OS Deployment: Summary – technicality.ca

This page contains a shortened version of all of my OS Deployment articles. As I add articles, I’ll update this page to include only the specific instructions outlined in each article. Consider this the short-hand version, and a work-in-progress.

DHCP Server Configuration

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Microsoft DHCP

enable option 066 Boot Server Host Name in either the global scope or a specific scope, and set the value to your TFTP server’s IP address
enable option 067 Bootfile Name in either the global scope or a specific scope, and set the value to pxelinux.0

ISC DHCPD

Add the following block to your dhcpd.conf file, again either in the global scope or a specific scope:

if substring ( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient" {
     next-server <TFTP server’s IP address>;
     filename “pxelinux.0?;
}

TFTP Server Configuration

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Details

install tftpd-hpa (Ubuntu) or tftp-hpa (Gentoo), whichever gets you the tftp server for your Linux distribution
as root, run mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ && mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/linux/
create or edit /etc/xinetd.d/tftp if you’re using xinetd; /etc/conf.d/in.tftpd if you’re running tftp-hpa on Gentoo; include the following command-line arguments for tftp-hpa: -s /var/lib/tftpboot and -m /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/remap
create /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/remap your favorite text editor, with the following content:
```
rg \\ /
rg ([A-Z]) \L\1
```

PXELinux

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Details

install syslinux, and copy pxelinux.0, memdisk, menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32 to /var/lib/tftpboot/
mount your Linux install media, and – for RedHat and derivatives like Fedora Core – copy images/pxeboot/vmlinuz and images/pxeboot/initrd.gz to /var/lib/tftpboot/linux/

create /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default using your favorite text editor, with the following contents:

default graphics
timeout 100
prompt 1
label text
  kernel linux/vmlinuz
  append initrd=linux/initrd.gz text

label graphics
  kernel linux/vmlinuz
  append initrd=linux/initrd.gz

test your setup using a PXE client, and you should end up in Anaconda (the RedHat/Fedora Core installer)

Advanced PXELinux

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Details

Alter /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default to (changes are in bold):

default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 100
menu title PXE Boot Menu
menu autoboot Starting graphics-mode Linux installer in # seconds

label graphics
  menu default
  menu label Linux Installer (Graphics Mode)
  TEXT HELP
  Installs Linux using the GUI installer
  ENDTEXT
  kernel linux/vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.gz

label text
  menu label Linux Installer (Text Mode)
  TEXT HELP
  Installs Linux using a text-mode installer
  ENDTEXT
  kernel linux/vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.gz text

Automated Linux Installation

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Details

setup an NFS or HTTP server to host your installation sources
copy the contents of the installation media to an NFS exported or HTTP-accessible directory on your NFS/HTTP server.
use a PXE client to boot from the network
select the Linux Installer from the PXE menu and press ENTER (either graphics or text mode – doesn’t matter much for this installation, so use whatever works with your PXE client)
when prompted for the source location, choose appropriately: if you setup an HTTP export using Apache or IIS, you’ll want to choose HTTP; if you setup an NFS export, you’ll want to choose NFS
when prompted, enter the server name and path to your installation sources
install your distribution however you want (but keep in mind that the choices you make here will be applied to all future installations, so keep it simple and lean)
once the installation is complete, copy /root/anaconda.ks to your installation source export directory, and rename the file so that it’s obvious what distribution you installed (e.g. mv anaconda.ks fc10x86.ks)

modify /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default, adding ks=<protocol>://<server name>/<filename>.ks to the end of your Linux Installer lines, where <protocol> is either nfs or http depending on how you configured you installation source export location, <server name> is the system containing your installation sources, and <filename> is the path and filename of the renamed anaconda.ks file from the previous step:

default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 100

menu title PXE Boot Menu
menu autoboot Starting graphics-mode Linux installer in # seconds

label graphics
  menu default
  menu label Linux Installer (Graphics Mode)
  TEXT HELP
  Installs Linux using the GUI installer
  ENDTEXT
  kernel linux/vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.gz ks=http://install/sources/server/and/path/anaconda.ks

label text
  menu label Linux Installer (Text Mode)
  TEXT HELP
  Installs Linux using a text-mode installer
  ENDTEXT
  kernel linux/vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.gz text ks=http://install/sources/server/and/path/anaconda.ks