Provision a Kickstart Server with RHEL8 - Part 2

John T. Mills
John T. Mills
Provision a Kickstart Server with RHEL8 - Part 2

Now that we have a kickstart VM, we can start the webserver configuration. Once configured we will be able to add content for remote installations and host installation patterns.

Bootstraping the Installations

First, we must install software to allow us to install software. Yes, that's right, a circular dependency. So we will need to fake it until we finish hosting the packages.

  1. Re-mount the ISO/DVD.

    mount /dev/sr0 /mnt

  2. Make a repository for a ISO/DVD copy.

    mkdir -p /var/www/html/x86_64/8/2

  3. Take a look at the ISO/DVD contents.

    ls /mnt

    Some interesting items are listed below with their purpose:

    file / dir Purpose
    BaseOS Server and core RPMS
    AppStream Application and extra RPMS
    media.repo repository file for local
    RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release GPG key for Red Hat installs

  4. Clone the DVD into the webserver file system.

    cp -pr /mnt/AppStream /var/www/html/x86_64/8/2/
cp -pr /mnt/BaseOS /var/www/html/x86_64/8/2/

  5. Import the Red Hat GPG key.

    rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

  6. Make a local dnf repository configuration.

    vi /etc/yum.repos.d/local.repo

    Contents:

    [BaseOS]
name=baseos
baseurl=file:///var/www/html/x86_64/8/2/BaseOS
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
[AppStream]
name=appstream
baseurl=file:///var/www/html/x86_64/8/2/AppStream
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

Configure HTTPD

  1. Install the webserver. 
    dnf install httpd httpd-devel httpd-tools -y

    Installed:

    apr-1.6.3-9.el8.x86_64
apr-devel-1.6.3-9.el8.x86_64
apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
apr-util-bdb-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
apr-util-devel-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
apr-util-openssl-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
cyrus-sasl-2.1.27-1.el8.x86_64
cyrus-sasl-devel-2.1.27-1.el8.x86_64
expat-devel-2.2.5-3.el8.x86_64
httpd-2.4.37-21.module+el8.2.0+5008+cca404a3.x86_64
httpd-devel-2.4.37-21.module+el8.2.0+5008+cca404a3.x86_64
httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-21.module+el8.2.0+5008+cca404a3.noarch
httpd-tools-2.4.37-21.module+el8.2.0+5008+cca404a3.x86_64
libdb-devel-5.3.28-37.el8.x86_64
mod_http2-1.11.3-3.module+el8.2.0+4377+dc421495.x86_64
openldap-devel-2.4.46-11.el8.x86_64
perl-Carp-1.42-396.el8.noarch
perl-Errno-1.28-416.el8.x86_64
perl-Exporter-5.72-396.el8.noarch
perl-File-Path-2.15-2.el8.noarch
perl-IO-1.38-416.el8.x86_64
perl-PathTools-3.74-1.el8.x86_64
perl-Scalar-List-Utils-3:1.49-2.el8.x86_64
perl-Socket-4:2.027-3.el8.x86_64
perl-Text-Tabs+Wrap-2013.0523-395.el8.noarch
perl-Unicode-Normalize-1.25-396.el8.x86_64
perl-constant-1.33-396.el8.noarch
perl-interpreter-4:5.26.3-416.el8.x86_64
perl-libs-4:5.26.3-416.el8.x86_64
perl-macros-4:5.26.3-416.el8.x86_64
perl-parent-1:0.237-1.el8.noarch
perl-threads-1:2.21-2.el8.x86_64
perl-threads-shared-1.58-2.el8.x86_64
redhat-logos-httpd-81.1-1.el8.noarch
  2. Verify the basic configuration. 
    egrep "^DocumentRoot|^ServerRoot" /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

    Returns:

    ServerRoot "/etc/httpd"
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
  3. Start HTTPD. 
    systemctl start httpd.service
  4. Check the status. 
    systemctl status httpd.service -l

    Returns:

    ● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2020-07-24 16:15:21 CDT; 42s ago
     Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
 Main PID: 27224 (httpd)
   Status: "Running, listening on: port 80"
    Tasks: 213 (limit: 10891)
   Memory: 21.4M
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ├─27224 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─27225 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─27226 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─27227 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           └─27228 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
   
Jul 24 16:15:21 kickstart systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Jul 24 16:15:21 kickstart httpd[27224]: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully >
Jul 24 16:15:21 kickstart systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
Jul 24 16:15:21 kickstart httpd[27224]: Server configured, listening on: port 80
  5. Open the firewalld service for 80. 
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --reload

    Returns:

    success
  6. Verify from a web browser. http://${VM IP address}/x86_64/8/2/ example image
  7. In Provision a Kickstart Server with RHEL8 - Part 3, we will define the kickstart pattern for the rhel8 VM. Before we do that, we will need to define the VM in our virtualization platform.

Define a Virtual Machine for the RHEL8 Install

Using the platform of your choice, construct a VM. This VM must have an optical drive or the ability to mount DVD/ISOs as optical media. The VM must also have a virtual console. Here are the requirements:

Option Value
bios bios/uefi
vcpu 1
vmem 1024MB
network internet capable
storage 20GB (*da/disk0)
disk any type
cdrom RHEL8 Binary DVD or RHEL8 Boot DVD

Once configured, leave the VM powered off. In the next part of this article, we will build this VM with an automated kickstart.

Conclusion

Now that the web service is installed and the installation is available on the local network, we can start defining the kickstart resources. Continue reading in Provision a Kickstart Server with RHEL8 - Part 3.

Examples in this post can be found on GitHub