How do you automate fai installations?

[Ryan Steele]

Adrian Gibanel Lopez wrote:
> How do you automate fai installations? :)
> It seems like a loop or a joke: automate an automatic installation ;).
>
> I mean what's the normal use of FAI in a lab? You run something like:
>
> fai-setup -v
>
> and then
>
> fai-chboot -IFv specialhosts*
>
> You reboot manually? the computers and let them install.
> Three hours later you come back to the lab where it says in every computer:
>
> Press ENTER to reboot
>
> You then run:
>
> fai-chboot -ov specialhosts*
>
> You press enter in each of the computers as fast as you can and finally
> you overview that one or two computers boot as expected.
>
> This is what it happens to me after reading the FAI guide and testing it
> in some virtual machine's install clients.
>
> Is it the way to go? Am I missing something?
>
> Do you perhaps run: fai-chboot -IFv specialhosts*, (re)boot all the
> computers, and then (after all the kernels have been loaded) run:
> fai-chboot -ov specialhosts* but SOMETHING THAT I DO NOT KNOW makes the
> install clients reboot automatically?
>
> Thank you.
>
>   

I hate to say it, but RTFM.  For automatic reboots: 
http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/fai-guide/ch-instprocess.html#s-ireboot

FAI renames the PXE configs to <hash>.disable, so they don't PXE boot 
the next go-around.

If each machine is identical, expect identical behavior.  If they differ 
in chipsets, hardware, etc, you need to make sure all the necessary 
drivers/modules are present in intird/nfsroot/etc.

Ryan