zinstall is the interactive script used to install Zeus Web Server. In a large hosting environment, an administrator may need to install Zeus Web Server on a number of machines, or may want to automate the installation when rebuilding a machine.

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=zeus_install.txt

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

 # ./zinstall --replay-from=zeus_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.

Passwords will appear in plaintext inside the zeus_install.txt file, but they will not be printed in the output of zinstall.

Versions of Zeus Web Server prior to 4.2r1

zinstall's 'replay file' option was introduced in ZWS 4.2r1. Earlier versions of ZWS need to use an alternative method to perform an unattended installation.

The following compound shell command will provide the installation answers to zinstall, and disable the pager used to display the licence agreement:

# (
    echo "accept";
    # accept the licence key
    echo "/usr/local/zeus";
    # specify installation directory
    echo "1";
    # specify installation options
    echo "/tmp/zws-key";
    # specify location of licence key
    echo "PaSsW0Rd";
    # admin server password
    echo "PaSsW0Rd";
    # confirm admin server password
    echo "N";
    # do not enable SNMP support
    echo "daemon";
    # specify unix user
    echo "daemon";
    # specify unix group
    echo "Y";
    # start at boot
  ) | PAGER=/bin/cat ./zinstall

This method of unattended installation should be used with care as the order of questions may differ between different versions of zinstall.

Content Manager [Administrator] 19 September 2005