Reinstalling your dedicated server (reference)

This page shows you how to reimage your dedicated server in advanced ways -
if you want the simple way see here instead where you only need
to pick from a few menu options.

If you want to be able to control partitioning, processor architecture and
IP configuration in a bit more detail, read on.

Simple usage

You need to have started our network boot environment from the
console shell and have a shell prompt in front of you.

You can pick all the default options by simply typing:

InstallMeADedicatedServer --hostname=<hostname>.dh.bytemark.co.uk

The script will then confirm some installation details:

<pre>
                     arch : i386
                broadcast : 80.68.87.255
                      cpu : AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+
               disc_count : 1
                    disk1 : /dev/sda
                  gateway : 80.68.87.1
                 hostname : your.hostname.here
                       ip : 80.68.87.61
                   memory : 488Mb
                  netmask : 255.255.255.0
                     dist : squeeze

The IP address and other details should be automatically filled in for you,
so you only generally need to tell it the hostname. Also the system will default to
installing Debian/squeeze – I’ll go through some other options in a second.

If you confirm by typing ‘yes’ the system will have its drives wiped and the
new OS installed within about 5 minutes. The process looks like this:

Setting up disks
Mounting new system at: /tmp/target
Disk setup complete
Making request for image from server.
Image Request : [1/20]
Image Request : [2/20]
Image Request : [3/20]
Image Request : [4/20]
Image generation complete - downloading image.
Image for new system downloaded successfully

System Installed
----------------

Root password: xxx123

At this point you can type “reboot” and the system will start with the new
image.

Choosing Your Distribution

In the previous example we didn’t specify a distribution to install, so the
imager defaulted to the latest release of Debian GNU/Linux (lenny at the
time of writing).

If you wish to specify a different distribution you should make use of the
—dist parameter. This specifies the distribution you would like
to be installed. You can call InstallMeADedicatedServer
—distributions on its own to see the list of distributions available -
at the time of writing this is:

     centos-5.7    Community Enterprise OS (CentOS)
     centos-6.0    Community Enterprise OS (CentOS)
     lucid         Ubuntu GNU/Linux
     oneiric       Ubuntu GNU/Linux   
     squeeze       Debian GNU/Linux
     symbiosis     Bytemark/Debian

Advanced Usage

So far, this usage doesn’t differ from what you can do using the simple method . However there are various extra features that you can invoke:

Architecture

Almost all of our dedicated servers are 64-bit capable systems, and the installer
will default to a 64-bit installation.

If you want to force a 32-bit installation you can add:

 --arch i386

Network configuration

Normally, the installer will take the network boot system’s current IP address
as its permanent one for installations. If this is not correct (usually only
if you have your own VLAN) you can specify the network parameters precisely:

 --ip x.x.x.x --gateway x.x.x.x --netmask x.x.x.x --broadcast x.x.x.x

Advanced partitioning

Normally the installer will make one small partition for /boot, and use the
rest of the disc for the root (/). There are two ways of overriding this. We
would recommend using the:

 --lvm

option which tells the installer to allocate the normal /boot partition, then
only a 10GB root partition, and to use the rest of the disc for LVM. When the
system has installed, you can them use the normal LVM tools to carve up the
rest of the disc dynamically.

Alternatively, you can do the partitioning and filesystem creation completely
in advance. You can mount your disc on /target and add the:

 --mounted

option to the installer. This tells it to skip the disc setup entirely, and
trust you. Obviously if you’ve made any mistakes in partitioning, it may not
complete.

Other options

While there are some other options listed, they are really only for debugging
purposes, so only use at the risk of a badly set-up system, or if instructed
by Bytemark support.