Setting up a 'PXE Network Boot Server' for Multiple Linux Distribution Installations in RHEL/Cent. OS 7. PXE Server – Preboot e. ![]() Xecution Environment – instructs a client computer to boot, run or install an operating system directly form a network interface, eliminating the need to burn a CD/DVD or use a physical medium, or, can ease the job of installing Linux distributions on your network infrastructure on multiple machines the same time. Setting PXE Network Boot in RHEL/Cent. OS 7. Requirements. Cent. OS 7 Minimal Installation Procedure. RHEL 7 Minimal Installation Procedure. Configure Static IP Address in RHEL/Cent. OS 7. Remove Unwanted Services in RHEL/Cent.
![]() This article will explain how you can install and configure a PXE Server on RHEL/CentOS 7 x64-bit with mirrored local installation repositories, sources. OS 7. Install NTP Server to Set Correct System Time in RHEL/Cent. OS 7. This article will explain how you can install and configure a PXE Server on RHEL/Cent. OS 7 x. 64- bit with mirrored local installation repositories, sources provided by Cent. OS 7 DVD ISO image, with the help of DNSMASQ Server. Which provides DNS and DHCP services, Syslinux package which provides bootloaders for network booting, TFTP- Server, which makes bootable images available to be downloaded via network using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and VSFTPD Server which will host the local mounted mirrored DVD image – which will act as an official RHEL/Cent. OS 7 mirror installation repository from where the installer will extract its required packages. Step 1: Install and configure DNSMASQ Server. No need to remind you that is absolutely demanding that one of your network card interface, in case your server poses more NICs, must be configured with a static IP address from the same IP range that belongs to the network segment that will provide PXE services. So, after you have configured your static IP Address, updated your system and performed other initial settings, use the following command to install DNSMASQ daemon.# yum install dnsmasq. Computer Networking Questions including "What is multicasting" and "How do you connect 3 clients to a server so they can share applications". ![]() Install dnsmasq Package. DNSMASQ main default configuration file located in /etc directory is self- explanatory but intends to be quite difficult to edit, do to its highly commented explanations. First make sure you backup this file in case you need to review it later and, then, create a new blank configuration file using your favorite text editor by issuing the following commands.# mv /etc/dnsmasq. Now, copy and paste the following configurations on dnsmasq. DHCP range- leases. Broadcast Address. Press F8 for menu.", 6. PC, "Install Cent. OS 7 from network server 1. Dnsmasq Configuration. The statements that you need to change are follows: interface – Interfaces that the server should listen and provide services. Uncomment to bind only on this interface. Replace it with your domain name. Replace it with IP range defined by your network mask on this segment. Replace the IP statement with your interface IP Address. Replace the IP Address with your network segment Gateway. Replace the IP Address with your DNS Server IP – several DNS IPs can be defined. Put your DNS forwarders IPs Addresses. Replace the IP Address with network broadcast address –optionally. Put your network time servers – optionally (0. Address is for self- reference). Leave it as default – means to hit F8 key for entering menu 6. Use x. 86. PC for 3. Other values types can be: PC9. IA6. 4_EFI, Alpha, Arc_x. Intel_Lean_Client, IA3. EFI, BC_EFI, Xscale_EFI and X8. EFI. enable- tftp – Enables the build- in TFTP server. Use /var/lib/tftpboot – the location for all netbooting files. For other advanced options concerning configuration file feel free to read dnsmasq manual. Step 2: Install SYSLINUX Bootloaders. After you have edited and saved DNSMASQ main configuration file, go ahead and install Syslinx PXE bootloader package by issuing the following command.# yum install syslinux. Install Syslinux Bootloaders. The PXE bootloaders files reside in /usr/share/syslinux absolute system path, so you can check it by listing this path content. This step is optional, but you might need to be aware of this path because on the next step, we will copy of all its content to TFTP Server path.