4 Configuration and installation options #

The mode section configures the behavior of AutoYaST with regard to user confirmations and rebooting. The following elements are allowed in the mode section:

AutoYaST allows you to configure the Installation Settings screen, which shows a summary of the installation settings. On this screen, the user can change the settings before confirming them to start the installation. Using the proposal tag, you can control which settings (“proposals”) are shown in the installation screen. A list of valid proposals for your products is available from the /control.xml file on the installation medium. This setting is optional. By default all configuration options will be shown.

<proposals config:type="list">
 <proposal>partitions_proposal</proposal>
 <proposal>timezone_proposal</proposal>
 <proposal>software_proposal</proposal>
</proposals>

AutoYaST offers to start some YaST modules during the installation. This gives administrators installing the machine the ability to manually configure some aspects of the installation, while also automating the rest of the installation. Within the semi-automatic section, you can start the following YaST modules:

The following example starts all three supported YaST modules during the installation:

<general>
 <semi-automatic config:type="list">
  <semi-automatic_entry>networking</semi-automatic_entry>
  <semi-automatic_entry>scc</semi-automatic_entry>
  <semi-automatic_entry>partitioning</semi-automatic_entry>
 </semi-automatic>
</general>

By default AutoYaST will only install signed packages from sources with known GPG keys. Use this section to overwrite the default settings.

Warning: Overwriting the signature handling defaults

Installing unsigned packages, packages with failing checksum checks, or packages from sources you do not trust is a major security risk. Packages may have been modified and may install malicious software on your machine. Only overwrite the defaults in this section if you are sure the repository and packages can be trusted. SUSE is not responsible for any problems arising from software installed with integrity checks disabled.

Default values for all options are false. If an option is set to false and a package or repository fails the respective test, it is silently ignored and will not be installed.

On IBM Z, you can prevent the kernel from looking at unused hardware devices by running cio_ignore and ignoring them. This is done by setting the AutoYaST parameter with the same name to true. Setting this value is optional and only applies to installations on IBM Z hardware. The default is true.

<general>
 <cio_ignore config:type="boolean">true</cio_ignore>
 ...
<general>

Find examples covering several use cases in this section.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE profile>
<profile xmlns="http://www.suse.com/1.0/yast2ns"
 xmlns:config="http://www.suse.com/1.0/configns">
 <general>
  <mode>
   <halt config:type="boolean">false</halt>
   <forceboot config:type="boolean">false</forceboot>
   <final_reboot config:type="boolean">false</final_reboot>
   <final_halt config:type="boolean">false</final_halt>
   <confirm_base_product_license config:type="boolean">
    false
   </confirm_base_product_license>
   <confirm config:type="boolean">true</confirm>
   <second_stage config:type="boolean">true</second_stage>
  </mode>
  <proposals config:type="list">
   <proposal>partitions_proposal</proposal>
  </proposals>
  <self_update config:type="boolean">true</self_update>
  <self_update_url>http://example.com/updates/$arch</self_update_url>
  <signature-handling>
   <accept_unsigned_file config:type="boolean">
    true
   </accept_unsigned_file>
   <accept_file_without_checksum config:type="boolean">
    true
   </accept_file_without_checksum>
   <accept_verification_failed config:type="boolean">
    true
   </accept_verification_failed>
   <accept_unknown_gpg_key config:type="boolean">
    true
   </accept_unknown_gpg_key>
   <import_gpg_key config:type="boolean">true</import_gpg_key>
   <accept_non_trusted_gpg_key config:type="boolean">
   true
   </accept_non_trusted_gpg_key>
  </signature-handling>
  </general>
</profile>

With SUSEConnect --list-extensions you can list all available extensions in a registered system, and the commands to activate and disable them.

The following example shows which extensions are already activated, and labels the extensions that require their own registration codes:

   AVAILABLE EXTENSIONS AND MODULES
   
   SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP4 x86_64
   Activate with: transactional-update register -p sle-module-live-patching/15.4/x86_64 -r ADDITIONAL REGCODE
   
   [...]

The -p argument (in the above example) displays the NAME/VERSION/ARCH values that can be used in the AutoYaST profile.

You may also see all available modules and extensions at https://scc.suse.com/packages. Select your product and architecture, then click the In Module form to see a list of all extensions.

This defines which boot loader (UEFI or BIOS/legacy) to use. Not all architectures support both legacy and EFI variants of the boot loader. The safest (default) option is to leave the decision up to the installer.

<loader_type>LOADER_TYPE</loader_type>

Possible values for LOADER_TYPE are:

This is an important if optional part. Define here where to install GRUB 2 and how the boot process will work. Again, yast2-bootloader proposes a configuration if you do not define one. Usually the AutoYaST control file includes only this part and all other parts are added automatically during installation by yast2-bootloader. Unless you have some special requirements, do not specify the boot loader configuration in the XML file.

Tip: Hibernation

If there is a need for specific hibernation settings, then resume or noresume in the append configuration can be used.

To disable hibernation regardless of what the installer proposes, specify noresume as a kernel parameter in the append section.

To specify the hibernation device, use the resume key with the device path. The recommended way to get stable results is configuring your own partitioning, and having a swap device with a label:

        <append>quiet resume=/dev/disk/by-label/my_swap</append>

If you do not use resume or noresume, or if resume specifies a device that will not exist on the installed system, then the installer may propose a correct value for resume, or it may remove the hibernation parameter completely, depending on installer logic.

<global>
  <activate>true</activate>
  <timeout config:type="integer">10</timeout>
  <terminal>gfxterm</terminal>
  <gfxmode>1280x1024x24</gfxmode>
</global>

GRUB 2 avoids mapping problems between BIOS drives and Linux devices by using device ID strings (UUIDs) or file system labels when generating its configuration files. GRUB 2 utilities create a temporary device map on the fly, which is usually sufficient, particularly on single-disk systems. However, if you need to override the automatic device mapping mechanism, create your custom mapping in this section.

<device_map config:type="list">
  <device_map_entry>
    <firmware>hd0</firmware> <!-- order of devices in target map  -->
    <linux>/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500418AS_6VM23FX0</linux> <!-- name of device (disk)  -->
  </device_map_entry>
</device_map>

AutoYaST can come up with a sensible partitioning layout without any user indication. Although it depends on the selected product to install, AutoYaST usually proposes a Btrfs root file system, a separate /home using XFS and a swap partition. Additionally, depending on the architecture, it adds any partition that might be needed to boot (like BIOS GRUB partitions).

However, these defaults might change depending on factors like the available disk space. For example, having a separate /home depends on the amount of available disk space.

If you want to influence these default values, you can use the approach described in Section 4.5.2, “Guided partitioning”.

Although AutoYaST can come up with a partitioning layout without any user indication, sometimes it is useful to set some generic parameters and let AutoYaST do the rest. For example, you may be interested in using LVM or encrypting your file systems without having to deal with the details. It is similar to what you would do when using the guided proposal in a regular installation.

The storage section in Example 4.3, “LVM-based guided partitioning” instructs AutoYaST to set up a partitioning layout using LVM and deleting all Windows partitions, no matter whether they are needed.

