This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Kickstart, Ubuntu autoinstall, and Debian preseed answer an installer. The generators draft a file. The PXE menu generator drafts a menu that points at files you already published on a TFTP server you operate. None of them boot a machine.
Pick one installer. A password in the file is a password in git. Use prompt-for-this and a secret store. Do not stand up a PXE service on a network you do not administer. 192.0.2.10 is documentation, not the address you leave in a production answer file.
One lab image. Do not point the menu at a kernel you did not place on that TFTP server.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the lab network you operate.
- Pick one answer file.
- Draft it without a password.
- Point the PXE menu only at files you already published.
- Do not boot a fleet during the reading.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Automated Linux Installs (Kickstart, Autoinstall, Preseed) goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A password in the answer file.
- PXE on a network you do not administer.
- A kernel path you did not publish.
- Three installers mixed in one file.
- A fleet booted during the reading.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Automated Linux Installs (Kickstart, Autoinstall, Preseed): One installer. The network is yours. No password is in the file. The menu points at files you published. And nothing was booted yet.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The installer is chosen. The network is written. No password is present. The TFTP files are ones you published. And nothing was booted. If one of those fails, stop.
| Installer | File | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| RHEL family | Kickstart | No password in the file |
| Ubuntu | Autoinstall | Not a Debian preseed pasted in |
| Debian | Preseed | Not an Ubuntu autoinstall pasted in |
| PXE menu | Points at files you published | Not a network you do not operate |
# One answer file.
# prompt-for-this is not a password in the file.
# PXE only on a network you operate.
# Do not boot a fleet during the reading.Before you leave the host
Automated Linux Installs (Kickstart, Autoinstall, Preseed) ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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