Compaq BL10e - HP ProLiant - 512 MB RAM, BL10e - ProLiant - G2, BL10e 512 Troubleshooting Manual
Setting up a Linux PXE server and integrating clients
HOWTO
Abstract.............................................................................................................................................. 2
Text conventions .................................................................................................................................. 2
Required hardware and software........................................................................................................... 2
For the PXE server ............................................................................................................................ 2
For the clients .................................................................................................................................. 2
Overview............................................................................................................................................ 3
pxelinux functionality........................................................................................................................ 3
Kickstart files ................................................................................................................................... 4
Setting up the PXE server ...................................................................................................................... 4
Integrating the clients ........................................................................................................................... 7
Troubleshooting................................................................................................................................. 10
Bootcfg usage information............................................................................................................... 10
Potential kickstart installation issues .................................................................................................. 10
Additional configuration for ProLiant BL10e servers ............................................................................ 11
Appendix a: glossary......................................................................................................................... 13
Appendix b: sample scripts and files.................................................................................................... 14
For the PXE server .......................................................................................................................... 14
NFS configuration file ................................................................................................................. 14
syslinux.cfg files ......................................................................................................................... 14
import-to-tftpboot.sh file ............................................................................................................... 16
For the clients ................................................................................................................................ 17
dhcpd.conf script........................................................................................................................ 17
syslinux.cfg script ....................................................................................................................... 19
Kickstart file ............................................................................................................................... 19
For more information.......................................................................................................................... 21
Call to action .................................................................................................................................... 21
Abstract
This HOWTO describes how to set up a Red Hat Linux 8.0 Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE)
server and how to integrate a Red Hat Linux 8.0 client with the PXE server. Additionally, this HOWTO
explains how to use Linux images on a PXE server and how to configure a client for PXE.
Text conventions
This HOWTO uses the following conventions to distinguish elements of text:
Menu options, Command names, Dialog box
names, and Screen names
User input (commands to be typed)
Scripts and files
These elements appear in initial capital letters and may appear in
boldface for emphasis.
User input appears in a different typeface
and is highlighted in gray.
The content of the scripts and files appears
in a different typeface and is highlighted in
gray with a border around it.
Boldface text should be located on one line
instead of on multiple lines as shown in the
samples; formatting in this document
prohibits correct usage.
Comments included in the scripts are listed
in blue font for explanation purposes and
marked with comment markers (#) so that the
code can be copied and pasted.
Required hardware and software
This section describes hardware and software requirements mandated for PXE functionality.
For the PXE server
Setting up a Linux PXE server requires an HP ProLiant server and two key software components that
provide basic PXE functionality: (1) the DHCP server and (2) the TFTP server. Although the DHCP
server and the TFTP server components can reside on separate servers, this paper describes a method
that places these components on the same server.
For a PXE server to be useful, additional server software is required such as NFS, FTP, HTTP, and
Samba. Pxelinux allows further configuration based on a directory and configuration files versus
modifying the dhcpd.conf file directly when using the DHCP and TFTP server components alone. The
additional file sharing services can reside on the same PXE server or can exist as a separate server on
the network. The described method in this paper places NFS and FTP on the same PXE server.
The PXE portion will be handled by the syslinux package. The Syslinux 1.75 package included in Red
Hat Linux 8.0 is broken; therefore, version 2.00 or later should be used.
For the clients
The clients must have a PXE-enabled network interface controller (NIC). To integrate the clients with
the PXE server, this paper describes a process using a kickstart file.
2
Overview
This section presents an overview for using the pxelinux process and kickstart files.
pxelinux functionality
The pxelinux functionality occurs in this order:
• The client machine boots to PXE which requests a DHCP address.
• The DHCP server responds with an IP address for the client machine along with the address of a
TFTP server and a filename to load (pxelinux.0) from that server.
• The client then downloads pxelinux.0 from the specified TFTP server and executes it.
• pxelinux.0 then searches the pxelinux.cfg directory on the server for a configuration file that
matches the IP address of the machine. If no matches are found, it will attempt to load a file called
default.
• The configuration file loaded by pxelinux.0 will have instructions on what to do next. Some of the
choices include boot to local hard drive, boot to an image file (floppy image), or load vmlinuz and
initrd.img.
The client searches for a configuration file with the IP address converted to HEX (for example,
172.48.1.253 becomes AC3001FD). In this example, the client looks for the following
configuration file names and uses the first one it finds.
AC3001FD
AC3001F
AC3001
AC300
AC30
AC3
AC
A
default
This process allows IP groups to be used. The examples in this paper use AC3001FD, the most
specific choice.
3
Kickstart files
An automated installation of Red Hat Linux is performed through a process called kickstart. A kickstart
file is a collection of instructions and keywords that the Red Hat Linux installer, called anaconda, uses
to perform an unattended install.
Often a kickstart file is created by using the program called redhat-config-kickstart or ksconfig which is
used by older versions of Red Hat Linux. Anaconda also places a kickstart file in the /root directory
upon installation completion.
Note
For more information about anaconda, visit
http://rhlinux.redhat.com/anaconda/.
A kickstart file, commonly labeled ks.cfg, may be placed in several locations so that anaconda can
find it. These locations include being placed on an NFS server, FTP server, HTTP server, floppy, CDROM, or hard drive. The method described in this HOWTO places the ks.cfg file on an NFS server.
The method described in this HOWTO assumes that the syslinux/pxelinux package will be used on
Red Hat Linux 8.0 to allow the clients to boot to PXE.
