CentOS 7/8 & Fedora PXE Boot Unattended OS Installation and Configuration Role

This guide explains how to set up a PXE boot environment for unattended installations of CentOS 7, CentOS 8, Fedora 31, and others with custom setups.

What It Does

This role installs and configures the following:

• Installation ISOs & Local RPM Repository: If the installation files (ISOs) aren't on your machine, they'll be downloaded and mounted. Their content will create a local RPM repository for use during installation. This local repo can also be used later to install more packages.

• TFTP Server & PXE: This allows network clients to boot using PXE.

Pre-configurations Included

The PXE service is set up to do the following:

• Boot from a local drive without installing anything
• Manually install Fedora 31 with a graphical interface
• Manually install CentOS 7 with a graphical interface
• Manually install CentOS 8 with a graphical interface
• Unattended installations of Fedora 31, CentOS 7, and CentOS 8 in text mode

It also installs the necessary kernel images for remote PXE clients to boot correctly.

• Apache Web Server: A minimally configured Apache server will serve local directory listings of all RPM packages.

You can access the local repositories via:

• http://hostname.localdomain/fedora31
• http://hostname.localdomain/centos7
• http://hostname.localdomain/centos8

Kickstart Files

This role also sets up Kickstart files for unattended installations of CentOS 7/8 and Fedora 31. These files are placed in a directory on the web server and can be accessed by all clients at:

• http://hostname.localdomain/kickstart/

Additional Notes

When creating a new virtual machine (VM) in VirtualBox or KVM, allocate at least 2 GB of RAM to ensure the CentOS installation works. You can reduce the RAM after a successful installation.

Users are encouraged to customize the Kickstart configuration templates, which currently have basic settings, including:

• Automatic disk partitioning with LVM
• SELinux turned off
• Firewall disabled
• Minimal software selection
• Root login allowed
• One non-root administrator user
• DHCP client network configuration

The goal is to minimize the work done by the Anaconda installer and focus on customizing the system after installation.

Requirements

• Apache: You need Apache to access installation packages locally. Install it using:

  ansible-galaxy install mariuszczyz.centos_apache
  

• DHCP Service: A working local DHCP service is necessary. Alternatively, you can set up a separate DHCP on the PXE server using this role: CentOS & Fedora DHCP Server Installation and Configuration Ansible Role.

• Operating System ISO Images: The installation images must be located in /isos/. You can change this path in defaults/main.yml, but make sure the ISOs are downloaded before running this role.

Kickstart Files

For the Kickstart installation to function properly, you need to make at least this change:

• rootpw --iscrypted PASSWORD_HASH: This is the encrypted password for the root account.

To Create a Kickstart Root Password Hash

Run this command in the command line:

openssl passwd -6

This will prompt you for a password and give you an encrypted hash.

You can customize other settings to your needs, like disk partitions, time zone, and additional packages.

Role Variables

Variable	Description	Example
ISOS_PATH	Where the ISO images will be stored	/isos
NAME	Name of the operating system	fedora31
ISO_LOCATION	Full ISO image path	/isos/CentOS-7-x86_64-Everything-1908.iso
MOUNT_POINT	ISO mount point	/var/www/centos7
KICKSTART_HASHED_ROOT_PASSWORD	Hashed root password for Kickstart	bEzYf1S49$yu
NON_ROOT_USER_NAME	Non-root admin username	mariusz
NON_ROOT_USER_PASSWORD	Hashed user password for Kickstart	bEzYf1S49$yu
TIMEZONE	Local timezone	America/Chicago
NTP_SERVERS	Network time servers	ntp.localdomain
FEDORA_HOSTNAME	Hostname for Fedora server	fedora31.localdomain
CENTOS7_HOSTNAME	Hostname for CentOS 7 server	centos7.localdomain
CENTOS8_HOSTNAME	Hostname for CentOS 8 server	centos8.localdomain

Dependencies

You need the following dependencies:

• mariuszczyz.centos_apache
• mariuszczyz.centos_dhcpd

Install these from Ansible Galaxy with requirements.yml:

- src: mariuszczyz.centos_apache
- src: mariuszczyz.centos_dhcpd

Example Playbook

Manual Installation

You can fetch this role manually from Ansible Galaxy:

ansible-galaxy install mariuszczyz.centos_pxe

Using Galaxy

Alternatively, include it in requirements.yml:

- src: mariuszczyz.centos_pxe

Or from GitHub:

- src: https://www.github.com/mariuszczyz/centos_pxe

Run this command to install all dependencies:

ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

Running the Playbook

Create a new file (e.g., playbook.yml) with the content:

- hosts: servers
  user: YOUR USER
  become: True

  roles:
    - { role: mariuszczyz.centos_pxe, tags: ['centos_pxe'] }

Run the playbook:

ansible-playbook -i hosts playbook.yml

License

BSD

Author Information

Author: Mariusz Czyz
Date: 12/2019
Website: mariuszczyz.com