Installing on a server without CDROM drive

[webcart]

Hello,

I was wondering whether it would be possible to install Proxmox VE on a server without CDROM drive.

I have PXE server running on another server which I used for booting Proxmox VE ISO image (using memdisk). My understanding is that this way the whole image gets loaded into the memory. However, the installer still tries to mount cdrom and stops on failure.

Any ideas?

Thank you.

 

[udo]

Hi,
if you have physical access to the server use an external usb-cdrom. Also an usb-ide-adapter with an ide-cdrom works well.

Udo

 

[webcart]

Thank you for your reply, but I would rather use network installs if possible. It makes provisioning much easier.

Any other ideas? I can't believe noone tried to install it on a bunch of blade servers

 

[tom]

Thank you for your reply, but I would rather use network installs if possible. It makes provisioning much easier.

Any other ideas? I can't believe noone tried to install it on a bunch of blade servers

go this way: http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Lenny

 

[webcart]

Actually, I figured this out: rather than PXE booting with memdisk, PXE boot with Proxmox's kernel and initrd.img modified as follows:
1. Add the whole proxmox-ve_1.5-4627-3.iso to initrd.img
2. Modify init script to mount cdrom via loop device
That's it.

Now, the only thing left is figuring out a way to add a kickstart file for unattended installs.

 

[webcart]

Thanks, but your own manual says it's for expert use only and I am a Red Hat/Centos guy not very comfortable with Debian.

In any case, I figured out a way to boot bare metal ISO installer via network (see details below).
Please let me know if you have any tips for running the installer without human interaction (unattended install).

 

[tom]

unattended install is not implemented, but you can also to the Debian way here and add our packages.