History of PXE Server (Open)(No. 7)

[by Nugraha, 2009.05.08]

We want to make a diskless computing system so that we need a PXE Server. PXE stands for "Pre-boot eXecution Environment". PXE is a special extension of services provided by the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). It uses a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server to provide minimal boot to a network client. Let's try to configure it!

What we need
Checking
- Network setting
- SSH check
DHCP and TFTP Server
- DHCP Configuration
- TFTP Configuration
Copy system data for booting

What we need†

A computer with linux operating system to be configured as a server. Here we use Fedora Linux. This computer should have at least two network interface cards (NIC). One of the cards will be used to connect the server with client.
Computer that acts as a client. For a checking purpose we need this computer to have SSH facility (it does not matter to use Windows or Linux).
Network hub and cables.

↑

Checking†

↑

Network setting†

Turn on the hub, connect a network cable from Fedora Linux computer (server) to the hub (e.g. to channel 1).
Connect again a network cable from the client computer (Windows/Linux) to the hub (e.g. to channel 2).
Open Network configuration on Fedora Linux using root privilege. We should set network interface card that has been connected to the hub.
Assuming the network card is eth1, we set it to have:
- IP Address: 192.168.1.1
- Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
On the client computer, set the IP Address statically to be:
- IP Address: 192.168.1.2
- Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

↑

SSH check†

Open SSH software on client computer, for example, Putty or any command line software:
```
ssh username@192.168.1.1
```
If username is "nugraha" and hostname of server is "rsaito-necPC", we must get the following line after succesfully login:
```
nugraha@rsaito-necPC:~$
```
it means that we can access the server from the client.

↑

DHCP and TFTP Server†

Install dhcp, syslinux, and tftp-server (su root)
```
# yum install dhcp syslinux tftp-server
```

↑

DHCP Configuration†

Edit /etc/dhcpd.conf. The following is a configuration for a network that uses:

192.168.1.0/24 addressing
Dynamic address will be provided between 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.240

DHCP/PXE server at IP address 192.168.1.1

allow booting;
allow bootp;
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
	  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
	  option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
	  range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.240;
	  next-server 192.168.1.1;
}

The following is another sample dhcpd.conf by specifying MAC address

# dhcpd.conf
# common place for all
use-host-decl-names on; host name and the host name in config file are the same
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
#
# common for a subnet, we can make a group of host by "host", too
subnet 192.168.197.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
# range 204.254.239.10 204.254.239.20;? in the case of dynamic IP address
option domain-name "dc2.kek.jp";
option broadcast-address 192.168.197.255;
option routers 192.168.197.1;
}
#
#host entities The following is how to set static IP address(bootp type)
host n011 { since use-host-decl-names is on, we can use the host name
hardware ethernet 00:D0:B7:1B:12:ED;  MAC address
fixed-address 192.168.197.31;  static IP address for n011
option dhcp-class-identifier "PXEClient";  needed for PXE
option next-server 192.168.197.11;  specify for PXE server
              is provided by PXE Proxy DHCP server
}
# vendor-encapusulated option "next-server" can specify PXE server

Turn on dhcp and xinetd

# /sbin/service dhcpd start
# /sbin/service xinetd start
# chkconfig dhcpd on
(the last line is for activating dhcp on booting process)

Check if the dhcp server can work. Open a client computer which is connected to server and set the TCP/IP to dynamically set for IP address. Then try again:
```
 ssh username@192.168.1.1
```
If we can connect, it means DHCP has successfully been configured.

↑

TFTP Configuration†

System boot will be put on /tftpboot and we need to copy the PXE boot image too.
```
su -
cd /tftpboot
cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 .
```

Create a minimal /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg file

DEFAULT pxeboot
TIMEOUT 50
LABEL pxeboot
     KERNEL vmlinuz
     APPEND initrd=initrd.img
ONERROR LOCALBOOT 0

Turn on the tftp service:
```
# /sbin/chkconfig tftp on
```

↑

Copy system data for booting†

# yum install busybox-anaconda
# mkdir /tftpboot/f9
# mkdir /tftpboot/f9/root
# mkdir /tftpboot/f9/snapshot
# rsync -v -a -e ssh \
--exclude='/proc/*' --exclude='/sys/*' --exclude='/dev/*'\
--exclude='/media/*'   --exclude='/tmp/*' --exclude='/misc/*'\
172.17.4.178:/ /tftpboot/f9/root

History of PXE Server (Open) (No. 7)