Setting up the PXE server
Follow these steps to set up the PXE server:
1. Install Red Hat Linux 8.0 on a suitable HP ProLiant server.
Note
Refer to the ProLiant server certification matrix,
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/
hpLinuxcert.html
2. Install the following packages:
Table 1. Recommended packages
Package name Requirements
dhcp-3.0pl1-9.i386.rpm Required
tftp-server-0.29-3.i386.rpm Required
tftp-0.29-3.i386.rpm Optional
3. Set up the date and time on the PXE server.
4. Set up the PXE server hostname.
• Use this method for a static IP address when modifying /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
172.48.0.1 pxe1.pxe.net pxe1
, to determine a suitable server for Red Hat Linux 8.0.
• Use this method for a dynamic IP address when modifying /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 pxe1.pxe.net localhost.localdomain localhost pxe1
• After updating /etc/hosts, run the hostname command to change the hostname:
hostname pxe1.pxe.net
4
• Edit the /etc/sysconfig/network as follows:
Static:
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME="pxe1.pxe.net"
Dynamic:
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME="pxe1.pxe.net"
DHCP_HOSTNAME="pxe1.pxe.net"
5. Set up the DHCP service.
• A sample /etc/dhcpd.conf configuration file is located at /usr/share/doc/dhcp-
3.0pl1/dhcpd.conf.sample. Copy this sample to /etc/dhcpd.conf.
• If more than one network card resides in the DHCP server, HP recommends specifying which
interfaces the DHCP server will use. Edit /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd by adding the appropriate
interface to the DHCPDARGS= line. The entry in /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd should appear as
follows:
DHCPDARGS=eth0
• Run the following command to ensure that the DHCP service will be started at each boot:
chkconfig --level 345 dhcpd on
6.
Configure xinetd and TFTP services. At this point, the TFTP server should be installed.
• Enable the TFTP server by using the chkconfig command line utility as follows:
chkconfig tftp on
Ensure that xinetd is enabled, as TFTP is started and stopped by xinetd, using the following
•
command:
chkconfig --level 345 xinetd on
Notify xinetd that the TFTP service has been enabled. Use the following command:
•
service xinetd restart
7.
Add the next-server and filename options into the /etc/dhcpd.conf files. To accomplish this task,
add the following to the global section:
if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient"
{
filename "pxelinux.0";
next-server 172.48.0.1;
}
8. Optional step: Assign fixed addresses to each of the clients. The benefit is having the ability to
access the clients with the same IP address. The alternative s to use name resolution such as DNS:
host 00080246e75d {
hardware ethernet 00:08:02:46:e7:5d;
fixed-address 172.48.1.253;
}
5
In this example, the server was named according to its MAC address. Its MAC address is listed
along with the fixed IP address we want associated with it.
9. After modifying /etc/dhcpd.conf, notify the dhcpd server of the changes by using the following
method or a similar one:
service dhcpd restart
Warning
Do not run a new DHCP server on a network with an existing one
unless you have configured the network for multiple DHCP servers.
Running two or more DHCP servers on the same network without taking
special precautions causes conflicts.
10. Download and install Syslinux 2.00 or later as follows:
Note
HP recommends using Syslinux 2.00 or later due to major bug fixes in
this version. Red Hat Linux 8.0 includes Syslinux 1.75.
• Download and unpack the latest syslinux package from
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/RPMS
.
• Install the syslinux package using this command:
rpm -hUv syslinux-2.02-1.i386.rpm
• Install pxelinux.0 and memdisk into the /tftpboot directory:
mkdir -p /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
cp -a /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/
cp -a /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk /tftpboot/
11. Enable NFS on the server as follows:
• Edit /etc/exports by adding the following line:
/var/ftp/pub *(ro,insecure,sync,all_squash)
• Enable the NFS server on boot by using the following commands:
chkconfig --level 345 portmap on
chkconfig --level 345 nfslock on
chkconfig --level 345 nfs on
• Start or restart the NFS service by using the following commands:
service portmap restart
service nfslock restart
service nfs restart
6
Integrating the clients
The following examples explain how to get a Red Hat Linux 8.0 client setup and integrated into the
PXE server. When using other Linux distributions, slight changes to the commands and scripts are
required.
1. Populate the NFS server with Linux installation files using either of the following methods:
Method 1: storing the Linux installation media as ISO images
To use RHupdate with this method, place the updates.img file next to the ISO images.
To perform an ISO image dump, use the following commands:
Note
It is not necessary to mount each CD after insertion. The dd command
is not affected by the act of mounting the CD.
mkdir -p /var/ftp/pub/rhl80
cd /var/ftp/pub/rhl80
insert CD #1
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=Psyche-i386-disc1-boxset.iso
insert CD #2
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=Psyche-i386-disc2-boxset.iso
insert CD #3
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=Psyche-i386-disc3-boxset.iso
Method 2: unpacking the Linux installation media to a directory
To use RHupdate with this method, place the updates.img file image in the RedHat/base/
directory. Alternatively, you may place the contents of the updates.img file image into the
RedHat/RHupdates/ directory of the unpacked source media. Unpacking the source media will
also allow for updated RPMs.
Since Red Hat Linux 7.2 and Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 cannot use ISO images to
perform installs, the contents of the CDs must be unpacked to a directory on the server to enable
the automated installs described in this document.
To unpack the base media to a directory, choose one of the following options:
Option 1: dumping from ISO images
mkdir -p /var/ftp/pub/rhl72/i386
cd /var/ftp/pub/rhl72
for X in enigma-i386-disc1.iso enigma-i386-disc2.iso; do
mkdir $X.dir;
mount $X $X.dir -o loop;
(cd $X.dir && tar -cf - .)|(cd i386 && tar -xvf -);
umount $X.dir;
rmdir $X.dir;
done
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