenarios:
Use this approach if a totally network-based scenario is not possible (for example, if your hardware does not support PXE) and you have physical access to system to install during most of the process.
You need:
The SUSE Linux Enterprise media
A network server providing the profile data (see Section 5.1.2, “Distributing the Profile and Determining the autoyast Parameter” for details)
A floppy containing the info
file that
tells the installation routines where to find the profile
or
Access to the boot prompt of the system to install where you
manually enter the autoyast=
parameter
Use this approach if an entirely network-based installation scenario would not work. It requires physical access to the system to install for turning on the target machine, or, in the second case, to enter the profile's location at the boot prompt. In both cases, you may also need to change media depending on the scope of installation.
You need:
The SUSE Linux Enterprise media
A floppy holding both the profile and the
info
file
or
Access to the boot prompt of the target to enter the
autoyast=
parameter
If you just need to install a limited number of software packages and the number of targets is relatively low, creating your own custom CD holding both the installation data and the profile itself might prove a good idea, especially if no network is available in your setup.
The installation routines at the target need to be made aware of all the different components of the AutoYaST framework. This is done by creating a command line containing all the parameters needed to locate the AutoYaST components, installation sources, and the parameters needed to control the installation process.
Do this by manually passing these parameters at the
boot prompt of the installation or by providing a file called
info
that is read by the installation routines
(linuxrc). The former requires physical access to any client to
install, which makes this approach unsuitable for large
deployments. The latter enables you to provide the
info
file on some media that is prepared and
inserted into the clients' drives prior to the autoinstallation.
Alternatively, use PXE boot and include the linuxrc parameters in the
pxelinux.cfg/default
file as shown in Section 5.1.4.1, “Preparing for Network Boot”.
The following parameters are commonly used for linuxrc. For more
information, refer to the AutoYaST package documentation under
/usr/share/doc/packages/autoyast
.
![]() | Separating Parameters and Values |
---|---|
When passing parameters to linuxrc at the boot prompt, use
|
Keyword |
Value |
---|---|
|
The network device to use for network setup (for BOOTP/DHCP requests). Only needed if several network devices are available. |
|
When empty, the client sends a BOOTP request. Otherwise the client is configured using the specified data. |
|
Netmask. |
|
Gateway. |
|
Name server. |
|
Location of the the control file to use for the
automatic installation, such as
|
|
Location of the installation source, such as
|
|
If set to |
|
The password for VNC. |
|
If set to |
If your autoinstallation scenario involves client configuration via
DCHP and a network installation source and you want to monitor the
installation process using VNC, your info
would
look like this:
autoyast:profile_source
install:install_source
vnc:1 vncpassword:some_password
If you prefer a static network setup at installation time, your
info
file would look like the following:
autoyast:profile_source
\ install:install_source
\ hostip:some_ip
\ netmask:some_netmask
\ gateway:some_gateway
The \
indicate that the line breaks have only
been added for the sake of readability. All options must be entered
as one continuous string.
The info
data can be made available to linuxrc in
various different ways:
As a file in the root directory of a floppy that is in the client's floppy drive at installation time.
As a file in the root directory of the initial RAM disk used for booting the system provided either from custom installation media or via PXE boot.
As part of the AutoYaST profile. In this case, the AutoYaST file needs to
be called info
to enable linuxrc to parse
it. An example for this approach is given below.
linuxrc looks for a string (start_linuxrc_conf
) in
the profile that represents the beginning of the file. If it is
found, it parses the content starting from that string and
finishes when the string end_linuxrc_conf
is found. The
options are stored in the profile as follows:
.... <install> .... <init> <info_file> <![CDATA[ # # Don't remove the following line: # start_linuxrc_conf # install: nfs:server
/path
vnc: 1 vncpassword: test autoyast: file:///info # end_linuxrc_conf # Do not remove the above comment # ]]> </info_file> </init> ...... </install> ....
linuxrc loads the profile containing the boot parameters instead
of the traditional info
file. The
install:
parameter points to the location of the
installation sources. vnc
and
vncpassword
indicate the use of VNC for installation
monitoring. The autoyast
parameter tells linuxrc
to treat info
as an AutoYaST profile.
After you have provided all the infrastructure mentioned above
(profile, installation source, and info
file), you
can go ahead and start the autoinstallation. Depending on the scenario
chosen for booting and monitoring the process, physical
interaction with the client may be needed:
If the client system boots from any kind of physical media, either product media or custom CDs, you need to insert these into the client's drives.
If the client is not switched on via Wake on LAN, you need to at least switch on the client machine.
If you have not opted for remote controlled autoinstallation, the graphical feedback from AutoYaST is sent to the client's attached monitor or, if you use a headless client, to a serial console.
To enable remote controlled autoinstallation, use the VNC or SSH
parameters described in Section 5.1.5, “Creating the info
File” and connect to the
client from another machine as described in Section 4.5, “Monitoring the Installation Process”.