Other OS image: how to install on server


Please note that Unihost.com does not offer any support for the installation of custom images, and can’t guarantee the functionality of the installed OS.

  • The OS image must be Debian, SUSE or CentOS to have the correct network settings to be properly configured.
  • The complete OS must be archived in a .tar.gz format and be placed on a Web, NFS or FTP server. The archive should not contain “/dev”, “/proc” or “/sys” folders.
  • The archive name must contain the distribution name in itself (eg. “Debian-60-image.tar.gz” or “image-121-suse.tar.gz”).
  • The boot loader “lilo” or “grub” must be installed and selected in the configuration file.

Both boot loaders can be installed together to eliminate an error during the installation (optionally).

  • There should only be a kernel in “/boot”

Procedure of other OS image installing

Simply select “installimage” and in the following menu select “custom_images”. There you can choose the blank configuration, which can be configured to suit your requirements. An example of the configuration file for an OS image installation can be found below.

Pay attention that settings like the IMAGEPATH etc. have no paramaters. The available drives are automatically found and given the variables “DRIVE1” and possibly “DRIVE2” (if you have two drives).

If the requirements and procedures outlined above are met, then the installation should proceed without a problem.

Example configuration file

## ===================================================
##  Hetzner Online AG - installimage - standardconfig.
## ===================================================
## ====================
##  HARD DISK DRIVE(S):
## ====================
DRIVE1 /dev/sda
## ============
##  BOOTLOADER:
## ============
## which bootloader should be used?  < lilo | grub >
BOOTLOADER grub
## ==========
##  HOSTNAME:
## ==========
## which hostname should be set?
##.
HOSTNAME Debian-50-lenny-64-minimal
## ==========================
##  PARTITIONS / FILESYSTEMS:
## ==========================
## define your partitions and filesystems like this:
##
## PART  <mountpoint/lvm>  <filesystem/VG>  <size in MB>
##
## * <mountpoint/lvm> mountpoint for this filesystem  *OR*  keyword 'lvm'
##                    to use this PART as volume group (VG) for LVM
## * <filesystem/VG>  can be ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, swap  *OR*  name
##                    of the LVM volume group (VG), if this PART is a VG
## * <size>           you can use the keyword 'all' to assign all the
##                    remaining space of the drive to the *last* partition.
##                    you can use M/G/T for unit specification in MIB/GIB/TIB
##
## notes:
##   - extended partitions are created automatically
##   - '/boot' cannot be on a xfs filesystem!
##   - '/boot' cannot be on LVM!
##   - when using software RAID 0, you need a '/boot' partition
##
## example without LVM (default):
## -> 4GB   swapspace
## -> 512MB /boot
## -> 10GB  /
## -> 5GB   /tmp
## -> all the rest to /home
#PART swap   swap      4096
#PART /boot  ext2       512
#PART /      reiserfs 10240
#PART /tmp   xfs       5120
#PART /home  ext3       all
#
##
## to activate LVM, you have to define volume groups and logical volumes
##
## example with LVM:
#
## normal filesystems and volume group definitions:
## -> 256MB boot  (not on lvm)
## -> all the rest for LVM VG 'vg0'
#PART /boot  ext2     256M
#PART lvm    vg0       all
#
## logical volume definitions:
#LV <VG> <name> <mount> <filesystem> <size>
#
#LV vg0   root   /        ext3         10G
#LV vg0   swap   swap     swap          4G
#LV vg0   tmp    /tmp     reiserfs      5G
#LV vg0   home   /home    xfs          20G
#
#
## your system has the following devices:
#
# Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table  (=> /dev/sda doesn't)
# Disk /dev/sda: 2995.7 GB  (=> 2856 GIB)
#
PART swap swap 4G
PART /boot ext3 2G
PART / ext3 all
## ========================
##  OPERATING SYSTEM IMAGE:
## ========================
## full path to the operating system image
##   supported image sources:  local dir,  ftp,  http,  nfs
##   supported image types:  tar,  tar.gz,  tar.bz,  tar.bz2,  tgz,  tbz
## examples:
#
# local: /path/to/image/filename.tar.gz
# ftp:   ftp://<user>:<password>@hostname/path/to/image/filename.tar.bz2
# http:  http://<user>:<password>@hostname/path/to/image/filename.tbz
# https: https://<user>:<password>@hostname/path/to/image/filename.tbz
# nfs:   hostname:/path/to/image/filename.tgz
IMAGE /root/.oldroot/nfs/install/../images/Debian-50-lenny-64-minimal.tar.gz
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