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Understanding xCAT kickstart file

Question & Answer


Question

What does []"%include /tmp/provisioning"[] in xCAT kickstart template mean?

Answer

In xCAT diskful kickstart template, e.g. /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/rh/PMTools.rhels6.3.tmpl, the %include /path/to/file or %include <url> command is used to include the contents of another file in the kickstart file as though the contents were at the location of the %include command in the kickstart file. So "%include /tmp/provisioning" will include the content of /tmp/provisioning in kickstart file.

The content of "%include /tmp/provisioning" is generated by the script /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/scripts/pre.<os_type>, e.g. pre.rh for Rhel OS. The file /tmp/provisioning will be removed after provisioning.

In PCMAE context, if you want to customize the diskfull osimage kickstart file, modify the script /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/scripts/pre.<os_type>. Below is an example:

Customization to Rhel kickstart file to increase swap from 1GB to 2GB

The changes to /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/scripts/pre.rh:

......
#echo "part swap --size 1024" >> /tmp/partitioning
echo "part swap --size 2048" >> /tmp/partitioning


Below is the swap on host abc001 after provisioning.

# free|grep Swap
Swap: 2097144 0 2097144

[{"Product":{"code":"SSDV85","label":"Platform Cluster Manager"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"--","Platform":[{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"}],"Version":"4.1.0","Edition":"Advanced","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}},{"Product":{"code":"SSZUCA","label":"IBM Spectrum Cluster Foundation"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":null,"Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
04 September 2018

UID

isg3T1019634

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