source: tags/1.0.0/README @ 130

Last change on this file since 130 was 106, checked in by bas, 16 years ago

Added pxemenu config files and updated some info

File size: 2.4 KB
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1PXE-utilities
2-------------
3
4This is a release of the SARA package of utilities that we use to boot
5our nodes with PXE-enabled network cards. This was developed because we
6always want to use the PXE-enabled network card as our first boot device.
7With pxelinux, which is a derivative of syslinux, you can specify with a PXE
8configuration file how the node must boot. This configuration is placed in,
9e.g. '/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg' directory.
10
11The PXE-menu tools are used to control the booting of networked computers
12directly from the computer's console at the BIOS level before any operating
13system has been loaded.  This is extremely useful for diagnostic purposes,
14or for selecting an operating system installation method, of an individual
15computer.  For further information please read the files README-pxemenu and
16INSTALL-pxemenu.
17
18In our setup we have a default setup. The default setup is to boot from
19harddisk. When a node boots it fetches the default configuration file and the
20configuration file tells the node to boot from the harddisk. This setup
21is used for nodes that have already been installed by systemimager.
22
23At SARA we have developed the following  strategy how to install a fresh node.
24
25 1) The ip-address in our setup is known for the new node. So
26    we make a link in the '/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg' directory to a
27    pxe config file which tells that it has to fetch the kernel en
28    root filesystem from our bootserver, eg:
29         0A000A02 ---> default.node_install (10.0.10.2)
30
31 2) The client starts and  uses the systemimager software to install
32    the node. The last line of installation script connects to a
33    daemon on the bootserver. This daemon will remove the PXE config file
34    for this node.
35
36 3) The node reboots and will use the default pxe config file which will
37    instruct the node to boot from harddisk.
38
39This release contains the following utilities:
40
41  pxeconfigd)
42     This is daemon that removes the pxe configuration file of a node.
43
44  pxeconfig)
45     With this program we can specify which pxe config file
46     a node or nodes must use. This utility will create the links
47     in '/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg'
48
49  hexls)
50      Is a utility that diplays a directory, and, if in this directory
51      contains HEX files, it will convert them to IP-numbers.
52
53All these utilities are written in Python.
54
55
56
57
58For more info about the Packag and installation:
59        https://subtrac.sara.nl/oss/pxeconfig
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