<general>
   <storage>
     <proposal>
       <lvm config:type="boolean">true</lvm>
       <windows_delete_mode config:type="symbol">all</windows_delete_mode>
     </proposal>
   </storage>
</general>

As an alternative to guided partitioning, AutoYaST allows to describe the partitioning layout through a partitioning section. However, AutoYaST does not need to know every single detail and can build a sensible layout from a rather incomplete specification.

The partitioning section is a list of drive elements. Each of these sections describes an element of the partitioning layout like a disk, an LVM volume group, a RAID, a multi-device Btrfs file system, and so on.

Example 4.4, “Creating /, /home and swap partitions”, asks AutoYaST to create a /, a /home and a swap partition using the whole disk. Note that some information is missing, like which file systems each partition should use. However, that is not a problem, and AutoYaST will propose sensible values for them.

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <use>all</use>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <mount>/</mount>
        <size>20GiB</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <mount>/home</mount>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <mount>swap</mount>
        <size>1GiB</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>

Tip: Proposing a boot partition

AutoYaST checks whether the layout described in the profile is bootable or not. If it is not, it adds the missing partitions. So, if you are unsure about which partitions are needed to boot, you can rely on AutoYaST to make the right decision.

4.5.3.1 Drive configuration #

  

The elements listed below must be placed within the following XML structure:

<profile>
  <partitioning config:type="list">
    <drive>
     ...
    </drive>
  </partitioning>
</profile>

Attribute, Values, Description #

  

device

Optional, the device you want to configure. If left out, AutoYaST tries to guess the device. See Tip: Skipping devices on how to influence guessing.

If set to ask, AutoYaST will ask the user which device to use during installation.

You can use persistent device names via ID, like /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200AAKS-75L9 or by-path, like /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0001:00:03.0-scsi-0:0:0:0.

<device>/dev/sda</device>

In case of volume groups, software RAID or bcache devices, the name in the installed system may be different (to avoid clashes with existing devices).

See Section 4.5.7, “Multipath support” for further information about dealing with multipath devices.

initialize

Optional, the default is false. If set to true, the partition table is wiped out before AutoYaST starts the partition calculation.

<initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize>

partitions

Optional, a list of <partition> entries (see Section 4.5.3.2, “Partition configuration”).

<partitions config:type="list">
          <partition>...</partition>
          ...
          </partitions>

If no partitions are specified, AutoYaST will create a reasonable partitioning layout (see Section 4.5.3.5, “Filling the gaps”).

pesize

Optional, for LVM only. The default is 4M for LVM volume groups.

<pesize>8M</pesize>

use

Recommended, specifies the strategy AutoYaST will use to partition the hard disk. Choose from:

all, uses the whole device while calculating the new partitioning.

linux, only existing Linux partitions are used.

free, only unused space on the device is used, no existing partitions are touched.

1,2,3, a list of comma-separated partition numbers to use.

type

Optional, specifies the type of the drive. The default is CT_DISK for a normal physical hard disk. The following is a list of all options:

CT_DISK for physical hard disks (default).

CT_LVM for LVM volume groups.

CT_MD for software RAID devices.

CT_DMMULTIPATH for Multipath devices (deprecated, implied with CT_DISK).

CT_BCACHE for software bcache devices.

CT_BTRFS for multi-device Btrfs file systems.

CT_NFS for NFS.

CT_TMPFS for tmpfs file systems.

<type config:type="symbol">CT_LVM</type>

disklabel

Optional. By default YaST decides what makes sense. If a partition table of a different type already exists, it will be re-created with the given type only if it does not include any partition that should be kept or reused. To use the disk without creating any partition, set this element to none. The following is a list of all options:

msdos

gpt

none

<disklabel>gpt</disklabel>

keep_unknown_lv

Optional, the default is false.

This value only makes sense for type=CT_LVM drives. If you are reusing a logical volume group and you set this to true, all existing logical volumes in that group will not be touched unless they are specified in the <partitioning> section. So you can keep existing logical volumes without specifying them.

<keep_unknown_lv config:type="boolean">false</keep_unknown_lv>

enable_snapshots

Optional, the default is true.

Enables snapshots on Btrfs file systems mounted at / (does not apply to other file systems, or Btrfs file systems not mounted at /).

<enable_snapshots config:type="boolean">false</enable_snapshots>

quotas

Optional, the default is false.

Enables support for Btrfs subvolume quotas. Setting this element to true will enable support for quotas for the file system. However, you need to set the limits for each subvolume. Check Section 4.5.3.3, “Btrfs subvolumes” for further information.

<quotas config:type="boolean">true</quotas>

Important: Beware of data loss

The value provided in the use property determines how existing data and partitions are treated. The value all means that the entire disk will be erased. Make backups and use the confirm property if you need to keep some partitions with important data. Otherwise, no pop-ups will notify you about partitions being deleted.

Tip: Skipping devices

You can influence AutoYaST's device-guessing for cases where you do not specify a <device> entry on your own. Usually AutoYaST would use the first device it can find that looks reasonable but you can configure it to skip some devices like this:

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize>
    <skip_list config:type="list">
      <listentry>
        <!-- skip devices that use the usb-storage driver -->
        <skip_key>driver</skip_key>
        <skip_value>usb-storage</skip_value>
      </listentry>
      <listentry>
        <!-- skip devices that are smaller than 1GB -->
        <skip_key>size_k</skip_key>
        <skip_value>1048576</skip_value>
        <skip_if_less_than config:type="boolean">true</skip_if_less_than>
      </listentry>
      <listentry>
        <!-- skip devices that are larger than 100GB -->
        <skip_key>size_k</skip_key>
        <skip_value>104857600</skip_value>
        <skip_if_more_than config:type="boolean">true</skip_if_more_than>
      </listentry>
    </skip_list>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

For a list of all possible <skip_key>s, run yast2 ayast_probe on a system that has already been installed.

<drive>
  <partitions config:type="list">
    <partition>
      ...
    </partition>
  </partitions>
</drive>

<subvolumes config:type="list">
  <path>usr/local</path>
  <path>tmp</path>
  <path>opt</path>
  <path>srv</path>
  <path>var</path>
</subvolumes>

<subvolumes config:type="list">
  <listentry>usr/local</listentry>
  <listentry>
    <path>tmp</path>
    <referenced_limit>1 GiB</referenced_limit>
  </listentry>
  <listentry>opt</listentry>
  <listentry>srv</listentry>
  <listentry>
    <path>var/lib/pgsql</path>
    <copy_on_write config:type="boolean">false</copy_on_write>
  </listentry>
</subvolumes>

<subvolumes_prefix><![CDATA[]]></subvolumes_prefix>

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <create config:type="boolean">true</create>
        <format config:type="boolean">true</format>
        <mount>/</mount>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sdb</device>
    <disklabel>none</disklabel>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <format config:type="boolean">true</format>
        <mount>/home</mount>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <use>all</use>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <mount>/</mount>
        <size>10G</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <mount>swap</mount>
        <size>1G</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sdb</device>
    <use>free</use>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext4</filesystem>
        <mount>/data1</mount>
        <size>15G</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <filesystem config:type="symbol">xfs</filesystem>
        <mount>/data2</mount>
        <size>auto</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

To configure LVM, first create a physical volume using the normal partitioning method described above.

