Adding ks files and isolinux.cfg to an Image Builder ISO

[olan025a]

I have in the past used a linux box to create ISO images of an ESXi ISO that includes kickstart files and a menu for installation of a specific host from the ks files included on the ISO, thank you William Lam.

I have created a powershell tool that creates the KS files and isolinux.cfg menu based on the specific KS files.

I'd like to keep it 100% native to powershell and create the ISO.

I've looked at using cygwin / mkisofs but thought it would be preferred to use Image Builder.

Does anyone know how to modify the file structure of an image imported in Image Builder to add the KS files and the customized isolinux.cfg file?

Luc?

[LucD]

You might want to have a look at the vKickstartomatic script from the PowerCLI Reference book.

You can download it here.

[olan025a]

Thanks for the quick reply as usual.

I took a look at vkickstartomatic and maybe i'm not seeing it or not articulating what i'm looking for. Does it have the capability to embed the created KS file into an ISO? I know it will set the installation source type, but actually embed the file into the iso i didn't see. This would assume a specific ISO version reference.

vKickstartomatic ,appears to me, to be a forms based tool to create a kickstart file for a specific host based on data entry in the form which is pretty cool but i don't believe is directly applicable to what i'm trying to do. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I have the ks files created from a process that grabs the data from a data source based on groups of hosts. I was hoping to leverage ImageBuilder to dynamically build out what would be in the ISO (we use ISOs because building out of band is a preferred capability(for those in the enterprise wondering why I'm not PXE booting....)

We create the KS files for a batch of hosts, we create a custom isolinux.cfg menu, then we combine it with the ISO contents so when the ISO is mounted to the lights out virtual media, the user sees a menu and selects the host they're building. Maybe i will get back to testing the New-IsoFile function that is on the tech net gallery, but I was hoping to leverage Image Builder.

I have just started digging deeper into image builder, but i don't see any facility to inject non VIB files into the image.