AutomatedInstallation

NOTE: Gobby lost the group changes during the transition. If you attended this sprint please try to add your contributions here

Please check the status of this specification in Launchpad before editing it. If it is Approved, contact the Assignee or another knowledgeable person before making changes.

Summary

It would be beneficial for the debian-installer to facilitate automated installations / cloning similar to what the RH anaconda installer does with anaconda.ks. Better documentation for preseed and automated installation will be needed.

Release Note

This would effect enterprise / LTS deployments in facilitating automated installation for large deployments. Everything from classroom deployments to larger infrastructure that needs to "clone" and auto-deploy new Ubuntu installations.

Rationale

There is very little focus on a number of LTS / Enterprise focused topics, whereas this is used quite a lot around the community.

Use Cases

  • John installs a machine and wants a dump of the debconf settings from the install provided to him at the end of the install. In addition to this, John wants only the settings that are pertinent and not automatically derived, keeping the dump easy-to-read.
  • Jane maintains a fleet of hundreds of servers for various purposes. She has a lot to do, so she wants Debian Installer to be able to automatically create complex and useful partitions in the following ways: LVM, DM, (Hybrid) RAID, and crypto given a recipe she defines.
  • Larry has a fleet of Dapper-based servers that were built and installed using automated installer and debconf seeding. Hardy comes around, and now he wants to upgrade to it and keep everything automated and cleaned. Larry needs the Debian Installer documentation to include release and change notes between releases so that he knows what keys to rename, etc.
  • Sarah works in a kerberized environment---both for users and NFS. She needs additional preseeding opportunities with Kerberos. All packages that are likely to be used in an enterprise setting need extensive debconf integration.
  • Roger maintains a RHEL fleet and has a variety of kickstart files. He now wants to move to Ubuntu Hardy. He wants a guarantee that his original kickstart files will be supported to the best ability possible.
  • Nicole wants to develop an automated installation solution for her firm. She will need a frequently-updated list of debconf questions and possible answers as well as up-to-date installer documentation.

Assumptions

Design

You can have subsections that better describe specific parts of the issue.

Implementation

UI Changes

Should cover changes required to the UI, or specific UI that is required to implement this

Code Changes

Code changes should include an overview of what needs to change, and in some cases even the specific details.

Migration

Include:

  • data migration, if any
  • redirects from old URLs to new ones, if any
  • how users will be pointed to the new way of doing things, if necessary.

Test/Demo Plan

It's important that we are able to test new features, and demonstrate them to users. Use this section to describe a short plan that anybody can follow that demonstrates the feature is working. This can then be used during CD testing, and to show off after release.

This need not be added or completed until the specification is nearing beta.

Outstanding Issues

This should highlight any issues that should be addressed in further specifications, and not problems with the specification itself; since any specification with problems cannot be approved.

BoF agenda and discussion

Use this section to take notes during the BoF; if you keep it in the approved spec, use it for summarising what was discussed and note any options that were rejected.


CategorySpec

AutomatedInstallation (last edited 2008-08-06 16:40:48 by localhost)