wiki:PxeUsage

Version 36 (modified by bas, 13 years ago) (diff)

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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

Telnet method

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

The utility telnet is included in all Sali versions and only in Systemimager 2.X, eg:

  • telnet $IMAGESERVER 6611

If the utility telnet is included in the image that is being installed, use this command

  • chroot /a telnet $IMAGESERVER 6611

Post install script method

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

 cp <path>/98all.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