wiki:WikiStart

Version 22 (modified by anonymous, 16 years ago) (diff)

--

PXE-utilities

This is a release of the SARA package of utilities that we use to boot our nodes with PXE-enabled network cards. This was developed because we always want to use the PXE-enabled network card as our first boot device. With pxelinux, which is a derivative of syslinux, you can specify with a PXE configuration file how the node must boot. This configuration is placed in, e.g. /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory.

We use this utiltiy for the following purposes:

Systemimager setup example

In our setup we have a default setup. The default setup is to boot from harddisk. When a node boots it fetches the default configuration file and the configuration file instructs the node to boot from the harddisk. This setup is used for nodes that are being been installed by systemimager.

At SARA we have developed the following strategy how to install a fresh node.

  1. The ip-address in our setup is known for the new node. So we make a link in the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory to a pxe config file which instructs that it has to fetch the kernel and root filesystem from our bootserver, eg: 0A000A02 ---> default.node_install (10.0.10.2)
  2. The client starts and uses the systemimager software to install the node. The installation script connects to a daemon on the bootserver. This daemon will remove the PXE config file for this node.
  3. The node reboots and will use the default pxe config file which will instruct the node to boot from harddisk.

Utilities

This release contains the following utilities (All utilities are written in Python):

pxeconfigd::

This is daemon that removes the pxe configuration file of a node.

pxeconfig::

With this program we can specify which pxe config file a node or nodes must use. This utility will create the links in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg

hexls::

Is a utility that diplays a directory, and, if in this directory contains HEX files, it will convert them to IP-numbers and hostnames.

PXE menu tools

Also included in this package are the PXE-menu tools which are used to control the booting of networked computers directly from the computer's console at the BIOS level before any operating system has been loaded. You get an on-screen hierarchical menu system which you navigate with the keyboard, and this allows you to select dynamically the tool or disk image to be booted. The PXE menus are based on the SYSLINUX menu systems.

The PXE menus are extremely useful for diagnostic purposes, for firmware upgrades, or for selecting an operating system installation method, of an individual computer while you work at its console (for remote management of multiple computers you probably want to use the pxeconfig tool in stead).

Some example PXE menu configuration files are included which you can customize for your own environment and hardware. Among the possibilities is to enable the Ultimate Boot CD collection of boot disks directly from the PXE menus.

Documentation

How to install and make use of the pxeconfig package:

A useful link about how to use Systemimager and the pxeconfig tools is:

How to install and use the PXE menu tools:

A more detailed discussion of the PXE menu tools is currently in:

How to use this system

The system is configured for the following tasks: