Penguin
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If you have a lab full of machines, or you have a number of machines that need to be set up with the same configuration (eg: you are building firewalls), you might be interested in a method of automatically installing machines.


RedHat Linux

Automatic installs on Red Hat are made very easy by the fact that RPMs do not ask you question when they are installed. Red Hat policy is to shoot first and ask questions later; if a file is going to be overwritten, a new file (file.rpmnew) is written in its place.

The 'standard' way to do a Red Hat automatic install is with KickStart. This is a feature built into anaconda (the Red Hat installer) that allows you to run ksconfig(1)? and generate a configuration file that you can put on a floppy, then boot a system, have it automatically pick up an IP address by DHCP, mount a share for files and start installing based on the configuration file you build with ksconfig(1)?.


DebianLinux

This isn't quite as easy; and it seems to be because not all packages (notably LILO) choose to use debconf(7)? as their post installation question-asking tool. There was a great deal of debate by Debian developers about this, which appears to have been resolved in the suggestion that people use debconf in Debian policy.

Seems looks like you have four options.

  1. FAI (Fully Automated Installation) - This does an install off an NFS server.
  2. autoinstall - This is a kickstart-alike config on a floppy system, but designed to be generated by a pre installed Debian system generating you a config rather than a bunch of questions in a configuration program. Developed by Progeny. See http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/users-guide/ap-ami.en.html for some configuration options.
  3. SystemImager - what appears to be a free Ghost for Linux, SystemImager? is software that automates Linux installs, software distribution, and production deployment.
  4. replicator - Designed for potato. Outdated.