Oracle VM 3: Initiating a Kickstart Using the Oracle VM Server ISO (Doc ID 1914965.1)

Last updated on OCTOBER 10, 2022

Applies to:

Goal

Overview

This note is only relevant to Oracle VM and cannot be used for Oracle Linux.  The goal of this document is to show the command line syntax needed to initiate a Kickstart after booting from an Oracle VM Server ISO or DVD image.  The entire point of this note is to show you the command line syntax you need to initiate a Kickstart after booting a physical server using the Oracle VM Server ISO or DVD.  We will show you a few things that you need in your custom Kickstart configuration file, but we do not attempt to tell you how to create a Kickstart configuration file - that is beyond the scope or purpose of this note.

This note explains how to initiate a Kickstart using the Oracle VM server ISO which is not documented in our official Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide at the time of this writing.  Please check our latest version of the installation guide found in the Oracle VM documentation library before using the solution detailed in this note.

You can initiate a Kickstart using a custom ks.cfg file using either PXE or the Oracle VM server ISO image - this topic is also beyond the scope or purpose of this note.  Installing Oracle VM server using PXE is documented in the latest version of the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide which can be found in the Oracle VM documentation library.

Full Support for All Kickstart Options

Oracle VM has not removed any functionality associated Kickstart options used in configuration file or the boot ISO; in fact, Oracle VM has added some important additional options specifically to automate Oracle VM installs.  Oracle VM supports all of the latest Kickstart options as documented in the Kickstart documentaton.  The following list shows which Kickstart options are relevant for various major releases of Oracle VM 3 these options are used when creating a custom Kickstart configuration file:

• Oracle VM 3.0: Oracle VM supports all Oracle Linux 5 Kickstart options for configuration files as well as options used to initiate a Xen Kickstart from the boot ISO.
• Oracle VM 3.1: Oracle VM supports all Oracle Linux 5 Kickstart options for configuration files as well as options used to initiate a Xen Kickstart from the boot ISO.
• Oracle VM 3.2: Oracle VM supports all Oracle Linux 5 Kickstart options for configuration files as well as options used to initiate a Xen Kickstart from the boot ISO.
• Oracle VM 3.3: Oracle VM supports all Oracle Linux 6 Kickstart options for configuration files as well as options used to initiate a Xen Kickstart from the boot ISO.
• Oracle VM 3.4: Oracle VM supports all Oracle Linux 6 Kickstart options for configuration files as well as options used to initiate a Xen Kickstart from the boot ISO.

There are also Kickstart options that are used to create the boot string you will need when you initiate the Kickstart from the "boot:" prompt after a server is booted from the Oracle VM Server ISO or DVD.  These options are different syntax from the options used in the configuration files.  The above documents will give you a starting point to help you understand and devise a boot string that will work in your environment.

Solution

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