# ls /usr/share/syslinux. Syslinux Files. Step 3: Install TFTP- Server and Populate it with SYSLINUX Bootloaders. Now, let’s move to next step and install TFTP- Server and, then, copy all bootloders files provided by Syslinux package from the above listed location to /var/lib/tftpboot path by issuing the following commands.# yum install tftp- server. Install TFTP Server. Step 4: Setup PXE Server Configuration File. Typically the PXE Server reads its configuration from a group of specific files (GUID files – first, MAC files – next, Default file – last) hosted in a folder called pxelinux. DNSMASQ main configuration file. Create the required directory pxelinux. Now it’s time to edit PXE Server configuration file with valid Linux distributions installation options. Also note that all paths used in this file must be relative to the /var/lib/tftpboot directory. Below you can see an example configuration file that you can use it, but modify the installation images (kernel and initrd files), protocols (FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, NFS) and IPs to reflect your network installation source repositories and paths accordingly.# nano /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux. Add the following whole excerpt to the file. ONTIMEOUT local. menu title ########## PXE Boot Menu ##########. Install Cent. OS 7 x. Local Repo. kernel centos. Install Cent. OS 7 x. Repo. kernel centos. Install Cent. OS 7 x. Local Repo using VNC. Boot from local drive. Configure PXE Server. As you can see Cent. OS 7 boot images (kernel and initrd) reside in a directory named centos. FTP protocol on 1. IP address is the same as the PXE server address). Also menu label 3 specifies that the client installation should be done from a remote location via VNC (here replace VNC password with a strong password) in case you install on a headless client and the menu label 2 specifies asinstallation sources a Cent. OS 7 official Internet mirror (this case requires an Internet connection available on client through DHCP and NAT). Important: As you see in the above configuration, we’ve used Cent. OS 7 for demonstration purpose, but you can also define RHEL 7 images, and following whole instructions and configurations are based on Cent. OS 7 only, so be careful while choosing distribution. Step 5: Add Cent. OS 7 Boot Images to PXE Server. For this step Cent. OS kernel and initrd files are required. To get those files you need the Cent. OS 7 DVD ISO Image. So, go ahead and download Cent. OS DVD Image, put it in your DVD drive and mount the image to /mnt system path by issuing the below command. The reason for using the DVD and not a Minimal CD Image is the fact that later this DVD content would be used to create thelocally installer repositories for FTP sources.# mount - o loop /dev/cdrom /mnt. Mount Cent. OS DVDIf your machine has no DVD drive you can also download Cent. OS 7 DVD ISO locally using wget or curl utilities from a Cent. OS mirror and mount it.# wget http: //mirrors. Cent. OS- 7. 0- 1. DVD. iso. # mount - o loop /path/to/centos- dvd. After the DVD content is made available, create the centos. Cent. OS 7 bootable kernel and initrd images from the DVD mounted location to centos. Copy Cent. OS Bootable Files. The reason for using this approach is that, later you can create new separate directories in /var/lib/tftpboot path and add other Linux distributions to PXE menu without messing up the entire directory structure. Step 6: Create Cent. OS 7 Local Mirror Installation Source. Although you can setup Installation Source Mirrors via a variety of protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS or NFS, for this guide, I have chosen FTP protocol because is very reliable and easy to setup with the help of vsftpd server. Further install vsftpd daemon, copy all DVD mounted content to vsftpd default server path (/var/ftp/pub) – this can take a while depending on your system resources and append readable permissions to this path by issuing the following commands.# yum install vsftpd. R 7. 55 /var/ftp/pub. Install Vsftpd Server. Copy Files to FTP Path. Set Permissions on FTP Path. Step 7: Start and Enable Daemons System- Wide. Now that the PXE server configuration is finally finished, start DNSMASQ and VSFTPD servers, verify their status and enable it system- wide, to automatically start after every system reboot, by running the below commands.# systemctl start dnsmasq. Start Dnsmasq Service. Start Vsftpd Service. Step 8: Open Firewall and Test FTP Installation Source.
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