The next step is to copy the files necessary to start the
installation to the tftp server so they
can be found when the client requests them. The tftp server is usually the same server as the
network server exporting the installation tree.
To copy these files, run the Network
Booting Tool on the NFS, FTP, or HTTP server. A separate PXE
server is not necessary.
For the command line version of these instructions, refer to
Section 3.2.1
Command Line Configuration.
To use the graphical version of the Network Booting Tool, you must be running the X
Window System, have root privileges, and have the system-config-netboot RPM package installed. To
start the Network Booting Tool from the
desktop, go to (the main menu
on the panel) =>
=> => . Or, type the command
system-config-netboot at a shell prompt
(for example, in an XTerm or a GNOME terminal).
If starting the Network Booting Tool
for the first time, select Network Install
from the First Time Druid. Otherwise,
select => from the pulldown menu, and
then click Add. The dialog in Figure
3-1 is displayed.
-
Operating system identifier —
Provide a unique name using one word to identify the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux version and variant. It is used as the directory
name in the /tftpboot/linux-install/
directory.
-
Description — Provide a brief
description of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version and
variant.
-
Selects protocol for installation
— Selects NFS, FTP, or HTTP as the network installation type
depending on which one was configured previously. If FTP is
selected and anonymous FTP is not being used, uncheck Anonymous FTP and provide a valid username and
password combination.
-
Kickstart — Specify the location
of the kickstart file. The file can be a URL or a file stored
locally (diskette). The kickstart file can be created with the
Kickstart Configurator. Refer to
Chapter 2 Kickstart Configurator for details.
-
Server — Provide the IP address or
domain name of the NFS, FTP, or HTTP server.
-
Location — Provide the directory
shared by the network server. If FTP or HTTP was selected, the
directory must be relative to the default directory for the FTP
server or the document root for the HTTP server. For all network
installations, the directory provided must contain the RedHat/ directory of the installation tree.
After clicking OK, the initrd.img and vmlinuz
files necessary to boot the installation program are transfered
from images/pxeboot/ in the provided
installation tree to /tftpboot/linux-install/<os-identifier>/ on the tftp server (the one you are running the Network Booting Tool on).
If the network server is not running X, the pxeos command line utility, which is part of the
system-config-netboot package, can be
used to configure the tftp server files as
described in Section 3.4 Starting
the tftp Server:
pxeos -a -i "<description>" -p <NFS|HTTP|FTP> -D 0 -s client.example.com \
-L <net-location> -k <kernel> -K <kickstart> <os-identifer>
|
The following list explains the options:
-
-a — Specifies that an OS instance
is being added to the PXE configuration.
-
-i "<description>" — Replace
"<description>" with a
description of the OS instance. This corresponds to the Description field in Figure
3-1.
-
-p <NFS|HTTP|FTP> — Specify
which of the NFS, FTP, or HTTP protocols to use for installation.
Only one may be specified. This corresponds to the Select protocol for installation menu in Figure
3-1.
-
-D <0|1> — Specify
"0" which indicates that it is not a diskless configuration since pxeos can be used to configure a diskless
environment as well.
-
-s client.example.com — Provide the name of
the NFS, FTP, or HTTP server after the -s
option. This corresponds to the Server
field in Figure
3-1.
-
-L <net-location> — Provide the
location of the installation tree on that server after the
-L option. This corresponds to the
Location field in Figure
3-1.
-
-k <kernel> — Provide the specific
kernel version of the server installation tree for booting.
-
-K <kickstart> — Provide the location
of the kickstart file, if available.
-
<os-identifer> —
Specify the OS identifier, which is used as the directory name in
the /tftpboot/linux-install/ directory.
This corresponds to the Operating system
identifier field in Figure
3-1.
If FTP is selected as the installation protocol and anonymous
login is not available, specify a username and password for login,
with the following options before <os-identifer> in the previous
command:
-A 0 -u <username> -p <password>
|
For more information on command line options available for the
pxeos command, refer to the pxeos man page.
