Help-pxe-boot.txt

PXE Boot
--------

# Setup PXE Boot Server

1. Install tftp-server, syslinux, dhcp, nfs-utils
    yum install tftp-server syslinux dhcp nfs-utils

2. Edit /etc/xinet.d/tftp and change disable from yes to no. Optionally
update the server args to point to a different root tftp directory.

3. Copy the syslinux files to the root directory used for tftp
    cp -r /usr/share/syslinux/* /var/lib/tftpboot/

4. Edit /etc/exports to add a nfs file system for some IPs to access some part
of the file system.

For example the following line would be allow access to /srv/install to all the
IPs in that /24 range.
    /srv/install    192.168.226.0/24(ro,async,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

5. Edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf to update the IP information and set the following
information.
    # PXE SERVER IP
    next-server 192.168.226.100;
    filename "pxelinux.0";

6. Create a sensible directory structure in the tftp root directory for storing
the init ram disk and the kernel. Also create directories to store the
installation media on the nfs share.
    mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/clip/x86_64/v1
    mkdir -p /srv/install/clip/x86_64/v1/iso

6. Copy the ISO to the PXE Boot server.

7. The ISO contains all the files needed but they need extracted and placed
into the correct locations.
    # Create mount dir
    mkdir /mnt/iso
    mount -o loop /PATH/TO/ISO /mnt/iso
    # Init ram disk and kernel should be placed in the tftp root directory
    cp /mnt/iso/images/pxeboot/initrd.img /var/lib/tftpboot/clip/x86_64/v1/
    cp /mnt/iso/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz /var/lib/tftpboot/clip/x86_64/v1/
    # The entire ISO should be placed on the nfs share
    cp -r /mnt/iso/* /srv/install/clip/x86_64/v1/iso/
    # NOTE For some reason the kickstart file also needs to placed in a separate dir
    cp /mnt/iso/KICKSTART_FILE /srv/install/clip/x86_64/v1
    umount /mnt/iso

8. Create a PXE config file that specifies how to boot.
    mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
    touch /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

    # Modify /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
    default menu.c32
    prompt 0
    timeout 300 # Wait 30 seconds before picking the first option

    menu title CLIP PXE Menu

    label clip-x86_64
            menu label CLIP x86_64
            kernel clip/x86_64/v1/vmlinuz # Path is relative to tftp root dir
            # NOTE Kickstart file cannot be in the same dir as the inst.repo
            append inst.repo=nfs:192.168.226.100:/srv/install/clip/x86_64/v1/iso inst.ks=nfs:192.168.226.100:/srv/install/clip/x86_64/v1/KICKSTART_FILE initrd=ENG/x86_64/1/initrd.img
            text help
            Install clip version 1 (64-bit)
            endtext