This appendix explains PXE booting and kickstart technology in the following section:
D.1 About PXE Booting and Kickstart Technology
One of the key requirements of provisioning is the hardware server's ability to boot over the network instead of a diskette or CD-ROM. There are several ways computers can boot over a network, and Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) is one of them. PXE is an open industry standard supported by a number of hardware and software vendors. PXE is part of the 'Wired for Management' (WfM) specification, which is part of a bigger PC98 specification defined by Intel and Microsoft in 1998. A detailed document on PXE specification can be found at http://www.pix.net/software/pxeboot/archive/pxespec.pdf.
I need to be able to boot into CloneZilla over the network (as I want to image the Mac Mini's hard drive, and later on clone it to other Mac Minis). I've already tried booting the Mac Mini using gPXE and iPXE, and in both cases the giPXE complains that it can't find any network hardware. ### Netbooting into iPXE from a MacOS X Netboot Server I spent the last few days trying to figure out how NetBooting works on a Mac which is different from traditional PXE netbooting. The goal was, to be able to boot from a number of recovery boot images like acronis, clonezilla etc. At this point, you are now ready to boot your Mac system! You will need a keyboard connected to your Mac as you will need to hold down the 'n' character to perform a Netboot. You should see a globe icon for a few seconds and then see the VMware iPXE image get booted up. I tried iPXE, and it did not detect the NIC. I also connected some USB Ethernet dongles, but iPXE did not detect those, either. I don't think iPXE checks for USB Ethernet dongles. I know there are other methods that can be used to image Macs, but I am trying not to add complexity to our deployment processes. # Enable dnsmasq's built-in TFTP server to serve undionly.kpxe enable-tftp # Set the root directory for files availble via TFTP. # this is where I place undionly.kpxe tftp-root=/c/tftpd dhcp-range=192.168.1.180,192.168.1.220,255.255.255.0,24h dhcp-authoritative log-dhcp log-queries # iPXE sends option 175; make a rule named IPXEBOOT to match.
PXE works with Network Interface Card (NIC) of the system by making it function like a boot device. The PXE-enabled NIC of the client sends out a broadcast request to DHCP server, which returns with the IP address of the client along with the address of the TFTP server, and the location of boot files on the TFTP server. The following steps describe how it works:
Target Machine (either bare metal or with boot sector removed) is booted.
The Network Interface Card (NIC) of the machine triggers a DHCP request.
DHCP server intercepts the request and responds with standard information (IP, subnet mask, gateway, DNS etc.). In addition, it provides information about the location of a TFTP server and boot image (pxelinux.0).
When the client receives this information, it contacts the TFTP server for obtaining the boot image.
TFTP server sends the boot image (pxelinux.0), and the client executes it.
By default, the boot image searches the pxelinux.cfg directory on TFTP server for boot configuration files on the TFTP server using the following approach:
First, it searches for the boot configuration file that is named according to the MAC address represented in lower case hexadecimal digits with dash separators. For example, for the MAC Address '88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD', it searches for the file 01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
Then, it searches for the configuration file using the IP address (of the machine that is being booted) in upper case hexadecimal digits. For example, for the IP Address '192.0.2.91', it searches for the file 'C000025B'.
If that file is not found, it removes one hexadecimal digit from the end and tries again. However, if the search is still not successful, it finally looks for a file named 'default' (in lower case).
For example, if the boot file name is /tftpboot/pxelinux.0, the Ethernet MAC address is 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD, and the IP address 192.0.2.91, the boot image looks for file names in the following order:
The client downloads all the files it needs (kernel and root file system), and then loads them.
Target Machine reboots.
The Provisioning application uses Redhat's Kickstart method to automate the installation of Redhat Linux on target machines. Using kickstart, the system administrator can create a single file containing answers to all the questions that will usually be asked during a typical Red Hat Linux installation.
The host specific boot configuration file contains the location of the kickstart file. Download pentablet motherboards driver. This kickstart file would have been created earlier by the stage directive of the OS image based on the input from user.
D.2 Subnet Provisioning Usecases
Following are examples of subnet provisioning usecases:
Ipxe Image For Mac Windows 10
Subnet of size 256
Ipxe Image For Mac Osx
IP Prefix: 192.168.1.0
Ipxe Image For Mac Catalina
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Download quixun sound cards & media devices driver. Covers IPs from 192.168.1.0 - 192.168.1.255
Subnet of size 16
Ipxe Image For Mac Os
Palm driver download for windows 10. IP Prefix: 192.168.1.0
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.240
