If the installation needs to be performed on many similar machines, it makes sense to use AutoYaST for the task. AutoYaST relies on the hardware detection mechanism of YaST and normally uses default settings, but it can also be configured to suit your needs. Therefore, installation hosts need not be strictly identical. It is sufficient for them to have a similar hardware setup. You still need to take into account the limitations of the hardware itself, which cannot be circumvented by AutoYaST.

YaST includes an AutoYaST module, which can be used to create the necessary configuration. This configuration is written to an XML file, so can also be edited or even created manually.

Further information and extensive documentation for AutoYaST is included in the autoyast2 package. When installed, the documentation is at /usr/share/doc/packages/autoyast2/html/index.html.

No installation support is available for this approach. Therefore, the following procedure should only be attempted by experienced computer users.

To install SUSE LINUX from a network source, two steps are necessary:

	Configuring a Network Installation Server
Detailed information about how to configure an installation server in a network and for the client installation can be found in Section 4.1. “Setting up a Central Installation Server”