CentOS - Oct 2007 - Problem creating volgroups with kickstart installations (on xen)

I'm testing doing kickstart installations on Xen VMs. This is
the first time I'm trying out kickstart at all, so I rather think I'm
doing something wrong in the kickstart configuration than it is
a Xen issue.

I use a modified kickstart file from an earlier manual installation
with a very basic filesystem setup. It fails with 
"SystemError: vgcreate failed for VolGroup00". The Xen VM file is
allowed to grow up to 2GB. The kickstart commands for partioning are:

clearpart --all --initlabel --drives=xvda
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=100 --ondisk=xvda
part pv.2 --size=0 --grow --ondisk=xvda
volgroup VolGroup00 pv.2 --pesize=32768 pv.2
logvol / --fstype ext3 --name=LogVol00 --vgname=VolGroup00 --size=1024 --grow
logvol swap --fstype swap --name=LogVol01 --vgname=VolGroup00 --size=416 --grow
--maxsize=832

This is taken exactly from the "template" kickstart file, I just 
added the --initlabel after reading the kickstart tips on the wiki.
I read the kickstart part of the RH Installation and Deployment Guide,
but it didn't help in this respect. Apparently --pesize=32768 is a 
maximum for volgroup extent sizes and is harmless.

When I change to creating a partition for / it works just fine.

Can someone help?

Kai

-- 
Kai Sch?tzl, Berlin, Germany
Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com

Kai Schaetzl wrote:
> 
> I'm testing doing kickstart installations on Xen VMs. This is
> the first time I'm trying out kickstart at all, so I rather think
I'm
> doing something wrong in the kickstart configuration than it is
> a Xen issue.
> 
> I use a modified kickstart file from an earlier manual installation
> with a very basic filesystem setup. It fails with 
> "SystemError: vgcreate failed for VolGroup00". The Xen VM file is
> allowed to grow up to 2GB. The kickstart commands for partioning are:
> 
> clearpart --all --initlabel --drives=xvda
> part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=100 --ondisk=xvda
> part pv.2 --size=0 --grow --ondisk=xvda
> volgroup VolGroup00 pv.2 --pesize=32768 pv.2
^^^^^^^
Everything looks OK except you list the PV twice here, maybe
that's the problem? Just remove the first pv.2 and see if
that does it.
> logvol / --fstype ext3 --name=LogVol00 --vgname=VolGroup00 
> --size=1024 --grow
> logvol swap --fstype swap --name=LogVol01 --vgname=VolGroup00 
> --size=416 --grow --maxsize=832
> 
> This is taken exactly from the "template" kickstart file, I just 
> added the --initlabel after reading the kickstart tips on the wiki.
> I read the kickstart part of the RH Installation and Deployment Guide,
> but it didn't help in this respect. Apparently --pesize=32768 is a 
> maximum for volgroup extent sizes and is harmless.
> 
> When I change to creating a partition for / it works just fine.
> 
> Can someone help?
Here is the typical desktop kickstart partitioning I use:

clearpart --linux --initlabel --drives=sda
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=100 --ondisk=sda --asprimary
part pv.0 --size=0 --grow --ondisk=sda
volgroup CentOS --pesize=32768 pv.0
logvol / --fstype ext3 --name=root --vgname=CentOS --size=4096 --grow
logvol swap --fstype swap --name=swap --vgname=CentOS --size=1024

I typically switch to a swap file after install because it's easier
to customize, and with today's kernels and file systems it has been
shown that performance is equivalent between swap files and swap
partitions. Too bad kickstart doesn't have a option to create a
swap file...

-Ross

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