[TriLUG] RHEL kickstart LV/PV syntax question

[Kevin Flanagan]

All,


   I'm working on automating installations of RHEL 5.2, and soon 5.3.  I'm
currently doing Virtual Machines, but soon enough will be doing hardware
servers, on HP Proliant X86 servers, as well.  I have had limited success
with LVM config syntax, I've found so much info scattered about the net, and
a lot of it contradictory, that I thought that I'd ask the good folks here.
I think that the standard docs are decent, but not very helpful with some of
the more of the conceptual stuff.  We do expect to build at least another
hundred RHEL systems in the next several months, perhaps a lot more if we
decide to do rebuilds of the older stuff.


Here's what I'm looking to have a good solid handle on.

- Kickstart syntax for
   - Physical and Logical Volume creation
   - Disk controller differences
      SD devices in VMs
      CCISS devices on hardware


- A way to sniff out hardware differences if it exists
- A way to do some token substitution based on declarations in the first few
lines, or if statements if that exists



I'm really looking to have a single unified process that starts with
hardware builds to establish a new rev of the corporate build, then use that
to build in a VM to make a VMWare template.  I'm open to the opposite
direction if folks experience says that it's better/easier.



Of course, pointers to resources that you folks have found to be good in
actual practice are always welcome.



Thanks in advance,



  Kevin