How do I perform an unattended installation?

zinstall is the interactive script used to install the software version of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager. In some situations an administrator may want to automate the installation of ZXTM (e.g. for rebuilding machines).

zinstall can record its installation options to a replay file, and then replay the options when installing on a different machine.

To create a replay file, use the --record-to option to zinstall:

 # ./zinstall --record-to=zxtm_install.txt

To replay this installation, use the --replay-from option:

 # ./zinstall --replay-from=zxtm_install.txt

This runs the zinstall script using the answers provided in the replay file. If a question is encountered that isn't answered, the normal prompt will appear, waiting for the answer. You can specify the --noninteractive option on the command line to cause zinstall to abort instead.

The ZXTM configure script can also be run automatically using the same method, however be aware that passwords will appear in plaintext inside the replay file, but they will not printed in the output of the configure program. If you record the configuration, and then delete the line in the replay file with the password you will be prompted for it unless the --noninteractive option was passed.

Crispin Flowerday [Zeus Dev Team] 23 October 2006