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I'm attempting to use a Kickstart file to provision a Thinkmate server that has 8 SDDs (0-7). The kickstart file I'm using is a slightly edited version of one that we successfully use all over our environment. The only change I made was to only partition the first two drives and leave the others as jbod due to requirements of the software the server will be running. The relevant section of the ks file looks like this:

bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=sda,sdb,sdc,sdd,sde,sdf,sdg,sdh --append=" rhgb crashkernel=auto quiet"

clearpart --all --initlabel
### sliceing up the disk
part raid.0011    --size=500      --asprimary     --ondrive=sda
part raid.0012    --size=1        --grow          --ondrive=sda
part raid.0021    --size=500      --asprimary     --ondrive=sdb
part raid.0022    --size=1        --grow          --ondrive=sdb

# Paring up the disks RAID 1
raid /boot      --fstype ext4   --device md0 --level=RAID1 raid.0011 raid.0021
# Create the Vitual disks
raid pv.00      --fstype ext4   --device md1 --level=RAID1 raid.0012 raid.0022 

# adding LVM's to the mirrors
volgroup root_VG --pesize=4096 pv.00

logvol swap     --fstype swap --name=swap_LV    --vgname=root_VG        --size=16384
logvol /        --fstype ext4 --name=root_LV    --vgname=root_VG        --size=20480
#logvol /var     --fstype ext4 --name=var_LV     --vgname=root_VG        --size=12288

#Data Volume
logvol /opt     --fstype ext4 --name=opt_LV     --vgname=root_VG        --size=1        --grow

I get the following error when I run the kickstart installation (truncated for brevity):

anaconda 13.21.149 exception report

Traceback (most recent call first):
File
"/usr/lib/anaconda/storage/partitioning.py", line 1033, in allocatePartitions
disklabel = disklabels[_disk.path]....

It goes on, referring to partitioning.py, dispatch.py, and text.py, with the final message being

KeyError: '/deb/sda/

I Googled and the first thing I found indicated that it may be that /dev/sda is used by the optical drive. I looked through the BIOS and found no way to verify that. Is there a way to tell what label the devices have (i.e. where the actual sdds start)? If not, is there a way to tell Kickstart to look for the first actual usable disk and go from there?

Thanks.

S.C.
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  • Edited: I manually changed the kickstart file to start with sdc (i.e. bootloader --driverorder=sdc,sdd,sde, etc.) at the suggestion from a colleague. fdisk -l shows now sda1/sda2, and sdb1/sdb2. How did that happen? – S.C. Oct 24 '12 at 22:22
  • It turns out that I never got a definitive answer for this, but I guess it may be a side effect of the order in which drives are detected during boot. Thanks for the suggestion dafydd. – S.C. Nov 13 '12 at 14:52
  • "KeyError: '/deb/sda/" -- Is this a typo in the question? Or is there reference to /deb in your Kickstart script? – Aaron Copley Nov 13 '12 at 15:01

1 Answers1

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In the RHEL5 Installation Guide, Section 31.4 Kickstart Options, the --driveorder switch is supposed to outline the order of drives as reported by your system's BIOS. Try cross-checking with the BIOS to see if this host might be reporting the optical drive ahead of the disk drives.

dafydd
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