Usage

If the pxeconfigd works and you want to install, memtest, etc.. a node, a link must be placed in the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory. This can be done with the 'pxeconfig' utility. This utility will ask some questions and will make the links for you. The utility requires the following setup:

• All the pxe configuration files must start with the keyword default. N.B.: yes, the dot after 'default' is part and parcel of the keyword! In this distribution two examples are included. Pxeconfig lets the user decide which default. config file to use.

• If default is a symbolic link to for example default.menu​, then default.menu is not included in the list where the user can choose from.

• The default directory where the pxe config files reside is: /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg. You can override it in configuration file pxeconfig.conf​

Systemimager or Sali activation

To activate this on a client depends on your version of systemimager and your preferred method

Systemimager telnet method

To activate this on a client you must add the following line to the systemimager master script of the node. It will remove the pxe config file for the node from the pxe bootserver. I personally place the line just before the umount commands. See below which command to use for which systemimager version.

Telnet is not included in the 3.X versions:

   # Remove the <hex_ipaddr> file from the pxelinux.cfg directory.
   # So the client will boot from disk
   #
   3.X)  chroot /a telnet $IMAGESERVER 6611
   2.X)  telnet $IMAGESERVER 6611

Post install script method

With systemimager version 3.7 and higher and ​Sali there is an easier setup. In the systemimager server examples directory there is an pxeconfig post installation script (Author: Ole Holm Nielsen), eg:

 cp /usr/share/doc/systemimager-server/examples/post-install/30all.pxeconfig \\
    <AUTOINSTALL_SCRIPT_DIR>/scripts/post-install

Example how to use pxeconfig utility

The pxeconfig command creates soft-links in the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory named as:

• hexadecimally encoded IP-address of the clients
• mac address with a 01- prefix

The links will point to one of the files default.*. As designed, the PXE network booting process will download the file given by the hexadecimal IP-address or 01-<mac address>, and hence network installation of the node will take place. With pxeconfig you can easily create those links for the host(s)

For usage and some examples

pxeconfig [-f,--filename <name>] <hosts>

if -f,--filename is not specified the program will display a menu with pxe configuration files where the user can choose from.

hosts specifications ==

With [] you can specify a range. This ranges are not only limited to numbers. Some examples

• The first five nodes of rack 16

  gb-r16n[1-5]
  

• The first five nodes and node 12 and 18 of rack 16 to 20

  gb-r[16-20]n[1-5,12,18]
  

• The first five nodes de in rack 16 with padding enabled

  gb-r[16]n[01-5]
  

Example

• the following command will make links to the default.node_install file for hosts in rack 2 and host bas. Where bas is

defined in pxeconfig.conf as host with a mac address

pxeconfig gb-r2n[1-20] bas  --filename default.node_install