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <create config:type="boolean">true</create>
        <lvm_group>system</lvm_group>
        <partition_type>primary</partition_type>
        <partition_id config:type="integer">142</partition_id>
        <partition_nr config:type="integer">1</partition_nr>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <lvm_group>system</lvm_group>
        <partition_type>primary</partition_type>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/system</device>
      <type config:type="symbol">CT_LVM</type>
      <partitions config:type="list">
        <partition>
          <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext4</filesystem>
          <lv_name>user_lv</lv_name>
          <mount>/usr</mount>
          <size>15G</size>
        </partition>
        <partition>
          <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext4</filesystem>
          <lv_name>opt_lv</lv_name>
          <mount>/opt</mount>
          <size>10G</size>
        </partition>
        <partition>
          <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext4</filesystem>
          <lv_name>var_lv</lv_name>
          <mount>/var</mount>
          <size>1G</size>
        </partition>
      </partitions>
      <pesize>4M</pesize>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

It is possible to set the size to max for the logical volumes. Of course, you can only use max for one(!) logical volume. You cannot set two logical volumes in one volume group to max.

Using AutoYaST, you can create and assemble software RAID devices. The supported RAID levels are the following:

Similar to LVM, a software RAID definition in an AutoYaST profile is composed of two different parts:

The following example shows a RAID10 configuration that uses a partition from the first disk and another one from the second disk as RAID members:

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <mount>/</mount>
        <size>20G</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <raid_name>/dev/md/0</raid_name>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sdb</device>
    <disklabel>none</disklabel>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <raid_name>/dev/md/0</raid_name>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/md/0</device>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <mount>/home</mount>
        <size>40G</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <mount>/srv</mount>
        <size>10G</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <raid_options>
      <chunk_size>4</chunk_size>
      <parity_algorithm>near_2</parity_algorithm>
      <raid_type>raid10</raid_type>
    </raid_options>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

If you do not want to create partitions in the software RAID, set the disklabel to none as you would do for a regular disk. In the example below, only the RAID drive section is shown for simplicity's sake:

<drive>
  <device>/dev/md/0</device>
  <disklabel>none</disklabel>
  <partitions config:type="list">
    <partition>
      <mount>/home</mount>
      <size>40G</size>
    </partition>
  </partitions>
  <raid_options>
    <chunk_size>4</chunk_size>
    <parity_algorithm>near_2</parity_algorithm>
    <raid_type>raid10</raid_type>
  </raid_options>
  <use>all</use>
</drive>

<partition>
     <raid_options>
     ...
     </raid_options>
     </partition>

AutoYaST can handle multipath devices. To take advantage of them, you need to enable multipath support, as shown in Example 4.15, “Using multipath devices”. Alternatively, you can use the following parameter on the Kernel command line: LIBSTORAGE_MULTIPATH_AUTOSTART=ON.

<general>
  <storage>
    <start_multipath config:type="boolean">true</start_multipath>
  </storage>
</general>
<partitioning>
  <drive>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <size>20G</size>
        <mount>/</mount>
        <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext4</filesystem>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <size>auto</size>
        <mount>swap</mount>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <type config:type="symbol">CT_DISK</type>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

If you want to specify the device, you could use the World Wide Identifier (WWID), its device name (for example, /dev/dm-0), any other path under /dev/disk that refers to the multipath device, or any of its paths.

For example, given the multipath listing from Example 4.16, “Listing multipath devices”, you could use /dev/mapper/14945540000000000f86756dce9286158be4c6e3567e75ba5, /dev/dm-3, any other corresponding path under /dev/disk (as shown in Example 4.17, “Using the WWID to identify a multipath device”), or any of its paths (/dev/sda or /dev/sdb).

# multipath -l
14945540000000000f86756dce9286158be4c6e3567e75ba5 dm-3 ATA,VIRTUAL-DISK
size=40G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw
|-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=1 status=active
| `- 2:0:0:0 sda 8:0  active ready running
`-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=1 status=enabled
  `- 3:0:0:0 sdb 8:16 active ready running

<drive>
  <partitions config:type="list">
    <device>/dev/mapper/14945540000000000f86756dce9286158be4c6e3567e75ba5</device>
    <partition>
      <size>20G</size>
      <mount>/</mount>
      <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext4</filesystem>
    </partition>
  </partitions>
  <type config:type="symbol">CT_DISK</type>
  <use>all</use>
</drive>

bcache is a caching system which allows the use of multiple fast drives to speed up the access to one or more slower drives. For example, you can improve the performance of a large (but slow) drive by using a fast one as a cache.

For more information about bcache on SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro, also see the blog post at https://www.suse.com/c/combine-the-performance-of-solid-state-drive-with-the-capacity-of-a-hard-drive-with-bcache-and-yast/.

To set up a bcache device, AutoYaST needs a profile that specifies the following:

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <type config:type="symbol">CT_DISK</type>
    <use>all</use>
    <enable_snapshots config:type="boolean">true</enable_snapshots>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <filesystem config:type="symbol">btrfs</filesystem>
        <mount>/</mount>
        <create config:type="boolean">true</create>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <filesystem config:type="symbol">swap</filesystem>
        <mount>swap</mount>
        <create config:type="boolean">true</create>
        <size>2GiB</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>

  <drive>
    <type config:type="symbol">CT_DISK</type>
    <device>/dev/sdb</device>
    <disklabel>msdos</disklabel>
    <use>all</use>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <!-- It can serve as caching device for several bcaches -->
        <bcache_caching_for config:type="list">
          <listentry>/dev/bcache0</listentry>
        </bcache_caching_for>
        <size>max</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>

  <drive>
    <type config:type="symbol">CT_DISK</type>
    <device>/dev/sdc</device>
    <use>all</use>
    <disklabel>msdos</disklabel>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <!-- It can serve as backing device for one bcache -->
        <bcache_backing_for>/dev/bcache0</bcache_backing_for>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>

  <drive>
    <type config:type="symbol">CT_BCACHE</type>
    <device>/dev/bcache0</device>
    <bcache_options>
      <cache_mode>writethrough</cache_mode>
    </bcache_options>
    <use>all</use>
    <partitions config:type="list">
      <partition>
        <mount>/data</mount>
        <size>20GiB</size>
      </partition>
      <partition>
        <mount>swap</mount>
        <filesystem config:type="symbol">swap</filesystem>
        <size>1GiB</size>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

For the time being, the only supported option in the bcache_options section is cache_mode, described below.

Btrfs supports creating a single volume that spans more than one storage device, offering similar features to software RAID implementations such as the Linux kernel's built-in mdraid subsystem. Multi-device Btrfs offers advantages over some other RAID implementations. For example, you can dynamically migrate a multi-device Btrfs volume from one RAID level to another, RAID levels can be set on a per-file basis, and more. However, not all of these features are fully supported yet in SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 15 SP4.

With AutoYaST, a multi-device Btrfs can be configured by specifying a drive with the CT_BTRFS type. The device property is used as an arbitrary name to identify each multi-device Btrfs.

As with RAID, you need to create all block devices first (for example, partitions, LVM logical volumes, etc.) and assign them to the Btrfs file system you want to create over such block devices.

