Hello all,
I've deployed new servers - installing new CentOS servers via PXE booting using its iso distribution stored on an NFS server. For certain server types; I'd like to install custom applications into a server and then generate an image of that server, and deploy again via PXE to another group of servers.
Wanted to find out if anyone can forward any pointers to papers or links on:
1. Best and (cheapest) way to create disk image (that can be used for over the network installation over PXE) of an existing CentOS server with all its custom apps and packages ... would this be dd? would this take a long time?
2. Would like to find out if you can point me to a guide or doc - that specifically describes this process; most PXE install notes out there describe the PXE config setup and assumes an ISO image (to create a new server), as opposed to deploying a "ghosted" image of an existing server.
3. In a deployment of a "ghosted" image - would the DHCP automatically request for a new IP address upon completion of the installation on the target machine (since when I ghost the source machine, the network information will contain that source's machine IP address, MAC, etc. etc.)
Thanks in advance ..
vincenzo romero wrote:
Hello all,
I've deployed new servers - installing new CentOS servers via PXE booting using its iso distribution stored on an NFS server. For certain server types; I'd like to install custom applications into a server and then generate an image of that server, and deploy again via PXE to another group of servers.
Wanted to find out if anyone can forward any pointers to papers or links on:
- Best and (cheapest) way to create disk image (that can be used for
over the network installation over PXE) of an existing CentOS server with all its custom apps and packages ... would this be dd? would this take a long time?
- Would like to find out if you can point me to a guide or doc -
that specifically describes this process; most PXE install notes out there describe the PXE config setup and assumes an ISO image (to create a new server), as opposed to deploying a "ghosted" image of an existing server.
- In a deployment of a "ghosted" image - would the DHCP
automatically request for a new IP address upon completion of the installation on the target machine (since when I ghost the source machine, the network information will contain that source's machine IP address, MAC, etc. etc.)
Thanks in advance ..
We have PXE install in our environment that uses MS RIS to deploy multiple RH distributions via kickstart using syslinux and the pxeboot img included with the distros.
To recreate the setup completely on linux you will need:
1) DHCP server that supports PXE extensions
2) [Optional] PXE server for Linux to host multiple distros, if you want to host just the one you could have DHCP point right to the syslinux pxeboot loader.
3) TFTP server to host the initial boot images
4) WWW or FTP server to provide internal location to download the distro RPMs (or you could use the Internet locations).
Here is a short How-To I found googling:
http://crashrecovery.org/CrashRecoveryKit/pxeboot/pxeboot.pdf
If you have a Win2k3 server license you could setup a Xen guest to act as a RIS server too which would allow you to host Windows and Linux distributions. You may have problems though with the DHCP/PXE boot packets coming from the broadcast addresses to the guest, but with tweaking I'm sure it could be made to work.
-Ross
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On Sat, Feb 09, 2008 at 10:14:01AM -0700, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
If you have a Win2k3 server license you could setup a Xen guest to act as a RIS server too which would allow you to host Windows and Linux distributions.
Ross, I would love to know how you did this, I assume it wasn't trivial to install Linux guests with RIS?
You might find this of interest:
http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#Deploy_Linux_from_Windows_...
This is how I'm doing our Linux installs from RIS at work. But you can certainly do one RIS entry per distro as well if you like.
Ray
Joseph L. Casale wrote:
If you have a Win2k3 server license you could setup a Xen guest to act as a RIS server too which would allow you to host Windows and Linux distributions.
Ross, I would love to know how you did this, I assume it wasn't trivial to install Linux guests with RIS? Thanks, jlc
Start with a working RIS setup, enable support for legacy RIS images.
Then:
Create a directory structure as such, from the base RIS volume:
RemoteInstall | +- Setup | +- English | +- Images | +- CentOS5 | +- amd64 | | | +- templates | | | +- pxelinux.cfg | +- i386 | +- templates | +- pxelinux.cfg
Under the templates directory for each version copy:
initrd.img (the pxeboot version) vmlinuz (the pxeboot version)
as well as a copy of the pxelinux.0 binary from the most recent syslinux/pxeboot available.
Optionally I throw in the 'splash.lss' from the distro media, and create or copy a 'pxeboot.msg' file to give it a little flare.
Next create a pxelinux.sif file in each templates directory. This file will be picked up by RIS and will set up the menu for this distro/processor.
Here's the contents of mine:
[OSChooser] Description ="CentOS 5" Help ="This option runs the CentOS 5 install for the [i386|x86_64] processor family." LaunchFile = "%INSTALLPATH%%MACHINETYPE%\templates\pxelinux.0" ImageType =Flat Version="1.01"
Then in the pxelinux.cfg directory create the 'default' syslinux file per the particular distro's needs (ram file size etc).
Here is the contents of my CentOS5 default:
default server prompt 1 timeout 100 display pxeboot.msg
label server kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192 root=/dev/ram0 ip=dhcp lang=us expert ksdevice=eth0 ks=http://10.1.1.60/CentOS/5/server.cfg method=http://10.1.1.60/CentOS/5/os/i386 noipv6 quiet label desktop kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192 root=/dev/ram0 ip=dhcp lang=us ksdevice=eth0 ks=http://10.1.1.60/CentOS/5/desktop.cfg method=http://10.1.1.60/CentOS/5/os/i386 noipv6 quiet
I basically have the distros located on a web server. I wget replicate the distro creating a directory for each version (5.0,5.1 etc) and an alias '5' that points to the current supported version.
I'd be happy to share my kickstart files, but will do so off-list as they are lengthy and it just adds unnecessary volume to the list.
-Ross
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Joseph L. Casale wrote:
Start with a working RIS setup, enable support for legacy RIS images.
Wow, thorough detail :) I see you have kept sp2 off the RIS box to prevent RIS from becoming WDS. I assume this is because there is no way to do this in WDS?
Nah, I have SP2 on there, you need to make sure when setting up WDS to enable legacy support for RIS images and then make sure you create the directory structure I mentioned.
You could probably set it up in WDS, but I'm sure it would be more involved, but WDS can host both newer images and legacy images on the same box, so why bother?
-Ross
______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender and permanently delete the original and any copy or printout thereof.
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Joseph L. Casale -
Ray Van Dolson -
Ross S. W. Walker -
vincenzo romero