Automated installation with the Cobbler provisioning tool
If you try to install or upgrade several computers at once, you will soon discover that manual installation is a huge time sink. Even if you are working with a checklist, it is often difficult to get everything installed the same way every time. For this reason, most systems administrators understand the importance of an automated install system.
It's no surprise that virtually every operating system has the ability to automate installations. What is curious, given the necessity of such systems, is that configuring automated installation typically requires so much time and effort. In the past, automated installation required a fair amount of knowledge about networking, Pre-eXecutable Environment (PXE), and, of course, the operating system itself. Those prerequisites represented a significant barrier to entry.
Automated provisioning techniques have taken a number of forms over the years. The approach familiar to most people is taking a disk image of a system with the use of dd, PING (Partimage is not Ghost) [1], or another tool, then deploying that disk image anytime you need it. Unfortunately, this solution doesn't scale well because it relies on a uniform environment and does not take into account differences in hardware or function. Also, the image gets out of date over time – with the constant appearance of updates, managing the images can become a full-time job. The more robust way of provisioning is by automatically installing the operating system each time, rather than relying on a predefined disk image. This method is generally considered more challenging.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.