The following example shows a simple multi-device Btrfs configuration:

<partitioning config:type="list">
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sda</device>
    <disklabel>none</disklabel>
    <partitions>
      <partition>
        <btrfs_name>root_fs</btrfs_name>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>/dev/sdb</device>
    <disklabel>gpt</disklabel>
    <partitions>
      <partition>
        <partition_nr>1</partition_nr>
        <size>4gb</size>
        <filesystem>ext4</filesystem>
        <btrfs_name>root_fs</btrfs_name>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <use>all</use>
  </drive>
  <drive>
    <device>root_fs</device>
    <type config:type="symbol">CT_BTRFS</type>
    <partitions>
      <partition config:type="list>
        <mount>/</mount>
      </partition>
    </partitions>
    <btrfs_options>
      <raid_leve>raid1</raid_level>
      <metadata_raid_leve>raid1</metadata_raid_level>
    </btrfs_options>
  </drive>
</partitioning>

The supported data and metadata RAID levels are: default, single, dup, raid0, raid1, and raid10. By default, file system metadata is mirrored across two devices and data is striped across all of the devices. If only one device is present, metadata will be duplicated on that one device.

Keep the following in mind when configuring a multi-device Btrfs file system:

AutoYaST allows to install SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro onto Network File System (NFS) shares. To do so, you must create a drive with the CT_NFS type and provide the NFS share name (SERVER:PATH) as device name. The information relative to the mount point is included as part of its first partition section. Note that for an NFS drive, only the first partition is taken into account.

        <partitioning config:type="list">
          <drive>
            <device>192.168.1.1:/exports/root_fs</device>
            <type config:type="symbol">CT_NFS</type>
            <use>all</use>
            <partitions config:type="list">
              <partition>
                <mount>/</mount>
                <fstopt>nolock</fstopt>
              </partition>
            </partitions>
          </drive>
        </partitioning>

AutoYaST supports the definition of tmpfs virtual file systems by setting the type element to CT_TMPFS. Each partition section represents a tmpfs file system.

      <partitioning config:type="list">
        <drive>
          <type config:type="symbol">CT_TMPFS</type>
          <partitions config:type="list">
            <partition>
              <mount>/srv</mount>
              <fstopt>size=512M</fstopt>
            </partition>
            <partition>
              <mount>/temp</mount>
            </partition>
          </partitions>
        <drive>
      <partitioning>

tmpfs devices are different from regular file systems like Ext4 or Btrfs. Therefore, the only relevant elements are mount, which is mandatory, and fstopt. The latter is used to set file system attributes like its size limit, mode, and so on. You can find additional information about the known options in the tmpfs man page.

Patterns or packages are configured like this:

<software>
  <patterns config:type="list">
    <pattern>directory_server</pattern>
  </patterns>
  <packages config:type="list">
    <package>apache</package>
    <package>postfix</package>
  </packages>
  <do_online_update config:type="boolean">true</do_online_update>
</software>

Note: Package and pattern names

The values are real package or pattern names. If the package name has been changed because of an upgrade, you will need to adapt these settings too.

The list bellow describes all patterns supported by SLE Micro. Unless specified otherwise, the patterns are optional.

It is possible to specify package and pattern names using regular expressions. In that case, AutoYaST will select all packages or patterns that match the expression. Beware that such expressions must be enclosed within slashes. In Example 4.28, “Packages selection using a regular expression”, all packages whose name starts with nginx will be selected (e.g., nginx and nginx-macros).

<software>
  <packages config:type="list">
    <package>/nginx.*/</package>
  </packages>
</software>

In addition to the packages available for installation on the DVD-ROMs, you can add external packages including customized kernels. Customized kernel packages must be compatible with the SUSE packages and must install the kernel files to the same locations.

Unlike in earlier versions, you do not need a special resource in the control file to install custom and external packages. Instead you need to re-create the package database and update it with any new packages or new package versions in the source repository.

A script is provided for this task which will query packages available in the repository and create the package database. Use the command /usr/bin/create_package_descr. It can be found in the inst-source-utils package in the openSUSE Build Service. When creating the database, all languages will be reset to English.

> cp /tmp/inst-source-utils-2016.7.26-1.2.noarch.rpm /usr/local/DVDs/LATEST/suse/noarch
> cd /usr/local/DVDs/LATEST/suse
> create_package_descr -d /usr/local/CDs/LATEST/suse

In the above example, the directory /usr/local/CDs/LATEST/suse contains the architecture-dependent (for example x86_64) and architecture-independent packages (noarch). This might look different on other architectures.

The advantage of this method is that you can keep an up-to-date repository with a fixed and updated package. Additionally, this method makes the creation of custom CD-ROMs easier.

To add your own module such as the SDK (SUSE Software Development Kit), add a file add_on_products.xml to the installation source in the root directory.

The following example shows how the SDK module can be added to the base product repository. The complete SDK repository will be stored in the directory /sdk.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<add_on_products xmlns="http://www.suse.com/1.0/yast2ns"
   xmlns:config="http://www.suse.com/1.0/configns">
   <product_items config:type="list">
      <product_item>
         <name>SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit</name>
         <url>relurl:////sdk?alias=SLE_SDK</url>
         <path>/</path>
         <-- Users are asked whether to add such a product -->
         <ask_user config:type="boolean">false</ask_user>
         <-- Defines the default state of pre-selected state in case of ask_user used. -->
         <selected config:type="boolean">true</selected>
      </product_item>
   </product_items>
</add_on_products>

Besides this special case, all other modules, extensions and add-on products can be added from almost every other location during an AutoYaST installation.

Even repositories that do not have any product or module information can be added during the installation. These are called other add-ons.

<add-on>
  <add_on_products config:type="list">
    <listentry>
      <media_url>cd:///sdk</media_url>
      <product>sle-sdk</product>
      <alias>SLE SDK</alias>
      <product_dir>/</product_dir>
      <priority config:type="integer">20</priority>
      <ask_on_error config:type="boolean">false</ask_on_error>
      <confirm_license config:type="boolean">false</confirm_license>
      <name>SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit</name>
    </listentry>
  </add_on_products>
  <add_on_others config:type="list">
    <listentry>
      <media_url>https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/YaST:/Head/openSUSE_Leap_15.2/</media_url>
      <alias>yast2_head</alias>
      <priority config:type="integer">30</priority>
      <name>Latest YaST2 packages from OBS</name>
    </listentry>
  </add_on_others>
</add-on>

The add_on_others and add_on_products sections support the same values:

To use unsigned installation sources with AutoYaST, turn off the checks with the following configuration in your AutoYaST control file.

Note: Unsigned installation sources—limitations

You can only disable signature checking during the first stage of the auto-installation process. In stage two, the installed system's configuration takes precedence over AutoYaST configuration.

The elements listed below must be placed within the following XML structure:

<general>
  <signature-handling>
    ...
  </signature-handling>
</general>

Default values for all options are false. If an option is set to false and a package or repository fails the respective test, it is silently ignored and will not be installed. Note that setting any of these options to true is a potential security risk. Never do it when using packages or repositories from third-party sources.

