bios
We configure our machines so that the boot order is hard drive then PXE. For workstations we remove all other options from the bios. In theory someone could own our workstation by plugging it into a private network and re-installing it with their own image using this method, but hopefully that isn't a great risk in your location. If we wish to re-install the machine remotely and we do not have console access (perhaps the machine is located in a client office), we can simply wipe the boot record from the hard drive and reboot. When the machine reboots, it will try to boot from the hard-drive, fail, and then boot from the network.
PXE/DHCP/DNS/TFTP
The first machine you will need to build for your installation system is the PXE boot server. This server will run dhcp, dns, tftp, http and export some filesystems via NFS. To get started install the machine using the install media of your chosen distribution, you should be careful to only install those things that you actually need. For a Red Hat@tm; installation you would select server as the installation profile and add the dhcp, dns, tftp and http packages.
Once your machine has finished installing, let it reboot and then login. Verify that the following packages are installed.
| service | package |
|---|---|
| web | httpd |
| dns | bind, bind-chroot |
| dhcp | dhcp, dhcpv6* |
| tftp | tftp-server |
You can verify a package is installed using either yum or rpm. Below are the instructions for installing the first package, httpd
Using rpm:
If the package is installed:
[root@server0 ~]# rpm -q httpd httpd-2.2.3-22.el5If the package is not installed:
[root@server0 ~]# rpm -q httpd package httpd is not installedUsing yum:
[root@server0 ~]# yum info httpd
Installed Packages
Name : httpd
Arch : x86_64
Version : 2.2.3
Release : 22.el5
Size : 3.3 M
Repo : installed
Summary : Apache HTTP Server
URL : http://httpd.apache.org/
License : Apache Software License
Description: The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful, efficient, and extensible web
: server.
If the package is not installed, the Repo line above will show the repo that will be used to install the package. In the above, httpd is installed so Repo is "installed".
To Install the package, you can either locate the package on your install media and use rpm, or use yum.
[root@server0 Server]# ls httpd-* httpd-2.2.3-22.el5.x86_64.rpm httpd-devel-2.2.3-22.el5.x86_64.rpm httpd-devel-2.2.3-22.el5.i386.rpm httpd-manual-2.2.3-22.el5.x86_64.rpm [root@server0 Server]# rpm -Uvh httpd-2.2.3-22.el5.x86_64.rpm Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:httpd ########################################### [100%]
[root@server0 ~]# yum install httpd Setting up Install Process Parsing package install arguments Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package httpd.x86_64 0:2.2.3-22.el5 set to be updated --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================ Installing: httpd x86_64 2.2.3-22.el5 Server_Base 1.2 M Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 1 Package(s) Update 0 Package(s) Remove 0 Package(s) Total download size: 1.2 M Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: httpd-2.2.3-22.el5.x86_64.rpm | 1.2 MB 00:00 Running rpm_check_debug Running Transaction Test Finished Transaction Test Transaction Test Succeeded Running Transaction Installing : httpd [1/1] Installed: httpd.x86_64 0:2.2.3-22.el5 Complete!Now that all the essential packages are installed on your machine, we'll configure each of the services individually in the following sections.