Autoinstallation Profiles
Navigate to
to see all profiles for your organization. This page shows whether these profiles are active, and specifies the distribution tree with which each profile is associated.
You can either create a Kickstart profile by clicking the Create Kickstart Profile
link, upload or paste the contents of a new profile clicking the Upload Kickstart/Autoyast File
, or edit an existing Kickstart profile by clicking the name of the profile.
Note, you can only update AutoYaST profiles using the upload button.
You can also view AutoYaST profiles in the edit box or change the virtualization type using the selection list.
Create a Kickstart Profile
Click on the Create Kickstart Profile
link from the page to start the wizard that populates the base values needed for a Kickstart profile.

-
On the first line, enter a Kickstart profile label. This label cannot contain spaces, so use dashes (
-
) or underscores (\_
) as separators. -
Select a
Base Channel
for this profile, which consists of packages based on a specific architecture and Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.Creating Base ChannelBase channels are only available if a suitable distribution is created first. For creating distributions, see reference:systems/autoinst-distributions.adocUsing SALT for registrationUsingsalt_enabled_kickstart_install_types
property inrhn.conf
, one can configure to usesalt
for registraion instead of traditional stack. By default this is set torhel_8
as we do not ship traditional stack for RES8. -
Select an
Kickstartable Tree
for this profile. TheKickstartable Tree
drop-down menu is only populated if one or more distributions have been created for the selected base channel (see reference:systems/autoinst-distributions.adoc). -
Instead of selecting a specific tree, you can also check the box
Always use the newest Tree for this base channel
. This setting lets SUSE Manager automatically pick the latest tree that is associated with the specified base channels. If you add new trees later, SUSE Manager always keeps the most recently created or modified. -
Select the
Virtualization Type
from the drop-down menu.If you do not intend to use the Kickstart profile to create virtual guest systems, you can leave the drop-down at the default None
choice. -
On the second page, select (or enter) the location of the Kickstart tree.
-
On the third page, select a root password for the system.
Depending on your base channel, your newly created Kickstart profile might be subscribed to a channel that is missing required packages.
For Kickstart to work properly, the following packages should be present in its base channel: pyOpenSSL
, rhnlib
, libxml2-python
, and spacewalk-koan
and associated packages.
To resolve this issue:
-
Make sure that the Tools software channel for the Kickstart profile’s base channel is available to your organization. If it is not, you must request entitlements for the Tools software channel from the SUSE Manager administrator.
-
Make sure that the Tools software channel for this Kickstart profile’s base channel is available to your SUSE Manager as a child channel.
-
Make sure that
rhn-kickstart
and associated packages corresponding to this Kickstart are available in the Tools child channel.
The final stage of the wizard presents the
tab. On this tab and the other subtabs, nearly every option for the new Kickstart profile can be customized.Once created, you can access the Kickstart profile by downloading it from the Autoinstallation Details
page by clicking the Autoinstallation File
subtab and clicking the Download Autoinstallation File
link.
If the Kickstart file is not managed by SUSE Manager, you can access it via the following URL:
http://`my.manager.server`/ks/dist/ks-rhel-`ARCH`-`VARIANT`-`VERSION`
In the above example, ARCH
is the architecture of the Kickstart file, VARIANT
is either client
or server
, and VERSION
is the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux associated with the Kickstart file.
Profile Details
On the
page, you have the following options:-
Change the profile
Label
. -
Change the operating system by clicking
(Change)
. -
Change the
Virtualization Type
.Changing the Virtualization Type
may require changes to the Kickstart profile bootloader and partition options, potentially overwriting user customizations. Consult thePartitioning
tab to verify any new or changed settings. -
Change the amount of
Virtual Memory
(in Megabytes of RAM) allocated to virtual guests autoinstalled with this profile. -
Change the number of
Virtual CPUs
for each virtual guest. -
