Centos kickstart script url installation with mirror

Question

I have a ks script to install Centos6.5. Inside my local network I have a snapshot of the base package mirror.

I want to used as possible as I can my local package site over extranet like http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.5/os/x86_64/.

However, the ks script should work outside the local network so I need to define some fallback/mirror url.

In fedora environment there is an option for url directive http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart#url --mirrorlist but its option does not exists for Centos6.5.

There is any way other solution to manage my problem?

I thought about %pre bash script but without any package it will be hard to test which url I have to choose.

Look into the `repo` directive. [Kickstart Options](https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Installation_Guide/s1-kickstart2-options.html) — , Jun 23 '14 at 17:04
@yoonix for what I understand `repo` is used for `%packages` but not for `install` (see install (optional)) but I will try anyway. — Kakawait, Jun 23 '14 at 17:32
Ah, gotcha. I work around this limitation by having the script generated via a cgi script that simply points to a different location for the url based on the client's IP. You'd have to expose that to the world for it to work outside of your local network though. — , Jun 23 '14 at 17:46
oki like I though is not possible with rhel. I'm using packer (http://www.packer.io/) so I have to check how can I change repo from current IP. I think placeholder is possible in KS I will investigate this way. thanks — Kakawait, Jun 23 '14 at 17:49
you can have multiple repo directives as many as you wish I have RPMforge and epel in there just remember they are "temporary" as only working when you are doing kickstart. — Alex R, Sep 04 '14 at 10:53

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

I would create a %pre Python script and use urllib2.urlopen() to check whether your local repository is available. If not, it would use one of the mirrors online.

See example usage here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16778435/python-check-if-website-exists

So, for example:

%pre --interpreter=/usr/bin/python

import urllib2

local_url = 'http://localserver/CentOS/6/os/'
remote_url = 'http://mirror.zetup.net/CentOS/6/os/'

# Determine which URL to use
try:
    urllib2.urlopen(local_url)
    my_url = local_url
except urllib2.URLError:
    my_url = remote_url

# Write the .ks file
with open('/tmp/install-url.ks', 'w') as f:
    f.write('url --url=' + my_url)
%end

# Network installation
%include '/tmp/install-url.ks'

Centos kickstart script url installation with mirror

1 Answers1