Creating kvm instance remotely

[Gordon Messmer]

On 07/22/2015 07:39 AM, Alex wrote:
> I'm aware of kickstart, but have never used it. Is that the best
> option, or is something like chef or puppet easier?
> ...
> I've experimented with virt-install, but that apparently doesn't
> provide the ability to select all of the install config options

It might help to picture the virtual machine as a stack.

At the lowest level is the virtualized and emulated hardware. 
virt-install creates a virtual machine and sets the initial boot 
parameters.  That is, it selects and provides a kernel and initrd, and 
the kernel command line, for the initial boot.

Anaconda, the Fedora installer is another layer in the stack.  It can 
use some command line arguments, but those are mostly for its initial 
internal setup.  Kickstart is the component that can be used to answer 
the questions that Anaconda asks during a normal setup.

After the initial boot, the system will boot from its virtual disks, at 
which point you should have a standard operating system on top of 
virtual hardware.  At that point, you should use a tool (bcfg2, ansible, 
salt, puppet, chef, etc) to finish configuring the system.

You could also run your configuration management tool from the "post" 
script in your kickstart file, so that there is never an unconfigured boot.