Question: True non-interactive network based install
Recently I've been considering working on creating a network based install
for Debian, along the lines of HP's Ignite-UX or Sun's Jumpstart.
With Sun's Jumpstart (review is at
http://www.sysadminmag.com/current/feature.shtml), you can tell the sparc to
boot net - install. The sun box then does a reverse arp request, gets it's
ip address from the jumpstart server (on the same ethernet segment of
course) then tftp's the bootimage. From there it partitions itself
according to the settings on the jumpstart server, and installes all of the
stuff that the jumpstart server tells it to install. (Granted this is
pretty watered down, but you all get the point.)
Sooo, this leads me to Debian. What I would like to do is take a floppy,
boot from it, and then have it query a server for the base files, and other
packages that I want installed, and any config files that I have changed and
put on that server to use, partition the drive (/ and swap, minimally). In
the end I have an non-interactive install of a debian image that I create
interactively on the boot server, and once that machine has installed
itself, I can then forget about it. If I have a problem with that machine
later, I just force a re-install. Essentially I'm trying to set up a web
farm of Debian boxes and simple enough our pc techs / interns can handle it
without having to know diddly about UN*X in general. And where I would
still maintain control of the boxes (ie root and base configs).
I guess the easiest way would be to modify dbootstrap to do this, but I'm
wondering if it just wouldn't be better to write a different package to take
care of this. If that's the case, then sure I'll do that, and definatley
make it GPL'd of course (just have to arm-twist our legal department here,
but it's worth it in this case)
--
Dennis J. Behrens
Operations Analyst
Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc.
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