It is possible to configure the signature handling for each add-on product, module, or extension individually. The following elements must be between the signature-handling section of the individual add-on product, module, or extension. All settings are optional. If not configured, the global signature-handling from the general section is used.

Kernel packages are not part of any selection. The required kernel is determined during installation. If the kernel package is added to any selection or to the individual package selection, installation will mostly fail because of conflicts.

To force the installation of a specific kernel, use the kernel property. The following is an example of forcing the installation of the default kernel. This kernel will be installed even if an SMP or other kernel is required.

<software>
  <kernel>kernel-default</kernel>
  ...
</software>

Some packages are selected automatically either because of a dependency or because it is available in a selection.

Removing these packages might break the system consistency, and it is not recommended to remove basic packages unless a replacement which provides the same services is provided. The best example for this case are mail transfer agent (MTA) packages. By default, postfix will be selected and installed. To use another MTA like sendmail, then postfix can be removed from the list of selected package using a list in the software resource. However, note that sendmail is not shipped with SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro. The following example shows how this can be done:

Note: Package removal failure

Note that it is not possible to remove a package that is part of a pattern (see Section 4.9.1, “Package selection with patterns and packages sections”). When specifying such a package for removal, the installation will fail with the following error message:

The package resolver run failed. Check
      your software section in the AutoYaST profile.

AutoYaST enables you to control which recommended packages and patterns are installed. There are three options:

Set the install_recommended flag to true in the configuration file to install all recommended packages and patterns.

If you want a minimal installation, and to install only required packages and patterns, set the flag to false.

Omit the flag from the configuration file to install only recommended packages, and ignore all recommended patterns. Note that this flag only affects a fresh installation and will be ignored during an upgrade.

Note: The install_recommended flag affects only the installation process

Keep in mind that the flag influences only the package resolver during the installation process and does not change any settings in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf. Therefore, the package resolving in the running system is not affected by this AutoYaST setting.

By default, AutoYaST performs only the minimal installation with the required packages. If you want to install all recommended packages, add the following line to your AutoYaST profile:

<software>
  <install_recommended config:type="boolean">true
  </install_recommended>
</software>

Network configuration is mainly used to connect a single workstation to an Ethernet-based LAN. It is commonly configured before AutoYaST starts, to fetch the profile from a network location. This network configuration is usually done through linuxrc

Note: The linuxrc program

For a detailed description of how linuxrc works and its keywords, see Appendix C, Advanced linuxrc options.

By default, YaST copies the network settings that were used during the installation into the final, installed system. This configuration is merged with the one defined in the AutoYaST profile.

AutoYaST settings have higher priority than any existing configuration files. YaST will write ifcfg-* files based on the entries in the profile without removing old ones. If the DNS and routing section is empty or missing, YaST will keep any pre-existing values. Otherwise, it applies the settings from the profile file.

Network settings and service activation are defined under the profile networking global resource.

<networking>
  <dns>
    <dhcp_hostname config:type="boolean">true</dhcp_hostname>
    <hostname>linux-bqua</hostname>
    <nameservers config:type="list">
      <nameserver>192.168.1.116</nameserver>
      <nameserver>192.168.1.117</nameserver>
      <nameserver>192.168.1.118</nameserver>
    </nameservers>
    <resolv_conf_policy>auto</resolv_conf_policy>
    <searchlist config:type="list">
      <search>example.com</search>
      <search>example.net</search>
    </searchlist>
  </dns>
  <interfaces config:type="list">
    <interface>
      <bootproto>dhcp</bootproto>
      <name>eth0</name>
      <startmode>auto</startmode>
    </interface>
  </interfaces>
  <ipv6 config:type="boolean">true</ipv6>
  <keep_install_network config:type="boolean">false</keep_install_network>
  <managed config:type="boolean">false</managed>
  <net-udev config:type="list">
    <rule>
      <name>eth0</name>
      <rule>ATTR{address}</rule>
      <value>00:30:6E:08:EC:80</value>
    </rule>
  </net-udev>
  <s390-devices config:type="list">
    <listentry>
      <chanids>0.0.0800:0.0.0801:0.0.0802</chanids>
      <type>qeth</type>
    </listentry>
  </s390-devices>
  <routing>
    <ipv4_forward config:type="boolean">false</ipv4_forward>
    <ipv6_forward config:type="boolean">false</ipv6_forward>
    <routes config:type="list">
      <route>
        <destination>192.168.100.0/24</destination>
        <device>eth1</device>
        <extrapara>scope link src 192.168.100.100 table one</extrapara>
        <gateway>-</gateway>
      </route>
      <route>
        <destination>default</destination>
        <device>eth1</device>
        <gateway>192.168.100.1</gateway>
      </route>
      <route>
        <destination>default</destination>
        <device>lo</device>
        <gateway>192.168.5.1</gateway>
      </route>
    </routes>
  </routing>
</networking>

As shown in the example above, the <networking> section can be composed of a few subsections:

Additionally, there are a few elements that allow modification of how the network configuration is applied:

Tip: IPv6 address support

Using IPv6 addresses in AutoYaST is fully supported. To disable IPv6 Address Support, set <ipv6 config:type="boolean">false</ipv6>

The interfaces section allows the user to define the configuration of interfaces, including how they are started, their IP addresses, networks, and more. The following elements must be enclosed in <interfaces>...</interfaces> tags.

<networking>
  <setup_before_proposal config:type="boolean">false</setup_before_proposal>
  <keep_install_network config:type="boolean">false</keep_install_network>
  <interfaces config:type="list">
    <interface>
      <bonding_master>yes</bonding_master>
      <bonding_module_opts>mode=active-backup miimon=100</bonding_module_opts>
      <bonding_slave0>eth1</bonding_slave0>
      <bonding_slave1>eth2</bonding_slave1>
      <bootproto>static</bootproto>
      <name>bond0</name>
      <ipaddr>192.168.1.61</ipaddr>
      <prefixlen>24</prefixlen>
      <startmode>auto</startmode>
    </interface>
    <interface>
      <bootproto>none</bootproto>
      <name>eth1</name>
      <startmode>auto</startmode>
    </interface>
    <interface>
      <bootproto>none</bootproto>
      <name>eth2</name>
      <startmode>auto</startmode>
    </interface>
  </interfaces>
  <net-udev config:type="list">
    <rule>
      <name>eth1</name>
      <rule>ATTR{address}</rule>
      <value>dc:e4:cc:27:94:c7</value>
    </rule>
    <rule>
      <name>eth2</name>
      <rule>ATTR{address}</rule>
      <value>dc:e4:cc:27:94:c8</value>
    </rule>
  </net-udev>
</networking>

<interfaces config:type="list">
  <interface>
    <name>br0</name>
    <bootproto>static</bootproto>
    <bridge>yes</bridge>
    <bridge_forwarddelay>0</bridge_forwarddelay>
    <bridge_ports>eth0 eth1</bridge_ports>
    <bridge_stp>off</bridge_stp>
    <ipaddr>192.168.1.100</ipaddr>
    <prefixlen>24</prefixlen>
    <startmode>auto</startmode>
  </interface>
  <interface>
    <name>eth0</name>
    <bootproto>none</bootproto>
    <startmode>hotplug</startmode>
  </interface>
  <interface>
    <name>eth1</name>
    <bootproto>none</bootproto>
    <startmode>hotplug</startmode>
  </interface>
</interfaces>

AutoYaST makes it possible to assign multiple IP addresses to the same interface. They are specified using an aliases element that contains an aliasX entry for each address.

