A systems administrator is rolling out 120 identical rack-mount servers that must run Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. The hosts can PXE-boot from a provisioning VLAN that already offers DHCP and an internal HTTP repository. The build must occur without any interactive input: the installer must partition the disks, select the required package groups, create a local administrator account, and reboot automatically when complete. Which installation approach BEST meets these requirements?
PXE-boot the servers while supplying an inst.ks= kernel parameter that points to a Kickstart file on the HTTP server.
Boot a generic cloud-init-enabled image and apply the required settings from user-data after first boot.
Clone the disk of a preconfigured reference host to every new server with dd over SSH.
Mount the RHEL DVD ISO on each server and use the Anaconda text installer to walk through the setup screens.
A Kickstart file can define every aspect of a RHEL installation-storage layout, software selection, user accounts, post-install scripts, and the automatic reboot directive. When the servers PXE-boot, adding the kernel parameter inst.ks=http://<server>/path/ks.cfg tells Anaconda to parse that file and perform an unattended installation, so no console interaction is needed.
Running the text-based Anaconda wizard (second option) is entirely manual and therefore violates the zero-touch requirement. Imaging each system with dd would copy mismatched UUIDs and hardware-specific settings and is not an installerāsupported scripted method. Cloud-init applies configuration only after a bootable OS image is in place; it cannot replace the initial OS installation itself, so it also fails to satisfy the requirement for a fully automated install.