booting up/installing linux...

[bruce]

steve...

i have a 'reasonable' understanding of mac/ip addresses and dhcp servers...

my issue is that what i envision will not have a dhcp server on the same
'network' segment as the client motherboard...

as an example, imagine that you have a client computer 'A' connected to the
internet via cable modem at IP address A1. imagine also that you have a
master server 'M' at location M1. when the A device is turned on, or needs
to be reconfigured, i'd like it to go crying back home to device M at
location M1 for boot/install/config process/information....

this is the primary issue i'm trying to get my hands around...

thanks

bruce


-----Original Message-----
From: redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com
[mailto:redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com]On Behalf Of Steve Phillips
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 1:30 PM
To: General Red Hat Linux discussion list
Subject: RE: booting up/installing linux...


On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, bruce wrote:

> ok...
>
> i'm confused... i'm going to have to find someone with PXE expertise who
can
> walk me though how this might/can work..
>

There is not much to get confused about really.

The PXE process is a very cut down DHCP client that simply requests on the
wire for something to give it an IP address.

It also incorporates some code that allows a device to pass it an image of
say - a boot floppy, in order to use this image as a boot device as if it
were a real disk.

When yo utalk about secuirty issues, then yes, there are issues - if
someone takes a PXE enabled device to another network, sets up their own
DHCP server, gies the PXE device an IP and a boot image they can
potentially boot the device. but it tends to be a physical "move to
another network" which no doubt you would tend to notice.

The PXE process is incredibly simple - it is quite litterally that, what
you can do with it however can be quite complex as there are a number of
combinations of this process that allow for things such as automated
machine rebuilds, diskless workstations, jumpstart/kickstart installations
etc etc

Really, your best bet is to read some of the links from the google search
and then play with it a little - as Ed said, you only need a dhcp server
and to download some of the pxe stuff for linux to get it all going - if
you have more specific questions after playing a bit then there are people
here that can help but a generic question such as "whats this pxe stuff
and how does it work" is probably a little outside the charter of this
mailing list.

PS: a basic understanding of the DHCP process would also help, it may pay
to see if you can find something on that as well if you are uncertain what
a MAC address is or how PC's get an IP from a DHCP server.

(http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200004/im_dhcpb.html is a
reasonable explanation)


--
Steve.

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