Wishlist: remote install GUI

[Arthur Pemberton]

On 8/31/06, Andreas Thienemann <andreas at bawue.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>
> > Along the path of alternate install methods ... how feasible is it to
> > say PXE book a remtoe machine, then have the install process start on
> > it somehow. I am not familiar with the require technologies, but they
> > seem to already exist.
> No problem there.
> We are using PXE to reboot a machine in another datacenter, which is our
> secondary DNS server.
> There's a Cyclades TS100 connected to the serial port, onto which we
> installed a statically linked dnsmasq binary for the dhcp server.
>
> It hands the box it's ip address and tells it to get the pxelinux file
> from our main tftpd in our own datacenter.
> By changing the pxelinux config file for this machine, we can make it do
> different things such as booting a rescue system, an installer et al.
>
>
> The configuration is pretty simple:
>
> /etc/dnsmasq.conf (only the important part)
>
> # The DNS Entry in question, in this case we're only handing out a single
> # address. Adapt that to your requirements
> dhcp-range=111.222.333.444,static,255.255.255.224,45m
> dhcp-host=00:11:22:33:44:55,leelo,111.222.333.444
>
> # Netmask
> dhcp-option=1,255.255.255.0
> # Broadcast
> dhcp-option=28,111.222.333.255
> # Nameserver
> dhcp-option=6,111.222.333.1
>
> # NTP Server
> dhcp-option=42,111.222.333.1
>
> # Set the default route
> dhcp-option=3,111.222.333.1
>
> # Set the mftp option for the PXEClient to 0.0.0.0 as we do not have a
> # multicast tftp
> dhcp-option=vendor:PXEClient,1,0.0.0.0
>
> # Set the boot filename and tftpd server name and address
> # for BOOTP. You will only need this is you want to
> # boot machines over the network.
> dhcp-boot=/pxelinux.0,your.tftp.server.name,12.34.56.78
>
>
> As an alternative, you can use the isc server:
> /etc/dhcpd.conf
>
> allow booting;
> allow bootp;
>
> option space PXE;
> option PXE.mtftp-ip               code 1 = ip-address;
> option PXE.mtftp-cport            code 2 = unsigned integer 16;
> option PXE.mtftp-sport            code 3 = unsigned integer 16;
> option PXE.mtftp-tmout            code 4 = unsigned integer 8;
> option PXE.mtftp-delay            code 5 = unsigned integer 8;
> option PXE.discovery-control      code 6 = unsigned integer 8;
> option PXE.discovery-mcast-addr   code 7 = ip-address;
>
> class "pxeclients" {
>     option PXE.mtftp-ip 0.0.0.0;
>     filename "pxelinux.0";
>     next-server 12.34.56.78;
> }
>
> # the rest of your network definitions
>
>         group install {
>                 filename "pxelinux.0";
>                 next-server 12.34.56.78;
>
>                 host server { hardware ethernet 00:01:02:03:04:05; }
>         }
> }
>
>
>
> That way, the host in question will get instructed, to load the pxe file
> and boot it via tftp from the next-server ip.
>
>
> There you have to put pxelinux.0 from the syslinux package into your
> tftproot, /tftpboot and create a config file, e.g.
> /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default or a more specific
> /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-01-02-03-04-05:
>
> # we want a serial console
> serial 0 115200 0xab3
>
> # Always prompt
> prompt 1
>
> # Default bootoption, local for boot from hd or your preferred install
> # target
> default install-fc5
>
> # Boot automatically after 30 seconds in tenths of a second
> timeout 300
>
> label local
>         localboot 0
>
> # Install fc5 via serial console
> label install-fc5
>   kernel fc5/vmlinuz
>   append ramdisk_size=16384 load_ramdisk=1 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8r initrd=fc5/initrd.img network text serial
>
> # Install fc5 via vnc
> label install-fc5-vnc
>   kernel fc5/vmlinuz
>   append ramdisk_size=16384 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=fc5/initrd.img network vnc vncpassword=secret
>
>
>
> Put the PXE boot files into /tftpboot/fc5 and make your installation tree
> available via nfs, http, ftp or something similar.
>
> And voila, you can install systems remotely without ever having to access
> their cd drives.
>
> The installation task can even be simplified by feeding a kickstart file
> to the anaconda installer, answering all questions or only things like
> installation repository location et al.
>
>
>
> regards,
>  andreas
>

Seems like something anaconda worthy....put the necessary tech into
anaconda, or a secondary 9more rohbust anadona cd) and have it do all
that.

Sweet.


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To be updated...