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Good Morning :) |
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> We have a clusters of machine and would like to setup network booting. At |
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> this time, we have to go to the data center and boot the machine manually. |
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> We would like to manage it as best as we could where we can save time and |
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> money. I heard network booting is a good way to go. I'm not sure how does |
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> network booting work, and also not sure if this is possible with Gentoo |
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> operating system. Sorry for the dumb questions, I am totally new to |
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> Networking. |
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We've got probably 500+ machines deployed in total using a network |
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boot environment at my work - http://www.bytemark.co.uk. It's simple |
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enough, although some of the concepts can be a little hard to grasp |
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when you're just getting started; leads to interesting possibilities |
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as you can give customers access, a la |
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http://www.bytemark.co.uk/dhshell |
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* DHCP - each range of IPs (subnet) needs to be able to |
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broadcast + obtain leases. |
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This is easily accomplished with ip-helper-address, if |
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you're using Cisco ;) |
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Saves running a DHCP server on every VLAN! |
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* TFTP - something to dish up the kernels, something which has |
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the pxelinux.cfg tree. |
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When the systems boot, they will obtain a DHCP lease and you need to |
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configure the boxes to try and boot off their internal NICs before |
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trying local disks or CD-ROM drives. Additional values are passed in |
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the DHCP lease to tell the boxes where the TFTP server is, you can |
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have simple menus via PXELINUX. |
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It's helpful to have console access (IP KVMs, serial lines) to |
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interface with all this. It's also helpful to have PDUs which take |
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SNMP commands so you can cycle the boxes on demand, or IPMI / iLOM I |
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guess. |
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How you choose to boot the images from that point is up to you ;) |
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We've got things deployed so that network booting is there as a method |
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for installing servers, for rescuing data when required, for fixing |
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'common' problems like b0rked kernel upgrades and firewall rules gone |
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slightly awry. |
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Thus, you may have quite a lot of reconfiguration to do: |
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* Configure boxes via BIOS to boot off NICs |
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* Install hardware to ensure remote powercycle capability |
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* Install hardware to give you serial/console access. |
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I'd be happy to try and answer any specific questions you may have :) |
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Alex |
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-- |
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