Appendix B. Setting Up a PXE Server
|
Experience Required |
This appendix is intended for users with previous Linux
experience. If you are a new user, you may want to install using
minimal boot media or the distribution DVD instead.
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This section discusses how to set up a Pre-boot
eXecution Environment (PXE) boot
server for machines that cannot boot from CD, DVD, or USB media. PXE
is a special extension of services provided by the
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP). It uses a Trivial File
Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server to
provide minimal boot files to a network client. To set up a PXE
boot service on a separate Fedora server on the local network,
follow this procedure:
-
Install the tftp-server,
dhcp, and syslinux
packages:
su -c 'yum install tftp-server
dhcp syslinux'
-
Edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf
file to
configure the DHCP server. The following example is a minimal
configuration for a network that uses the following
configuration:
-
192.168.1.0/24
addressing
-
Dynamic addresses provided between 192.168.1.200
and
192.168.1.240
-
DHCP/PXE server at IP address 192.168.1.10
-
No other dynamic configuration provided
allow booting;
allow bootp;
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.240;
next-server 192.168.1.10;
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
-
As the root
user,
copy the PXE boot image and Fedora boot files to the TFTP
server directory.
su -
cd /tftpboot
cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 .
-
Copy the vmlinuz
and
initrd.img
files from the pxeboot
directory on distribution
media or a Web mirror to the /tftpboot
directory.
-
Create a minimal /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
file:
DEFAULT pxeboot
TIMEOUT 50
LABEL pxeboot
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.img
ONERROR LOCALBOOT 0
-
Turn on the dhcpd
,
xinetd
and tftp
services:
su -c '/sbin/service dhcpd start'
su -c '/sbin/service xinetd start'
su -c '/sbin/chkconfig tftp on'
Boot the client system and either use the required keys or
configure its BIOS to boot from its network interface using PXE. At
the boot prompt, hit
Enter
to boot the default
Fedora installation image. If an error occurs, the system boots
in its normal configuration, such as a local hard disk.