The Linux Journal, in an article in issue 78 writes:

“ A standard Linux installation asks many questions about what to install, what hardware to configure, how to configure the network interface, etc. Answering these questions once is informative and maybe even fun. But imagine a system engineer who has to set up a new Linux network with a large number of machines. Now, the same issues need to be addressed and the same questions answered repeatedly. This makes the task very inefficient, not to mention a source of irritation and boredom. Hence, a need arises to automate this parameter and option selection.”

“The thought of simply copying the hard disks naturally crosses one's mind. This can be done quickly, and all the necessary functions and software will be copied without option selection. However, the fact is that simple copying of hard disks causes the individual computers to become too similar. This, in turn, creates an altogether new mission of having to reconfigure the individual settings on each PC. For example, IP addresses for each machine will have to be reset. If this is not done properly, strange and inexplicable behavior results.”

Regular installation of SuSE Linux is semi-automated by default. The user is requested to select the necessary information at the beginning of the installation (In most cases language only), YaST2 then generates a proposal for the underlying system depending on different factors and system paramters. In most cases, and especially for new systems, such a proposal can be used to install the system and provides a usable installation.

The steps following the proposal are fully automated and the user is only prompted at the end of the installation to configure hardware and network services.

AutoYaST can be used where no user intervention is required or where customization is required. Using an autoyast profile, YaST2 prepares the system for a custom installation and avoids any interaction with the user, unless specified in the file controling the installation.

AutoYaST is not an automated GUI system. This means that in most cases many screen will be skipped, i.e. you will never see the language selection interface. AutoYaST will simply pass the language parameter to the sub-system without displaying any language related interface.