Kickstart (Linux)

Kickstart is a computer network installation tool set, used primarily but not exclusively by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system to perform network based operating system installation and configuration.

Usage

Kickstart is normally used at sites with many Linux systems, to allow easy installation and consistent configuration of new computers being set up.

Configurations can be built by hand, but the standard Red Hat installation program Anaconda will produce a kickstart configuration file at the end of any manual installation process. That can then be taken and used as a network kickstart installation template for other systems.

Structure

Kickstart consists of separate but interconnected components: a network boot tool, and an installation tool.

The network boot tool is the same set of software used for network booting Linux servers - PXE and the network protocols Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP and Trivial File Transfer Protocol or TFTP.

Once the boot has happened, an Anaconda install is automatically launched.

References

* [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart Kickstart] at Fedora project, accessed Dec 4, 2007.

See also

* Jumpstart (Solaris) - a similar, older network installation tool on the Solaris (operating system)
* Fully Automatic Installation - a similar tool for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution