Bug 1037668

Closing as not a bug, since hosted-engine --deploy already accept an answer file.

You can specify it using:
hosted-engine --deploy --config-append=file

See man ovirt-hosted-engine-setup:

 FILES
       /etc/ovirt-hosted-engine/answers.conf
              Default location for generated answer file.  The  file  must  be
              used on additional hosts using the option --config-append

 EXAMPLE
       This is an answers.conf example file:

           [environment:default]
           OVEHOSTED_NETWORK/bridgeIf=none:None
           OVEHOSTED_NETWORK/fqdn=str:ovirt.home
           OVEHOSTED_NETWORK/bridgeName=str:ovirtmgmt
           OVEHOSTED_NETWORK/firewallManager=str:firewalld
           OVEHOSTED_NETWORK/gateway=str:192.168.1.1
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/storageDatacenterName=str:hosted_datacenter
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/storageDomainName=str:hosted_storage
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/hostID=int:1
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/storageType=none:None
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/volUUID=str:272b4067-1ae4-4755-b2e3-96bb600006e7
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/domainType=str:nfs
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/imgSizeGB=str:25
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/storageDomainConnection=str:server.home:/home/images
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/connectionUUID=str:ca50f16a-23ab-465c-914b-b132f07a7151
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/spUUID=str:8018650a-4c64-48fb-a98e-5602bba3086e
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/imgUUID=str:c7d69e7a-d934-423c-93d6-ca45c5882806
           OVEHOSTED_STORAGE/sdUUID=str:1d6f6bca-467e-4890-b220-dd2d9b204ab5
           OVEHOSTED_VM/vmVCpus=str:2
           OVEHOSTED_VDSM/consoleType=str:vnc
           OVEHOSTED_VM/vmBoot=str:pxe
           OVEHOSTED_VM/vmMemSizeMB=str:4096
           OVEHOSTED_VM/vmUUID=str:ab35151c-7661-475e-aeaf-adc6fb45e399
           OVEHOSTED_VM/vmMACAddr=str:00:16:3e:1b:d7:61
           OVEHOSTED_VM/vmCDRom=none:None
           OVEHOSTED_VM/ovfArchive=none:None
           OVEHOSTED_VDSM/spicePkiSubject=str:O=home, CN=server.home
           OVEHOSTED_VDSM/pkiSubject=str:/C=EN/L=Test/O=Test/CN=Test

This bug touches on several issues so I'm happy to break these out into separate bz's if needed.

Here's the basic use case: edit answer file, run 'hosted-engine --deploy' on initial host without being prompted.


* I don't understand how the current implementation provides unattended, non-interactive install. From what I've seen the initial host deploy only uses these values as the defaults but the user is still prompted. How is that unattended?

* I don't understand how using the --config-append option relates to unattended install of the first host. Per the man page it is only to be used for subsequent hosts. If this option provides the functionality I'm looking for then it needs to be renamed and its use explained in the man page.

* The answerfile syntax is too complex to be edited by a human. People are bound to get the '/', '=' and ':' delimiters messed up, also mixing upper-case and camel-case. Part of this RFE is to simplify so it conforms to the ini-style format other products use, e.g. satellite, packstack.

(In reply to Aaron Weitekamp from comment #2)
> This bug touches on several issues so I'm happy to break these out into
> separate bz's if needed.

This would be great.


> 
> Here's the basic use case: edit answer file, run 'hosted-engine --deploy' on
> initial host without being prompted.
> 
> 
> * I don't understand how the current implementation provides unattended,
> non-interactive install. From what I've seen the initial host deploy only
> uses these values as the defaults but the user is still prompted. How is
> that unattended?

Well, IIRC if you use an answer file generated by a previous execution, the only prompted question should be root password.
Root password is not stored in the answer file because we don't want to save it in clear text in a config file.

For unattended execution you still can add the password to the answer file.

If you see other question prompted (except the one needed to confirm OS has been successfully installed which we can also make answerable by the answer file but I'm not sure on it's utility in such case) please list here the questions still prompted when using an answer file.


> * I don't understand how using the --config-append option relates to
> unattended install of the first host. Per the man page it is only to be used
> for subsequent hosts. If this option provides the functionality I'm looking
> for then it needs to be renamed and its use explained in the man page.

Maybe the man page is not clear enough. You can use --config-append also on first host but you need to create it by hand since it's created only after validation stage by hosted-engine --deploy.
Can you open a bug for this, maybe suggesting a better text for the man page?


> 
> * The answerfile syntax is too complex to be edited by a human. People are
> bound to get the '/', '=' and ':' delimiters messed up, also mixing
> upper-case and camel-case. Part of this RFE is to simplify so it conforms to
> the ini-style format other products use, e.g. satellite, packstack.

The answerfile syntax is in the format understood by otopi.
So it's the same format used by engine-setup, engine-cleanup and any other otopi based tool.
If you think the format is not human usable, please open a bug against otopi about it.