View source for PXE Boot Server Configuration Using Linux

PXE is an acronym for Pre-Boot Execution Environment.  To know what it does refer to the [[Pre-Boot Execution Environment]] page.

This document is a guide to configuration of a PXE boot server using Linux.  It will be assumed that you already have an existing network with a Linux server that is responsible for assignment of DHCP addressing for your workstations.  There are other guides to cover the configuration of a DHCP server.

You will need to install whatever packages are appropriate for your distribution to have PXE and TFTP.

*Your DHCP server must also be your PXE boot server.

*tftpd32 and PXELINUX

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== Redhat / Trustix Guide ==

=== Manual Configuration ===

1. You need to obtain the RPM package for PXE and the RPM package for TFTP and install them on the server.

2. Activate TFTP in xinetd
:* disable=yes to disable=no in /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
:* service xinetd restart

3. Get OS ready in the tftpboot directory
: One way to do this is to create a folder and copy the OS install files into the folder.  This is probably the most common way, however, there is an alternative that is pretty slick.  If the media the OS install files come from are on CD, you can make an ISO image of the CD and mount that to the folder for PXE network installs.

4. Put the pxe boot linux kernel in the tftpboot directory

5. Configure /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg

6. Create default configuration /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

7. For the client workstation to actually read the OS installation packages from the server, you may use HTTP, NFS, or SMB.
: The PXE installation formula may be described as a combination of the following necessary packages:
:* PXE, TFTP, and HTTPD
:* PXE, TFTP, and NFS
:* PXE, TFTP, and Samba

==== HTTPD ====
After you copy the contents of the distribution or operating system media into a folder on the server drive you need to configure the httpd.conf file to reflect that server location.  Edit the httpd.conf file (typically located in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf)

 <Directory /tftpboot/myOS>
 Options Indexes
 AllowOverride None
 </Directory>
 
 Alias /linux /tftpboot/myOS

==== NFS ====

This is the preferred option to use.

==== Samba ====
You will want to make sure you have Samba version 3 or above.

Example configuration for samba:

 [OSINSTALL]
     path = /tftpboot/myOS
     browsable = true
     read only = No
     guest ok = Yes

You must set null passwords = true in smb.conf.

You also need to modify server name and path in SetupSourceDevice option of winnt.sif file.

=== Redhat Config Utility ===

Use the GUI Network Booting Tool on the Redhat server in XWindows.  

If you do not have X installed, you can also use the console utility.  The pxeos  command line utility, which is part of the redhat-config-netboot package, can be used to configure the tftp server files.

 pxeos -a -i "<description>" -p <NFS|HTTP|FTP> -D 0 -s client.example.com -L <net-location> <os-identifer>

== Debian / (K)ubantu / Knoppix Guide ==
install the packages netkit-inetd, tftpd-hpa, dhcp3-server, and lftp, so we run

 apt-get install netkit-inetd tftpd-hpa dhcp3-server lftp 

vi /etc/inetd.conf and add the following

 tftp           dgram   udp     wait    root  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/tftpboot

vi /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf example snippet 

 subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
         range 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.49;
         filename "pxelinux.0";
         option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
         option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
         option routers 192.168.0.1;
 }

== OpenWRT / WhiteRussian Guide ==

PXE booting defined to dhcp server on openwrt.  

dnsmasq.conf example:

 # filter what we send upstream
 domain-needed
 bogus-priv
 filterwin2k
 localise-queries
 
 # allow /etc/hosts and dhcp lookups via *.roadrunner.cx
 local=/roadrunner.cx/
 domain=roadrunner.cx
 expand-hosts
 
 addn-hosts=/etc/hosts
 resolv-file=/tmp/resolv.conf
 
 # enable dhcp (start,end,netmask,leasetime)
 dhcp-authoritative
 dhcp-range=10.0.0.80,10.0.0.200,12h
 dhcp-leasefile=/tmp/dhcp.leases
 
 # use /etc/ethers for static hosts; same format as --dhcp-host
 # <hwaddr> <ipaddr>
 read-ethers
 
 # other useful options:
 # default route(s): dhcp-option=3,192.168.1.1,192.168.1.2
 #    dns server(s): dhcp-option=6,192.168.1.1,192.168.1.2
 dhcp-option=1,255.255.255.0
 dhcp-option=2,7200
 dhcp-option=3,10.0.0.1
 dhcp-option=5,10.0.0.1
 dhcp-option=6,10.0.0.1
 dhcp-option=7,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=15,roadrunner.cx
 dhcp-option=17,10.0.0.30:/opt/ltsp-4.2/i386
 dhcp-option=16,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=42,10.0.0.1
 dhcp-option=44,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=48,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=49,kde
 dhcp-option=69,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=70,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=72,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-option=128,10.0.0.30
 
 dhcp-vendorclass=pxe,PXEClient
 dhcp-vendorclass=eth,Etherboot
 dhcp-option=vendor:PXEClient,1,0.0.0.0
 dhcp-boot=net:pxe,/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/pxelinux.0,mainframe.roadrunner.cx,10.0.0.30
 dhcp-boot=net:eth,/lts/vmlinuz-2.6.16.8-ltsp-1,mainframe.roadrunner.cx,10.0.0.30

There is no binary TFTPD package for White Russian. But it can easily be packported from Kamikaze using OpenWrt's SDK.

To backport the atftp (client and server) package from Kamikaze do:

 cd /tmp
 wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/newest/OpenWrt-SDK-Linux-i686-1.tar.bz2
 bzcat OpenWrt-SDK-Linux-i686-1.tar.bz2 | tar -xf -
 cd OpenWrt-SDK-Linux-i686-1/package/
 svn co https://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt/trunk/openwrt/package/atftp/
 cd ..
 make atftp-clean && make atftp-compile
 
 ls -al bin/packages
 -rw-r--r--  1 openwrt-dev openwrt-dev 18249 2006-01-24 23:03 atftp_0.7-1_mipsel.ipk
 -rw-r--r--  1 openwrt-dev openwrt-dev 31819 2006-01-24 23:03 atftpd_0.7-1_mipsel.ipk

You might need to get libpcre

 ipkg install libpcre

CREATE THIS FILE: /etc/xinetd.d/tftp

 # default: off
 # description: The tftp server serves files using the trivial file transfer \
 #       protocol.  The tftp protocol is often used to boot diskless \
 #       workstations, download configuration files to network-aware printers, \
 #       and to start the installation process for some operating systems.
 service tftp
 {
        disable = no
        socket_type             = dgram
        protocol                = udp
        wait                    = yes
        user                    = root
        server                  = /usr/sbin/tftpd
        server_args             = -s /var/lib/tftpboot
        per_source              = 11
        cps                             = 100 2
        flags                   = IPv4
 }

ADD TO FILE: /etc/services

 tftp             69/tcp    # Trivial File Transfer
 tftp             69/udp    # Trivial File Transfer

added an "a" in the line

 server                  = /usr/sbin/atftpd

(as this is the name of the file located in /usr/sbin)

created file service with :

 tftp    69/tcp
 tftp    69/udp
 tftp-mcast      1758/tcp
 tftp-mcast      1758/udp

created folder /atftpboot (and put the file to be transmetted in this folder)
 and
 chmod 777 /atftpboot

note that atftp is client package and atftpd is server

use atftp --daemon to make listening on port

tested with TFTPD32 v3.01 (windows system) works fine



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[[Category:Computer_Technology]]
[[Category:Linux]]