Change the
Virtual Storage Path
from the default in/var/lib/xen/
. -
Change the amount of
Virtual Disk Space
(in GB) allotted to each virtual guest. -
Change the
Virtual Bridge
for networking of the virtual guest. -
Deactivate the profile so that it cannot be used to schedule a Kickstart by removing the
Active
check mark. -
Check whether to enable logging for custom
%post
scripts to the/root/ks-post.log
file. -
Decide whether to enable logging for custom
%pre
scripts to the/root/ks-pre.log
file. -
Choose whether to preserve the
ks.cfg
file and all%include
fragments to the/root/
directory of all systems autoinstalled with this profile. -
Select whether this profile is the default for all of your organization’s Kickstarts by checking or unchecking the box.
-
Add any
Kernel Options
in the corresponding text box. -
Add any
Post Kernel Options
in the corresponding text box. -
Enter comments that are useful to you in distinguishing this profile from others.
Operating System
On this page, you can make the following changes to the operating system that the Kickstart profile installs:
- Change the base channel
-
Select from the available base channels. SUSE Manager administrators see a list of all base channels that are currently synced to the SUSE Manager.
- Child Channels
-
Subscribe to available child channels of the base channel, such as the Tools channel.
- Available Trees
-
Use the drop-down menu to choose from available trees associated with the base channel.
- Always use the newest Tree for this base channel.
-
Instead of selecting a specific tree, you can also check the box Always use the newest Tree for this base channel. This setting lets SUSE Manager automatically pick the latest tree that is associated with the specified base channels. If you add new trees later, SUSE Manager always keeps the most recently created or modified.
- Software URL (File Location)
-
The exact location from which the Kickstart tree is mounted. This value is determined when the profile is created. You can view it on this page but you cannot change it.
Variables
Autoinstallation variables can substitute values in Kickstart and AutoYaST profiles.
To define a variable, create a name-value pair (name/value
) in the text box.
For example, if you want to autoinstall a system that joins the network of a specified organization (for example the Engineering department), you can create a profile variable to set the IP address and the gateway server address to a variable that any system using that profile uses.
Add the following line to the Variables
text box.
IPADDR=192.168.0.28 GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
Now you can use the name of the variable in the profile instead of a specific value.
For example, the network
part of a Kickstart file looks like the following:
network --bootproto=static --device=eth0 --onboot=on --ip=$IPADDR \ --gateway=$GATEWAY
The $IPADDR
is resolved to 192.168.0.28
, and the $GATEWAY
to 192.168.0.1
There is a hierarchy when creating and using variables in Kickstart files.
System Kickstart variables take precedence over |
Using variables are just one part of the larger Cobbler infrastructure for creating templates that can be shared between multiple profiles and systems. For more about Cobbler and templates, see client-configuration:cobbler.adoc.
Advanced Options
From this page, you can toggle several installation options on and off by checking and unchecking the boxes to the left of the option. For most installations, the default options are correct. Refer to Red Hat Enterprise Linux documentation for details.
Assigning Default Profiles to an Organization
You can specify an Organization Default Profile by clicking Organization Default Profile
box and finally clicking Update
.
Assigning IP Ranges to Profiles
You can associate an IP range to an autoinstallation profile by clicking on
, adding an IPv4 range and finally clicking Add IP Range.Bare Metal Autoinstallation
This subtab provides the information necessary to Kickstart systems that are not currently registered with SUSE Manager. Using the on-screen instructions, you may either autoinstall systems using boot media (CD-ROM) or by IP address.
Details
Displays subtabs that are available from the System Details
tab.
On the
page, you have the following options:-
Select between DHCP and static IP, depending on your network.
-
Choose the level of SELinux that is configured on kickstarted systems.
-
Enable configuration management or remote command execution on kickstarted systems.
-
Change the root password associated with this profile.

