Assume the followings
1. Hostname : server.example.com
2. IPaddress : 192.200.1.222
3. DNS Configured (Not required for PXE boot, you can use ip address instead of hostname)
4. Path of YUM using -vg option with ftp server (i.e.baseurl=ftp://server.example.com/rhel5/ )
5. NFS server installed
6. Lan Card (NIC) PXE boot enabled Here are the packages to be installed:
- system-config-netboot
- tftp
- tftp-server
- dhcpd
Step 1:Configuration of the NFS server
Add the following line in /etc/exports: [root@server ~]# echo "/var/ftp/rhel5 *(rw,sync)" >> /etc/exports Then run [root@server ~]# exportfs -va exporting *:/var/ftp/rhel5 Then run [root@server ~]# service nfs restart Shutting down NFS mountd: [ OK ] Shutting down NFS daemon: [ OK ] Shutting down NFS services: [ OK ] Starting NFS services: [ OK ] Starting NFS daemon: [ OK ] Starting NFS mountd: [ OK ] root@server ~]# showmount -e server.example.com Export list for server.example.com: /var/ftp/rhel5 * Step 2:Configuration of the tftp Server
[root@server ~]# yum install tftp-server tftp alchemist -y
Download the file system-config-netboot-0.1.41-1.FC6.noarch.rpm
http://cid-69d9b9d659f9c8cb.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public?authkey=ZHv7!TsBbGo%24
[root@server ~]#rpm -ivh system-config-netboot-0.1.41-1.FC6.noarch.rpm
Run system-config-netboot and configure a network installation:
[root@server ~]# system-config-netboot
Click on Network Installation and select the following entries
* Oprating system identifier: RHEL5
* Description: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
* Select protocol for installation: choose NFS
* Kickstart: if you have a kickstart file, put the path to it here, if not, leave empty
* Server IP address : 192.200.1.222* Location: /var/ftp/rhel5
Click OK. This creates a directory /tftpboot/linux-install/RHEL5 with files like initrd.img and vmlinuz downloaded from your nfsserver (/var/ftp/rhel5/images/pxeboot/).
Create a New PXE configuration file:
* Hostname of IP Address/subnet: 192.200.1.222
* Operating system: RHEL5 should be there. It is auto-populated from the previous step.
Click OK. A file named default is created in /tftpboot/linux-install/pxelinux.cfg.
Edit the file /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and change the line containing server_args and disable
[root@server ~]# vim /etc/xinetd.conf
service tftp
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /tftpboot -v -v //changes in this line
disable = no //changes in this line
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
flags = IPv4
}
[root@server ~]# chkconfig tftp on
and the start the server xinetd:
[root@server ~]# service xinetd restart
You can test your tftp server with the tftp client from your home directory:
[root@server ~]# tftp server.example.com
tftp> get linux-install/pxelinux.0
You should have the file pxelinux.0 in your home directory.
Step 3:Configuration of the dhcp Server
Edit the file /etc/dhcpd.conf and add the following lines:
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0
{
range 192.168.1.128 192.168.1.254;
allow booting;
allow bootp;
class "pxeclients"
{
match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
next-server 192.200.1.222;
filename "linux-install/pxelinux.0";
}
}
Even if you have a running dhcp server somewhere, this will work.
Start the dhcp server:
[root@server ~]# service dhcpd restart
Restart now your client (target) pc to boot over the network.If it does not
work, either disable the firewall (system-config-firewall) or allow port
69 to be accessible to any hosts accessing the tftp server.
Virtual Reality 