Re: Automated building of OpenBSD servers

[Philipp Buehler <lists@fips.de>]

On 29/03/2002, Allan Lyons <lyonsa@calcgw.wycliffe.ca> wrote To misc@openbsd.org:
> From what I could find, the installation of OpenBSD requires someone 
> to be sitting at the console in order to install.  Could someone please 
> prove me wrong!

Hm, it's required "by default" ;-)

> If you've done this please let me know.  If the answer to my question is 
> RTFM, please include the page number as I must have missed what I 
> was looking for when I read things through.

Not "done" but in progress. We have been asked to develop a possibilty
where a housing center provider can put a standard 1U box into a new
rack, put in a floppy, power it on - and go away. Nifty, if you
think about >100 machines which should be installed :->

The box will completly install on its own via network (and some more
stuff like automatic pf basic rulesets etc..).

Anyway, the basic problem is the same, you have. And our plan is to use
OpenBSD tools. It's everthing there ;-):

Start at 'man 8 release', if you need only a limited set of 
applications, look for /etc/mk.conf configurations and /usr/src/distrib/sets.

If you "can live" w/ the usual tar balls while installation, you can skip 
this and look into /usr/src/distrib/`uname -m`/floppies and
/usr/src/distrib/{simpleroot,miniroot}. Especially you will find
install.md and install.sub there, which make up the installer.
(www.null.ca has some article about that aswell)

Write a shell script which installs a disklabel (you can use a template,
so no one has to type in anything), installs the bootloader, configures
the network, installs the tarballs. Apply settings as fit. Reboot
machine.

As I said, it's the plan for now, and I cant provide a ready-to-use
script/"howto" - but you get the idea, it's everything *within* OpenBSD.

HTH,
ciao
-- 
Philipp Buehler, aka fips | sysfive.com GmbH | BOfH | NUCH | <double-p> 

#1: Break the clue barrier!
#2: Already had buzzword confuseritis ?