Topic: initial configuration after installation

[bmoore]

greetings.  Okay, this is going to be a bit of a long one but I would really be interested in suggestions to get around this problem.  I'm wondering if there is a way of automating the second stage of the install where one picks the domain, sets up the network, etc.  Basically, I would like to have that be part of the installation before reboot or have some method of using a configuration file to automate this process.  A bit of explanation.  I am totally blind so a monitor as an output mode is out.  I do the first part of the installation using a serial console connected to a pc with terminal software by booting from the cd and passing accept console=ttyS0 to the boot kernel.  this provides me with a serial console during the first part of the installation.  However, after reboot, until the network is configured and I can use ssh from a pc to configure the machine, I have no method of setting up the network so he machine is accessible from the rest of the network.  to this point, I have gotten by by memorizing the questions in order and typing on the server keyboard when I think the questions are there.  however, this is pretty error prone, especially, if you want to configure a machine which already has values since you  have keep choices. also, typing of one wrong character can make the machine totally unreachable  I basically see a couple of ways around this.  the easiest would be to have the installer modify /etc/securetty to allow a serial console on for example /dev/ttyS0 by default so I could use a serial console for the second stage of the configuration.  another alternative is to modify the installer to read a configuration file which could pass all network parameters and domain information to the server.  this is less attractive since one has to pick network drivers in advance and would not port well from one box to another with different hardware.  this would also be of benifit to those installing a server where there is no monitor or potentially a keyboard attached to the machine which will be the server.  if I am missing something really simple and there is a way around this that I haven't thought of, I would love to hear it  thanks.  brian

[raem]

In server manager, Administration section you have a panel called Create reinstallation disk.

You could create a "standard configuration" which has the sme server setup in a way that connects it to your network or however you need it to be setup including default users etc.

Then create a reinstallation disk which will have all those setup details on it.
When you do a new installation from CD, boot the box from the reinstallation floppy disk instead of from the CD and then run the instal process, it will find the CD and instal from that. Check the bios settings have the correct boot order eg A: D: C:

The server will be a new installation but will have the default settings as per your reinstal disk.

That should give you a freshly installed server with the configuration already the way you want it.

If you are building servers for different networks, you will still need to run the "Configure this server" routine, but you would only need to change localised network settings and server name & domain name etc, and also change any localised settings in server manager.

Does this help you do what you want ?
Regards
Ray Mitchell

[raem]

Another way is to do a normal instal from CD, manually the hard way as you have been doing. Configure the server the way you want it, again the hard way as you have been doing.

Get a copy of Norton Ghost, I use Ghost 2003 and it works OK to do the following.
You need to connect a CD writer to the server to do this.
Make a Ghost image of your whole hard drive onto 1 writable CD (can be CDR or CDRW). Select the option to maker the CD bootable, you initially need to boot the server from a copy of Ghost on a bootable floppy.

Then you have a bootable CD with the image of the whole disk with the installed copy of sme on it. Note that you can even instal other contrbutions and rpms if required, these will all form part of the server hard disk image.

Then boot a new box with the bootable Ghost image CD and it will write the image to the hard disk. When finished you will have a fully working sme server (after restarting of course). Make any final configuration changes via ssh or whichever way desired.

Hope this helps
Regards
Ray Mitchell

[bmoore]

[

Greetings.  almost there. thanks for those ideas.  the first one about a re-install disk is a good idea which I used in the past.  however, this seems to be broken in 6.0.  Just submitted a bug report about that a couple of hours ago.  The ghost idea is a very good one.  I never got it to work with ghost 2002. I could create the image and even restore it but it wasn't bootable afterward.  I haven't tried ghost 2003 and this is certainly an option if they have fixed some of their linux compatability stuff in 2003.  something I have played with in the last couple of days is a program I found on here called mondoarchive.  this is a most interesting way of backing up a box.  this would be perfect were the hardware always identical.  Btw, wonder if I could modify some rpm to autodetect the eth0 and eth1 cards something like clark connect does when it installs  if I could do that, there would be no issue.  thanks for the ideas.  will give the norton 2003 a shot and see if it works better than 2002 did.  will post again if I come up with a really workable solution to this.  Brian.quote="RayMitchell"]Another way is to do a normal instal from CD, manually the hard way as you have been doing. Configure the server the way you want it, again the hard way as you have been doing.

Get a copy of Norton Ghost, I use Ghost 2003 and it works OK to do the following.
You need to connect a CD writer to the server to do this.
Make a Ghost image of your whole hard drive onto 1 writable CD (can be CDR or CDRW). Select the option to maker the CD bootable, you initially need to boot the server from a copy of Ghost on a bootable floppy.

Then you have a bootable CD with the image of the whole disk with the installed copy of sme on it. Note that you can even instal other contrbutions and rpms if required, these will all form part of the server hard disk image.

Then boot a new box with the bootable Ghost image CD and it will write the image to the hard disk. When finished you will have a fully working sme server (after restarting of course). Make any final configuration changes via ssh or whichever way desired.

Hope this helps
Regards
Ray Mitchell[/quote]