AutoInstaller Include other files in iso

[nova38]

I am wanting to use the new AutoInstaller tool to create an image to autodeploy a proxmox instances in an offline environment.


The tool has the ability to imbed the setup script into the iso and i was wondering if it is possible to embed a few other iso/vmbackups into the iso so that they are available for the setup script. I want to use the First Boot Hook to install a set of vm. The iso flashes only in dd mode so there isn't a good way to add in the files/create a second partition containing them to the flash drive after it is flashed on it.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Automated_Installation

 

[dakralex]

Hi!

That's an interesting idea for automatic deployment of Proxmox VE instances.

Does offline environment mean that the soon-to-be PVE instances do not have internet connection or that they are completely airgapped (i.e. no NICs)?

If there's an internal network, what about providing the additional ISOs/VM backups/etc. over a shared network storage that is available to the setup script? And if there's none, what about using an additional USB drive or other hotpluggable storage medium when setting up the PVE instances?

 

[nova38]

Ideally the machines would be not have internet connection and not be connected to any network during setup. It would be nice to not have to have a second machine locally connected to it to do the setup, just plugin the usb and it handles the install. The iso images/disk backups of the vm's are also several gigabytes so transfering them over the network would be a lot slower than pulling them from the usb drive that is being used to install proxmox. My current plan was similar to the last suggestion, however I am limited on usb ports on the PVE boxs as it only has two and one of them needs to be given to one of the guest vm's for the setup process. The flash drives i am using are 32Gb/128Gb so they have a lot of empty space on them that is not being used by the installer partition. I have tried to add another editable partition to the drive after flashing the image, but that broke the installer. I know that it doesn't support isohybrid mode, but i am curious why it doesn't? If it is technically infeasible to add a editable partition, could the autoinstaller be made to take a folder and copy it into the disk image on a read-only second 'data' partition?


On a similar note, would it be possible to have the auto-installer able to add packages to the installer so that they are automatically installed on the pve node without it having to be online? (similar to how debian's live-build lets you inject a package list and it downloads them from the repos using apt at build time)