Linux Guest Operating System installation fails with an error "failed to fetch kickstart from <path to kickstart file>"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Installation of Linux Guest Operating System using kickstart method fails at its initial stage. The error message reads "failed to fetch kickstart from <path to kickstart file>" and the screen shows following message.

[OK] Reached target Basic System
[OK] Finished nm-wait-online-initrd.service.
Starting dracut initqueue hook ..
[98.974587] dracut-initqueue[1707]: curl: (7) Couldn't connect to server
[98.977807] dracut-initqueue[1305]: Warning: anaconda: failed to fetch kickstart from http://10.0.0.1/dnf/<path to kickstart file>.ks
[99.807924] dracut-initqueue[1782]: curl: (7) Couldn't connect to server
[99.808448] dracut-initqueue[1305]: Warning: anaconda: failed to fetch kickstart from http://10.0.0.1/dnf/<path to kickstart file>.ks
[100.664374] dracut-initqueue[1856]: curl: (7) Couldn't connect to server
[100.664952] dracut-initqueue[1305]: Warning: anaconda: failed to fetch kickstart from http://10.0.0.1/dnf/<path to kickstart file>.ks
[101.514934] dracut-initqueue[1930]: curl: (7) Couldn't connect to server
[101.515177] dracut-initqueue[1305]: Warning: anaconda: failed to fetch kickstart from http://10.0.0.1/dnf/<path to kickstart file>.ks

 

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

The issue seems to occur external to vSphere environment wherein the Guest Operation System is attempting to reach kickstart file to initiate installation and fails during the process. The cause can be due to multiple reasons, such as;

• Kickstart configuration
• Permissions set against the directory and its contents such as, .ks file and its associated configuration files required to initiate installation. 
• Network connectivity with kickstart hosted server
  • An example command to test connectivity: # curl -k -v https://<FQDN or IP address>

Resolution

Failure encountered during installation of a Guest Operation System needs to be reviewed from Vendor support. After isolating the issue by confirming the setup of kickstart configuration to hold no issue and validating connectivity in terms of network and folder/file permissions are made accessible, the information should be gathered with details on issues encountered while communicating with ESXi or vCenter server. Until at this point, vSphere logs hold little/no information to identify the cause.

Once the said information is gathered, please raise a Support Case with Broadcom for further investigation.

Additional Information

Most of the vendors provide documentation regarding kickstart setup Guide. Please review below mentioned examples.

• RedHat: Starting Kickstart installations
• Rocky Linux: Creating a Custom Rocky Linux ISO