Richard, Richard Hobbs wrote: [...]
I have multiple machines, all of which are identical, onto which I would like to install SuSE 10.
I have already installed one machine and got it setup the way I would like it, in terms of package selections, partitioning etc... And I would now like to replicate that across the remaining machines if possible.
I have read the first section of the SuSE 10 manual, entitled "Advanced Deployment Scenarios", but this only seems to document how to boot the system into the manual installation routine remotely. Ideally, I need to boot from the network and begin a fully automated install which duplicates every single aspect of the first system, except with a different hostname and IP (which I don't mind entering manually during the install if necessary).
Can this be done? I'm sure it can, but I can't find any guides or tutorials on how to do it, so if anyone can help, that would be very much appreciated
Yes, it can be done. Basically, you need two things: 1) The mechanism to boot from the network 2) The mechanism for the automatic installation ad 1) Regarding the boot from network, I'd recommend pxegrub: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Network Alternatively, you could also build a boot-CD, which contains bootloader, kernel and initrd and starts the network installation. However, this might not be your preferred way of installing the computers. ad 2) I'd recommend to use autoyast. The autoyast is the SuSE mechanism for automatic installation. Using "yast2 autoyast" you can generate an XML-File, which contains the entire configuration for the installation. To install using autoyast, you just need to boot the kernel load the Installation initrd (DVD:/boot/loader/initrd) and add the kernel-parameter install=nfs://<IP-Adressse>/<Pfad>/<XML-File> in your boot-loader configuration. Mailing-List: mailto:suse-autoinstall@suse.com Archive with search function: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=suse-autoinstall Documentation: http://www.suse.com/~ug/autoyast_doc Regards, Peter.