Locale
Change the timezone for kickstarted systems.
Partitioning
From this subtab, indicate the partitions that you wish to create during installation. For example:
partition /boot --fstype=ext3 --size=200 partition swap --size=2000 partition pv.01 --size=1000 --grow volgroup myvg pv.01 logvol / --vgname=myvg --name=rootvol --size=1000 --grow
File Preservation
If you have previously created a file preservation list, include this list as part of the Kickstart. This protects the listed files from being over-written during the installation process. For more on file preservation lists, see reference:systems/autoinst-file-preservation.adoc.
GPG & SSL
From this subtab, select the GPG keys and/or SSL certificates to be exported to the kickstarted system during the %post section of the Kickstart. For SUSE Manager customers, this list includes the SSL Certificate used during the installation of SUSE Manager.
Any GPG key you wish to export to the kickstarted system must be in ASCII rather than binary format. |
Troubleshooting
From this subtab, change information that may help with troubleshooting hardware problems:
- Bootloader
-
For some headless systems, it is better to select the non-graphic LILO bootloader.
- Kernel Parameters
-
Enter kernel parameters here that may help to narrow down the source of hardware issues.
Package Groups

The image above shows subtabs that are available from the Software
tab.
Enter the package groups, such as @office
or @admin-tools
you would like to install on the kickstarted system in the large text box.
If you would like to know what package groups are available, and what packages they contain, refer to the RedHat/base/
file of your Kickstart tree.
Package Profiles
If you have previously created a Package Profile from one of your registered systems, you can use that profile as a template for the files to be installed on a kickstarted system. For more about package profiles, see reference:systems/system-details/sd-packages.adoc#s1-package-profiles.
Activation Keys

The Activation Keys
tab allows you to select Activation Keys to include as part of the Kickstart profile.
These keys, which must be created before the Kickstart profile, are used when re-registering kickstarted systems.
Scripts

The Scripts
tab is where %pre
and %post
scripts are created.
This page lists any scripts that have already been created for this Kickstart profile.
To create a Kickstart script, perform the following procedure:
-
Click the
add new kickstart script
link in the upper right corner. -
Enter the path to the scripting language used to create the script, such as
/usr/bin/perl
. -
Enter the full script in the large text box.
-
Indicate whether this script is to be executed in the
%pre
or%post
section of the Kickstart process. -
Indicate whether this script is to run outside of the chroot environment. Refer to the Post-installation Script section of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide for further explanation of the
nochroot
option.
SUSE Manager supports the inclusion of separate files within the Partition Details section of the Kickstart profile.
For instance, you may dynamically generate a partition file based on the machine type and number of disks at Kickstart time.
This file can be created via %include /tmp/part-include |
Autoinstallation File

The Autoinstallation File
tab allows you to view or download the profile that has been generated from the options chosen in the previous tabs.
Upload Kickstart/AutoYaST File
Click the Upload Kickstart/Autoyast File
link from the page to upload an externally prepared AutoYaST or Kickstart profile.
-
In the first line, enter a profile
Label
for the automated installation. This label[] drop-down menu is only populated if one or more distributions have been created for the selected base channel (see reference:systems/autoinst-distributions.adoc). -
Instead of selecting a specific tree, you can also check the box
Always use the newest Tree
for this base channel. This setting lets SUSE Manager automatically pick the latest tree that is associated with the specified base channels. If you add new trees later, SUSE Manager always keeps the most recently created or modified. -
Select the
Virtualization Type
from the drop-down menu. For more information about virtualization with traditional clients, see client-configuration:virtualization.adoc.If you do not intend to use the autoinstall profile to create virtual guest systems, you can leave the drop-down set to the default choice KVM Virtualized Guest
. -
Either cut-and-paste the file contents, or update the file from the local storage medium:
-
Paste it into the
File Contents
box and clickCreate
, or -
enter the file name in the
File to Upload
field and click Upload File.
-
Four subtabs are now available:
-
Details
-
Bare Metal
-
Variables
-
Autoinstallable File
File Preservation
Collects lists of files to be protected and re-deployed on systems during Kickstart. For instance, if you have many custom configuration files located on a system to be kickstarted, enter them here as a list and associate that list with the Kickstart profile to be used.
To use this feature, click the Create File Preservation List
link at the top.
Enter a suitable label and all files and directories to be preserved.
Enter absolute paths to all files and directories.
Then click Create List.
Although file preservation is useful, it does have limitations.
Each list is limited to a total size of 1 MB.
Special devices like |
When finished, you may include the file preservation list in the Kickstart profile to be used on systems containing those files.
For more information, see reference:systems/autoinst-profiles.adoc#ref.webui.systems.autoinst.profiles.create.
The
section allows you to store code snippets, to use them in autoinstallation profiles later on.Click Create Snippet to create a new code snippet.
Default snippets coming with SUSE Manager are not editable.
You can use a snippet, if you add the Snippet Macro
statement such as $SNIPPET('spacewalk/sles_register_script')
to your autoinstallation profile.
This is an AutoYaST profile example:
<init-scripts config:type="list"> $SNIPPET('spacewalk/sles_register_script') </init-scripts>
When you create a snippet with the Create Snippet
link, all profiles including that snippet are updated accordingly.
Custom Snippets
This is the tab with custom snippets. Click a name of a snippet to view, edit, or delete it.
All Snippets
The All Snippets
tab lists default and custom snippets together.