Each entry supports the following elements:

Note: Case-sensitive elements

Keep in mind that for historical reasons, the IPADDR, PREFIXLEN, LABEL and NETMASK elements within the aliases section are case-sensitive.

<interfaces config:type="list">
  <interface>
    <name>br0</name>
    <bootproto>static</bootproto>
    <ipaddr>192.168.1.100</ipaddr>
    <prefixlen>24</prefixlen>
    <startmode>auto</startmode>
    <aliases>
      <alias0>
        <IPADDR>192.168.1.101</IPADDR>
        <PREFIXLEN>24</PREFIXLEN>
        <LABEL>http</LABEL>
      </alias0>
      <alias1>
        <IPADDR>192.168.2.100</IPADDR>
        <PREFIXLEN>24</PREFIXLEN>
        <LABEL>extra</LABEL>
      </alias1>
    </aliases>
  </interface>
</interfaces>

The net-udev element allows to specify a set of udev rules that can be used to assign persistent names to interfaces.

Tip: Handling collisions in device names

When creating an incomplete udev rule set, the chosen device name can collide with existing device names. For example, when renaming a network interface to eth0, a collision with a device automatically generated by the kernel can occur. AutoYaST tries to handle such cases in a best effort manner and renames colliding devices.

<net-udev config:type="list">
  <rule>
  <name>eth1</name>
  <rule>ATTR{address}</rule>
  <value>52:54:00:68:54:fb</value>
  </rule>
</net-udev>

The dns section is used to define name-service related settings, such as the host name or name servers.

The routing table allows specification of a list of routes and the packet-forwarding settings for IPv4 and IPv6.

The following settings describe how routes are defined.

<routing>
  <ipv4_forward config:type="boolean">true</ipv4_forward>
  <ipv6_forward config:type="boolean">true</ipv6_forward>
  <routes config:type="list">
    <route>
      <destination>192.168.100.0/24</destination>
      <device>eth1</device>
      <extrapara>scope link src 192.168.100.100 table one</extrapara>
    </route>
    <route>
      <destination>default</destination>
      <device>eth1</device>
      <gateway>192.168.100.1</gateway>
    </route>
    <route>
      <destination>default</destination>
      <device>lo</device>
      <gateway>192.168.5.1</gateway>
    </route>
  </routes>
</routing>

The following elements must be between the <s390-devices>... </s390-devices> tags.

In addition to the options mentioned above, AutoYaST also supports IBM Z-specific options in other sections of the configuration file. In particular, you can define the logical link address, or LLADDR (in the case of Ethernet, that is the MAC address). To do so, use the option LLADDR in the device definition.

Tip: LLADDR for VLANs

VLAN devices inherit their LLADDR from the underlying physical devices. To set a particular address for a VLAN device, set the LLADDR option for the underlying physical device.

Use the <pass_* resources to change various password settings, such as minimum password length, password expiration, and more.

Use the <encryption> resource to activate one of the encryption methods currently supported. If not set, sha512 is configured.

You can use one of the following encryption methods:

Use the security resource, to change various boot settings.

Change various login settings. These settings are mainly stored in the /etc/login.defs file.

Set the minimum and maximum possible user and group IDs.

In SUSE Linux Enterprise 15.4 and up, the installation control file has a new option, <lsm_select> for configuring which major Linux Security Module (LSM) will be activated by default after installation: AppArmor, SELinux, or none.

YaST allows for system hardening using OpenSCAP security policies. Checking and applying a security policy happens in two phases:

The security_policy section selects a security policy and configures ssg-apply.

<security>
  <security_policy>
    <policy>stig</policy>
    <action>remediate</action>
  </security_policy>
</security>

A list of users can be defined in the <users> section. To be able to log in, make sure that either the root users are set up or rootpassword is specified as a linuxrc option.

<users config:type="list">
  <user>
    <username>root</username>
    <user_password>password</user_password>
    <encrypted config:type="boolean">false</encrypted>
  </user>
    <user>
    <username>tux</username>
    <user_password>password</user_password>
    <encrypted config:type="boolean">false</encrypted>
  </user>
</users>

The following example shows a more complex scenario. System-wide default settings from /etc/default/useradd, such as the shell or the parent directory for the home directory, are applied.

<users config:type="list">
  <user>
    <username>root</username>
    <user_password>password</user_password>
    <uid>1001</uid>
    <gid>100</gid>
    <encrypted config:type="boolean">false</encrypted>
    <fullname>Root User</fullname>
    <authorized_keys config:type="list">
      <listentry> ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDKLt1vnW2vTJpBp3VK91rFsBvpY97NljsVLdgUrlPbZ/L51FerQQ+djQ/ivDASQjO+567nMGqfYGFA/De1EGMMEoeShza67qjNi14L1HBGgVojaNajMR/NI2d1kDyvsgRy7D7FT5UGGUNT0dlcSD3b85zwgHeYLidgcGIoKeRi7HpVDOOTyhwUv4sq3ubrPCWARgPeOLdVFa9clC8PTZdxSeKp4jpNjIHEyREPin2Un1luCIPWrOYyym7aRJEPopCEqBA9HvfwpbuwBI5F0uIWZgSQLfpwW86599fBo/PvMDa96DpxH1VlzJlAIHQsMkMHbsCazPNC0++Kp5ZVERiH root@example.net</listentry>
    </authorized_keys>
  </user>
  <user>
    <username>tux</username>
    <user_password>password</user_password>
    <uid>1002</uid>
    <gid>100</gid>
    <encrypted config:type="boolean">false</encrypted>
    <fullname>Plain User</fullname>
    <home>/Users/plain</home>
    <password_settings>
      <max>120</max>
      <inact>5</inact>
    </password_settings>
  </user>
</users>

Note: authorized_keys file will be overwritten

If the profile defines a set of SSH authorized keys for a user in the authorized_keys section, an existing $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file will be overwritten. If not existing, the file will be created with the content specified. Avoid overwriting an existing authorized_keys file by not specifying the respective section in the AutoYaST control file.

Note: Combine rootpassword and root user options

It is possible to specify rootpassword in linuxrc and have a user section for the root user. If this section is missing the password, then the password from linuxrc will be used. Passwords in profiles take precedence over linuxrc passwords.

Warning: Do not create a superuser account with a name other than root

While it is technically possible to create an account with the user ID (uid) 0 and a name other than root, certain applications, scripts or third-party products may rely on the existence of a user called root. While such a configuration always targets individual environments, necessary adjustments could be overwritten by vendor updates, so this becomes an ongoing task, not a one-time setting. This is especially true in very complex setups involving third-party applications, where it needs to be verified with every involved vendor whether a rename of the root account is supported.

As the implications for renaming the root account cannot be foreseen, SUSE does not support renaming the root account.

Usually, the idea behind renaming the root account is to hide it or make it unpredictable. However, /etc/passwd requires 644 permissions for regular users, so any user of the system can retrieve the login name for the user ID 0.

