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pxeboot install from remote server to my LAN
Hey everyone. I'm a neophyte that is trying to install OpenBSD from my remote gentoo server. Is it possible to have my bsd.rd and pxeboot in a remote location and boot my LAN from it? I have asked in the gentoo forums and mailing list with no response.(Guess because I'm trying to install OpenBSD)
Last edited by chessmaster; 4th March 2014 at 03:23 AM. |
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Yes, you can use other systems. PXE booting only requires a DHCP server and a TFTP server -- they need not be the same architecture; they do not have to be the same OS.
The DHCP server provides the name of the file to transfer and boot via TFTP, and if needed it provides the address of the TFTP server. An explanation (using the OpenBSD versions of dhcpd(8) and tftpd(8) for configuration examples) can be found in pxeboot(8). You'll need to copy the pxeboot bootloader (/usr/mdec/pxeboot) and the RAMDISK kernel bsd.rd to your TFTP server. Once you've used pxeboot, and are comfortable with it, you may find yourself wanting to run OpenBSD partially or entirely from your network. See diskless(8) if you're interested. |
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Sorry, the pxeboot(8) man page does not show how to configure your DHCP server if the TFTP server is on a separate platform. If they are not on the same machine, you need to configure the DHCP server with the option next-server to provide the separate IP address of the TFTP server. See dhcpd.conf(5) if this is needed.
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Last edited by chessmaster; 4th March 2014 at 03:19 AM. |
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For more information, study Section 6.10 of the official FAQ, & the tftp(1), tftpd(8), pxeboot(8) manpages. In addition, you will need to study the boot(8) manpage for information on boot.conf as this file will be required on the TFTP server as well. You may also want to study Wikipedia's introductory article on PXE. A PDF of Intel's specification can be found at the bottom of the article. |
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Is your DHCP server under your control or some ISP? If you have control, you need to look into how broadcast messages are getting from your client to the server. If you are using an ISP's DHCP server, chances are they aren't going to honor any request to add PXE booting to the information exchanged upon assigning an IP address. |
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Many people use DHCP servers that they own or rent, every day, without ever realizing they have them. The most common DHCP servers on the planet are located inside of those small home routers, either purchased or leased from an ISP. Those private network "192.168.x.y" addresses that are assigned to all the devices in one's home are provided by a local DHCP server on premises.
However, none of these turn-key devices provide advanced DHCP features such as filename or next-server. For that, you have to disable the DHCP server in the router/gateway and provide a separate DHCP server yourself |
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My point was that a local service of some kind is needed on the subnet; for most of us it may as well be a local DHCP server. Large networks (such as ISPs) may be able to reduce management effort by centralizing DHCP servers, and use DHCP-relay platforms such as Cisco routers or other dhcrelay(8) equivalents.
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Having an extra box that you can use as a PXE server, is something I can recommend.
Save that old desktop computer your Mom, Dad, uncle or aunt wants to get rid off. It so nice to play with a BSD OS when you do not need to be afraid to accidentally wipe your precious Windows data in another disk partition
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You don't need to be a genius to debug a pf.conf firewall ruleset, you just need the guts to run tcpdump |
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After booting up with a Slackware install DVD one can start up a PXE server on the local network and it will let you install Slackware to any machine on the local network using PXE. (google "Slackware pxesetup script") The PXE server it uses is called Dnsmasq which is also a TFTP and DHCP server as well. It has a nice feature "dhcp-proxy" which allows it to act as a middle man for the main network router dhcp server. http://dnsmasq.org/ http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq...smasq-man.html Using Dnsmasq, one could serve up any boot image such as the OpenBSD bsd.rd. |
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I have further read that the remote DHCP server I configured is in conflict with my (local) router DHCP. My question would dnsmasq present the same problem? I believe i overcomplicated the Matter of trying it remotely instead of Local. Rather this exercise was used to test the ability of pxeboot. As I believe this is a tool every SA should master.
Last edited by chessmaster; 5th March 2014 at 06:12 PM. |
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Yes, you overcomplicated by wanting to do pxeboot with a remote server. Study http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq6.html#PXE and you will have a local one set up within 10 minutes
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You don't need to be a genius to debug a pf.conf firewall ruleset, you just need the guts to run tcpdump Last edited by J65nko; 5th March 2014 at 10:36 PM. |
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[1] Unless you are configuring synchronized DHCP servers and their lease databases, such as with the dhcpd(8) -Y/-y options. |
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Thanks. I'm going to take J65nko advice and just use my one of my old laptops as a pxe server. Which by the way was very simple to setup and a easy way to update snapshots
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