Automated Server install quickstart

[bam]

@covertsh

I have been able to install the desktop version using this user-data config if the laptop is connected via ethernet while installing:

I’ve got an error on network configuration stage with Ubuntu Server 22.04, so the autoinstall stops at the very beginning.
I put my interface names in the config right.
Could you retry or any ideas what may be wrong?

[rbasak]

We currently have documented effectively two how-tos: “Providing the autoinstall data over the network” and “Using another volume to provide the autoinstall config”

Further to a discussion on #ubuntu-server just now, it occurs to me that we’re missing a commonly wanted how-to, which is “Make an ISO image that embeds my desired auto-install configuration”. This is needed for simple bare-metal installation automation that works without network infrastructure or the need for a second disk.

[matt-causey]

I agree with this. I think I’ve hacked things together in the past, but it would be helpful to have an official document to point people to.

[ian-weisser]

@rbasak

“Make an ISO image that embeds my desired auto-install configuration”

This is a recurring question at AskUbuntu, suggesting demand for such a tutorial.

[voltagex]

Why does this require the ISO (especially the server ISO) at all? Why not provide a kernel and initrd for people who want to PXE boot?

Odd - releases/lunar/ubuntu-23.04-netboot-amd64.tar.gz is there, but still needs an iso-url appended.

[woytowg]

looking for the tutorial for creating an ISO with my auto-install config, is it available somewhere?

[woytowg]

this might be helpful for anyone else digging for this
https://github.com/mwhudson/livefs-editor

[nobuto]

@mwhudson

Run the install!

kvm -no-reboot -m 2048 \
    -drive file=image.img,format=raw,cache=none,if=virtio \
    -cdrom ~/Downloads/ubuntu-22.10-live-server-amd64.iso \
    -kernel /mnt/casper/vmlinuz \
    -initrd /mnt/casper/initrd \
    -append 'autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://_gateway:3003/'

This is a perfect tutorial to test the autoinstall on a virtualized environment. When it comes to the actual installation to a physical machine using a non customized ISO, there are some caveats.

1. autoinstall must be put after vmlinuz but before the triple dashes “---”.
2. the semicolon after ds=nocloud-net must be escaped, i.e. \; instead of ; otherwise the URL part(s=http://_gateway:3003/) won’t be passed as a kernel parameter and will be ignored.

It would be nice if this tutorial mentions those differences between the virtual environment with calling vmlinuz and initrd directly and the physical env using GRUB.

Also, if we consider a scenario where somebody tests autoinstall config with the kvm command for a physical machine, it would be nice to use UEFI boot with the kvm command too. If not, the tested config may not be reusable since custom partitioning, etc. may not be applicable each other.

[setuid]

We should give this a bump to 24.04, to deprecate the 22.10 specific instructions and allow us to provide a supportable workflow. Thoughts?

[mwhudson]

Definitely. Is this on the radar of @sally-makin or @rkratky yet?

[sally-makin]

Yes, this is part of the content that was earmarked to be moved to the official Installer documentation, and I think the point @setuid raised is already being addressed as part of the move. As soon as I have the go-ahead, I’ll be sunsetting these pages from the Server Guide and setting up redirects to the newer version of this page in the Installer docs.

[rudratrivedi]

Adding my +1 to this as we just had a customer case come in about this too.
There’s some kernel related errors they’re getting trying to follow these instructions for 22.04 or even 23.10.