Note: Specifying a user ID (uid)

Each user on a Linux system has a numeric user ID. You can either specify such a user ID within the AutoYaST control file manually by using uid, or let the system automatically choose a user ID by not using uid.

User IDs should be unique throughout the system. If not, some applications such as the login manager gdm may no longer work as expected.

When adding users with the AutoYaST control file, it is strongly recommended not to mix user-defined IDs and automatically provided IDs. When doing so, unique IDs cannot be guaranteed. Either specify IDs for all users added with the AutoYaST control file or let the system choose the ID for all users.

The profile can specify a set of default values for new users like password expiration, initial group, home directory prefix, etc. Besides using them as default values for the users that are defined in the profile, AutoYaST will write those settings to /etc/default/useradd or any other appropriate file to be read for useradd.

A list of groups can be defined in <groups> as shown in the example.

<groups config:type="list">
  <group>
    <gid>100</gid>
    <groupname>users</groupname>
    <userlist>bob,alice</userlist>
  </group>
</groups>

Two special login settings can be enabled through an AutoYaST profile: autologin and password-less login. Both of them are disabled by default.

<login_settings>
  <autologin_user>vagrant</autologin_user>
  <password_less_login config:type="boolean">true</password_less_login>
</login_settings>

Executed before YaST does any real change to the system (before partitioning and package installation but after the hardware detection).

You can use a pre-script to modify your control file and let AutoYaST reread it. Find your control file in /tmp/profile/autoinst.xml. Adjust the file and store the modified version in /tmp/profile/modified.xml. AutoYaST will read the modified file after the pre-script finishes.

It is also possible to modify the storage devices in your pre-scripts. For example, you can create new partitions or change the configuration of certain technologies like multipath. AutoYaST always inspects the storage devices again after executing all the pre-scripts.

Note: Pre-scripts with confirmation

Pre-scripts are executed at an early stage of the installation. This means if you have requested to confirm the installation, these scripts will be executed before the confirmation screen shows up (profile/install/general/mode/confirm).

Note: Pre-scripts and Zypper

To call Zypper in the pre-script you will need to set the environment variable ZYPP_LOCKFILE_ROOT="/var/run/autoyast" to prevent conflicts with the running YaST process.

The pre-script elements must be placed as follows:

<scripts>
  <pre-scripts config:type="list">
    <script>
      ...
    </script>
  </pre-scripts>
</scripts>

Executed after YaST has done the partitioning and written /etc/fstab. The empty system is already mounted to /mnt.

The postpartitioning-script elements must be placed as follows:

<scripts>
  <postpartitioning-scripts config:type="list">
    <script>
      ...
    </script>
  </postpartitioning-scripts>
</scripts>

Chroot scripts are executed before the machine reboots for the first time. You can execute chroot scripts before the installation chroots into the installed system and configures the boot loader, or you can execute a script after the chroot into the installed system has happened (look at the chrooted parameter for that).

The chroot-scripts elements must be placed as follows:

<scripts>
  <chroot-scripts config:type="list">
    <script>
      ...
    </script>
  </chroot-scripts>
</scripts>

Most of the XML elements described below can be used for all the script types described above.

You can run scripts to set the default value for a question. This feature is useful if you can calculate a default value, especially in combination with the timeout option.

The scripts are defined by placing the elements described in Section 4.15.4, “Script XML representation” within the following XML structure:

<general>
  <ask-list config:type="list">
    <ask>
      <default_value_script>
        ...
      </default_value_script>
    </ask>
  </ask-list>
</general>

Whatever you echo to STDOUT will be used as default value for the ask-dialog. If your script has an exit code other than 0, the normal default element is used. Take care you use echo -n to suppress the \n and that you echo reasonable values and not “okay” for a boolean (use “true” instead).

You can run scripts after a question has been answered.

The elements listed below must be placed within the following XML structure:

<general>
  <ask-list config:type="list">
    <ask>
      <script>
        ...
      </script>
    </ask>
  </ask-list>
</general>

In addition to the elements listed in Section 4.15.4, “Script XML representation”, scripts in <ask> elements support these options:

Your script can create a file /tmp/next_dialog containing the ID of the following dialog to display. A value of -1 terminates the sequence.

Below you can see an example of the usage of the ask feature.

<general>
  <ask-list config:type="list">
    <ask>
      <pathlist config:type="list">
        <path>ldap,ldap_server</path>
      </pathlist>
      <stage>cont</stage>
      <help>Choose your server depending on your department</help>
      <selection config:type="list">
        <entry>
          <value>ldap1.mydom.de</value>
          <label>LDAP for development</label>
        </entry>
        <entry>
          <value>ldap2.mydom.de</value>
          <label>LDAP for sales</label>
        </entry>
      </selection>
      <default>ldap2.mydom.de</default>
      <default_value_script>
        <source> <![CDATA[
echo -n "ldap1.mydom.de"
]]>
        </source>
      </default_value_script>
    </ask>
    <ask>
      <pathlist config:type="list">
        <path>networking,dns,hostname</path>
      </pathlist>
      <question>Enter Hostname</question>
      <stage>initial</stage>
      <default>enter your hostname here</default>
    </ask>
    <ask>
      <pathlist config:type="list">
        <path>partitioning,0,partitions,0,filesystem</path>
      </pathlist>
      <question>File System</question>
      <type>symbol</type>
      <selection config:type="list">
        <entry>
          <value config:type="symbol">ext4</value>
          <label>default File System (recommended)</label>
        </entry>
        <entry>
          <value config:type="symbol">ext3</value>
          <label>Fallback File System</label>
        </entry>
      </selection>
    </ask>
  </ask-list>
</general>

The following example shows a to choose between AutoYaST control files. AutoYaST will read the modified.xml file again after the ask-dialogs are done. This way you can fetch a complete new control file.

<general>
  <ask-list config:type="list">
    <ask>
      <selection config:type="list">
        <entry>
          <value>part1.xml</value>
          <label>Simple partitioning</label>
        </entry>
        <entry>
          <value>part2.xml</value>
          <label>encrypted /tmp</label>
        </entry>
        <entry>
          <value>part3.xml</value>
          <label>LVM</label>
        </entry>
      </selection>
      <title>XML Profile</title>
      <question>Choose a profile</question>
      <stage>initial</stage>
      <default>part1.xml</default>
      <script>
        <filename>fetch.sh</filename>
        <environment config:type="boolean">true</environment>
        <source>
<![CDATA[
wget http://10.10.0.162/$VAL -O /tmp/profile/modified.xml 2>/dev/null
]]>
        </source>
        <debug config:type="boolean">false</debug>
        <feedback config:type="boolean">false</feedback>
      </script>
    </ask>tion>
  </ask-list>
</general>

You can verify the answer of a question with a script like this:

<general>
  <ask-list config:type="list">
    <ask>
      <script>
        <filename>my.sh</filename>
        <rerun_on_error config:type="boolean">true</rerun_on_error>
        <environment config:type="boolean">true</environment>
        <source><![CDATA[
if [ "$VAL" = "myhost" ]; then
    echo "Illegal Hostname!";
    exit 1;
fi
exit 0
]]>
        </source>
        <debug config:type="boolean">false</debug>
        <feedback config:type="boolean">true</feedback>
      </script>
      <dialog config:type="integer">0</dialog>
      <element config:type="integer">0</element>
      <pathlist config:type="list">
        <path>networking,dns,hostname</path>
      </pathlist>
      <question>Enter Hostname</question>
      <default>enter your hostname here</default>
    </ask>
  </ask-list>
</general>

The first step is to reserve memory for Kdump at boot-up. Because the memory must be reserved very early during the boot process, the configuration is done via a kernel command line parameter called crashkernel. The reserved memory will be used to load a second kernel which will be executed without rebooting if the first kernel crashes. This second kernel has a special initrd, which contains all programs necessary to save the dump over the network or to disk, send a notification e-mail, and finally reboot.

