Using FAI to install a root Server

Note: This is work in progress. Follow my current progress on the linux-fai mailing list.

A root server is a dedicated piece of server hardware which is rented by a web hosting company. A root server is usually placed in some remote data centre that you do not have physical access to. The monthly rental fee covers the hardware rental, power, the Internet connection and a public IP address. You are given the root password and you are entirely responsibe for setting up, maintaining and managing the server.

Many organizations hosting services on the Internet rent root servers rather than using colocation offers or even run their own data centre because root servers are very cost effective; starting at 49,00 EUR month all inclusive while just maintaining a SDSL line to your office alone would cost you at least ten times this amount.

Why use FAI for your root Server?

The server rental company usually offers a choice of images with popular Linux distros to stage the server you rented. Because you are provided with root privileges, you can install whatever piece of software you would like on top of that base image or manually remove pieces you don't want.

Nevertheless, there might be good reasons why you'd rather want to use FAI to install your root server(s):

• You want to have a fully automated installation of your server in a working state, compared to being able to stage it with a default image and having to take it manually from there, which can be a quite cumbersome task.
• You way want to use a different kernel than the one contained in the server rental company's image (for example, a Xen kernel)
• You way want to use your own harddisk partition layout which is different from the layout that comes with the standard image.
• You want to be sure what you install only the software you want to use, not whatever someone felt might be useful for you.