HP Insight Control for Linux 6.2 User Guide

9.2.3 Installation configuration files for custom operating systems

You can upload installation configuration files for unsupported operating systems into the Insight

Control for Linux repository. However, the OS installation process does not have a built-in

mechanism for linking the installation configuration files to a given installation.

Instead, during the unattended OS installation, you are prompted to provide the necessary

commands to reference an installation configuration file in a kernel append line that is used to

network boot the managed server.

The mechanisms for automatically linking configuration files are tied to the specific syntax used

for a given OS. Providing this capability programatically restricts the use of the Custom OS

installation tool, removing a significant amount of flexibility that the tool was designed to provide.

9.2.4 Configuring an operating system for console redirection

The Insight Control for Linux cmfd daemon, which runs on the CMS and management hubs,

captures the console output from managed systems and stores it in a file named

/hptc_cluster/adm/logs/cmf.dated/current/console_name.log, where

console_name identifies the managed system. For more information, see Section 22.1 (page 201).

By default, the operating system directs its output to the graphics console. This section provides

the information on how you can update a Kickstart or AutoYaST file to configure the operating

system of a managed system to redirect its console output to its serial port.

The following requirements must occur so that the cmfd daemon can capture the console output:

• The BIOS on the managed system must be configured to redirect the serial port to the

Management Processor. For more information on this, see Section 8.3.5 (page 88).

• The operating system must be instructed to redirect console output to the serial port. This

means that instead of having console output sent to the graphics terminal, console output

is sent to the management processor where the cmfd utility captures and stores it.

Modify the following three files to accomplish this:

• /boot/grub/menu.lst

• /etc/inittab

• /etc/securetty

Follow these steps to have the Kickstart or AutoYaST file modify these files automatically during

the OS installation:

NOTE: The following procedure assumes that COM1 is assigned to the virtual serial port in

the BIOS, thus, ttyS0 is being used. If your virtual serial port is assigned to COM2, substitute

ttyS1 for ttyS0 in this procedure.

1. Use the text editor of your choice to edit the Kickstart or AutoYaST file for the OS you are

installing. For example, if you are installing Red Hat 5 Update 1, edit the /opt/repository/

instconfig/rh051/rh051.cfg Kickstart file.

2. Locate the %%agentinstall%% macro at the end of the file.

3. Add the following commands below the %%agentinstall%% macro. These commands

add the appropriate text to the three files.

NOTE: The commands differ depending whether the managed system is a virtual host or

not.

For managed systems that are not virtual hosts:

ex /boot/grub/menu.lst <<!

/^[Space-TAB]*kernel

s/$/ console=ttyS0/

96 Installing operating systems on managed systems