Autoinstall via ISO boot kernel, correct command args

I'm new to the autoinstall process, where I am finding documentation difficult to follow; however, most of the docs refer to using a virtual machine (qemu) which we are not. On the Autoinstall Quickstart page, it has:

kvm -no-reboot -m 2048

But I'm not seeing other examples that shows the proper command sequence to boot from a kernel prompt (ie: from a ISO where you edit the grub boot). I don't believe I need to assemble an ISO for this use case. We're ultimately going to be putting this into Foreman and we have a couple different system layouts we use.

I've also seen other reference suggesting that your autoinstall file itself has to be named user-data or meta-data (ie: if you're pulling from HTTP).

I've tried doing these and they have failed.

linux /casper/vmlinuz autoinstall ip=DHCP ds=nocloud-net;s=http://our-server/path/to/autoinstall.yaml ---

I renamed autoinstall.yaml to "user-data" no luck. I don't see why the file needs a specific name. Some examples suggest you "need" to escape the semicolon, others not; some suggest you don't need the semicolon. It's been that bizarre.

DHCP worked fine.

I'm looking for some useful, real-world examples of how to properly work with this.

EDIT: I do see reference at :

Autoinstall Method

But even in that article, people seem to be uncertain about what actually works and what does not. For example, some are including ' quotes in the command sequence:

linux   /casper/vmlinuz autoinstall quiet ds='nocloud;s=/cdrom/' ---

Which is it? I see multiple concerns/complaints about the official documentation being rather vague or silent on this.

For automation under a system like Foreman, does this mean I will need to create a custom ISO with the autoinstall (user-data) content for each type of system I want to deploy?

From your example of booting with an ISO and loading the autoinstall files over HTTP you would probably want the boot command

linux /casper/vmlinuz autoinstall "ds=nocloud-net;s=http://our-server/path/to/"

The quotes around the datasource (ds) argument is the simplest option because the quotes work with grub (which requires escaping or quotes) and SYSLINUX (which does not require escaping or quotes, but works with quotes).

The URL is the directory containing the autoinstall files. The following URLs need to work. The meta-data file can be blank, but must exist.

• http://our-server/path/to/meta-data
• http://our-server/path/to/user-data

In general (I'm not familiar with Foreman), you do not need to create custom ISOs for different types of systems, but you will probably have to do something clever if you want to use different autoinstall files for different systems.