To reserve memory for Kdump, specify the amount (such as 64M to reserve 64 MB of memory from the RAM) and the offset. The syntax is crashkernel=AMOUNT@OFFSET. The kernel can auto-detect the right offset (except for the Xen hypervisor, where you need to specify 16M as offset). The amount of memory that needs to be reserved depends on architecture and main memory.

You can also use the extended command line syntax to specify the amount of reserved memory depending on the System RAM. That is useful if you share one AutoYaST control file for multiple installations or if you often remove or install memory on one machine. The syntax is:

BEGIN_RANGE_1-END_RANGE_1:AMOUNT_1,BEGIN_RANGE_2-END_RANGE_2:AMOUNT_2@OFFSET

BEGIN_RANGE_1 is the start of the first memory range (for example: 0M) and END_RANGE_1 is the end of the first memory range (can be empty in case infinity should be assumed) and so on. For example, 256M-2G:64M,2G-:128M reserves 64 MB of crashkernel memory if the system has between 256 MB and 2 GB RAM, and reserves 128 MB of crashkernel memory if the system has more than 2 GB RAM.

On the other hand, it is possible to specify multiple values for the crashkernel parameter. For example, when you need to reserve different segments of low and high memory, use values like 72M,low and 256M,high:

<kdump>
  <!-- memory reservation (high and low) -->
  <add_crash_kernel config:type="boolean">true</add_crash_kernel>
  <crash_kernel config:type="list">
    <listentry>72M,low</listentry>
    <listentry>256M,high</listentry>
  </crash_kernel>
</kdump>

The following list shows the settings necessary to reserve memory:

This section describes where and how crash dumps will be stored.

Configure e-mail notification to be informed when a machine crashes and a dump is saved.

Because Kdump runs in the initrd, a local mail server cannot send the notification e-mail. An SMTP server needs to be specified (see below).

You need to provide exactly one address in KDUMP_NOTIFICATION_TO. More addresses can be specified in KDUMP_NOTIFICATION_CC. Only use e-mail addresses in both cases, not a real name.

Specify KDUMP_SMTP_SERVER and (if the server needs authentication) KDUMP_SMTP_USER and KDUMP_SMTP_PASSWORD. Support for TLS/SSL is not available but may be added in the future.

As already mentioned, a special kernel is booted to save the dump. If you do not want to use the auto-detection mechanism to find out which kernel is used (see the kdump(5) manual page that describes the algorithm which is used to find the kernel), you can specify the version of a custom kernel in KDUMP_KERNELVER. If you set it to foo, then the kernel located in /boot/vmlinuz-foo or /boot/vmlinux-foo (in that order on platforms that have a vmlinuz file) will be used.

You can specify the command line used to boot the Kdump kernel. Normally the boot command line is used, minus settings that are not relevant for Kdump (like the crashkernel parameter) plus some settings needed by Kdump (see the manual page kdump(5)). To specify additional parameters, use KDUMP_COMMANDLINE_APPEND. If you know what you are doing and you want to specify the entire command line, set KDUMP_COMMANDLINE.

In firewalld, the general configuration only exposes a few properties, and most of the configuration is done by zones.

Important: Running firewall along with Podman

Running Podman with an enabled and started firewall may result in missing Podman-related firewall rules after the firewall configuration is reloaded. To avoid this situation, do not start the firewalld service.

The configuration of firewalld is based on the existence of several zones, which define the trust level for a connection, interface, or source address. The behavior of each zone can be tweaked in several ways although not all the properties are exposed yet.

A full example of the firewall section, including general and zone specific properties, could look like this.

<firewall>
  <enable_firewall config:type="boolean">true</enable_firewall>
  <log_denied_packets>all</log_denied_packets>
  <default_zone>external</default_zone>
  <zones config:type="list">
    <zone>
      <name>public</name>
      <interfaces config:type="list">
        <interface>eth0</interface>
      </interfaces>
      <services config:type="list">
        <service>ssh</service>
        <service>dhcp</service>
        <service>dhcpv6</service>
      </services>
      <ports config:type="list">
        <port>21/udp</port>
        <port>22/udp</port>
        <port>80/tcp</port>
        <port>443/tcp</port>
        <port>8080/tcp</port>
      </ports>
    </zone>
    <zone>
      <name>dmz</name>
      <interfaces config:type="list">
        <interface>eth1</interface>
      </interfaces>
    </zone>
  </zones>
</firewall>

This approach is especially useful when a configuration management server (a master in Salt and Puppet jargon) is already in place. In this case, the hardest part might be to set up a proper authentication mechanism.

Both Salt and Puppet support the following authentication methods:

With the configuration example below, AutoYaST will launch the client to generate the authentication request. It will try to connect up to three times, waiting 15 seconds between each try.

<configuration_management>
    <type>salt</type>
    <master>my-salt-server.example.net</master>
    <auth_attempts config:type="integer">3</auth_attempts>
    <auth_time_out config:type="integer">15</auth_time_out>
</configuration_management>

However, with the following example, AutoYaST will retrieve the keys from a flash disk (for example, a USB stick) and will use them to connect to the master server.

<configuration_management>
    <type>salt</type>
    <master>my-salt-server.example.net</master>
    <keys_url>usb:/</keys_url>
</configuration_management>

The table below summarizes the supported options for these scenarios.

For simple scenarios, deploying a configuration management server is unnecessary. Instead, use Salt or Puppet in stand-alone (or masterless) mode.

As there is no server, AutoYaST needs to know where to get the configuration from. Put the configuration into a TAR archive and store it anywhere (for example, on a flash disk, an HTTP/HTTPS server, an NFS/SMB share).

The TAR archive must have the same layout that is expected under /srv in a Salt server. This means that you need to place your Salt states in a salt directory and your formulas in a separate formulas directory.

Additionally, you can have a pillar directory containing the pillar data. Alternatively, you can provide that data in a separate TAR archive by using the pillar_url option.

<configuration_management>
    <type>salt</type>
    <states_url>my-salt-server.example.net</states_url>
    <pillar_url>my-salt-server.example.net</pillar_url>
</configuration_management>

AutoYaST offers support for SUSE Manager Salt formulas when running in stand-alone mode. In case a formula is found in the states TAR archive, AutoYaST displays a screen which allows the user to select and configure the formulas to apply.

Bear in mind that this feature defeats the AutoYaST purpose of performing an unattended installation, as AutoYaST will wait for the user's input.