Question

So, here’s my case, I have a machine(say M) to be booted using PXE boot and install an OS (say CentOS) in that machine. M will not have any monitors or keyboards attached to it.

PXE boot server is also running from a CentOS machine (say B)

How will I write a program (bash script, Java program) that sits in the machine B and get the status/notification that machine M has successfully finished installing the OS.

Note, that I cannot check manually that the OS has finished the installation. I need to automate that process.

I will be glad if you guys could suggest the best and the efficient way of doing that.

Answer 1

A simple enough way would be to use NFS to access a directory on B from M after installation has completed (depending on the installation method — for kickstart, use a post-install script). Create a file in some directory as a flag that the installation has completed. On machine ‘B’, you can use inotify features to detect the completion (either inotifywait from a shell script or libinotify otherwise).

If NFS is barred for some reason, you should be able to use scp or sshfs fairly easily. The most complex part is copying over the generated keys.