Can you pass vars to a kickstart file that is being read from your packer template?

[Aaron Kulbe]

I'm trying to reuse code as much as I can, but I don't know if you can pass vars to a kickstart file that packer reads from the template.

I have 4 RHEL versions. (7.2 - 7.5). As it stands right now, I have 4 separate templates, 4 kickstart files. I'm wondering if I can pass vars in, and use only one template and one KS file that reads in the values of 

What version I want.

Which ISO to use based on the version.

Which ISO checksum to use, based on the version.

Inside the kickstart file, pin the OS version to that OS's minor release with 

/usr/sbin/subscription-manager release --set=<OS version>

I know it's possible for the packer template file, but can you get the variable value passed into KS file too? If so, how?

[Alvaro Miranda Aguilera]

Hello

From a OS point of view all are RHEL7 and you should subscribe to RHEL7 and get all of them up to date.

after upgrade + reboot all the VM will be at the same level, ie won't be 7.2 anymore

having said that, if you want to subscribe a 7.2 to a 7.2 channel, you could parse the lsb_release output

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[Rickard von Essen]

See this mail thread:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/kickstart-list/2007-July/msg00035.html

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/packer-tool/CAHqq0exW%2BXVKte_moFHTv--pWRXkddTGVTzswgHH7_551UAxHw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Gabo Kete]

You can use variables, they can be passed in the %pre %post section of your KS file and then used internally, or you can have a script that based on your inputs the KS file is created prior the built via packer. multiple options to avoid having multiple KS files 

If the question is if you can pass variables from packer to the KS file, I do not think that is possible

[Gabo Kete]

almost a year ago did something similar to what you may be after, I face the same challenge and I end up using variables being passed to the KS 

1- I used a wrapper script where the variables were captured and kept to be used later. User entry were  hostname , IP, netmask, etc

2- the script dynamically creates the packer file including these variables, below is an example of the entry for the boot_command

"boot_command": [

        "<tab> text inst.ks=http://{{user \`ks_server\`}}/{{user \`ks_path\`}}/{{user \`ks_file\`}} IP=`echo $_IP` NM=`echo $_NM` GW=`echo $_GW` HN=`echo $_HN` <enter><wait>"

3- Then I captured the /proc/cmdline to identify what the user has passed and based on that, build the machine 

4- I then integrated the whole solution with Jenkins and each and everyone with the right permissions in Jenkins could spin up a CentOS server.. 

Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFq1TrjU-4U

I reckon you can do something similar where you capture the version of the Linux you want to build and whatever other option you want to consider and build the machine based on this information.. 

On Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at 9:13:03 AM UTC+12, Aaron Kulbe wrote: