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Linux Network Install Options?
verch writes "I work at a Large Corporation that is considering Linux as a competing platform to our large Solaris and Wintel install bases. One of the biggest concerns is how easily a large number of linux machines can be installed mostly unattended. For Solaris we mostly use jumpstart which allows us after minor preparation to simply remotely attach to the console of a machine and boot and install it over the network. x86 hardware tends not to be as nice, I don't know of any linux hardware that has remote console capabalities as nice as Sun's, and network boot options are limited (PXE?). Installation procedures that involve having to lood a CD or boot floppy into every machine could potentially be dealbreakers. So, what options exist for completely remote unattended installs of linux machines?" Had a similar question a while ago; have things improved since then?
Just finished installing RH 7.2, and it left a nice trail (not only a log) of what I did. So next time, I could just copy that file (kickstart) to an install floppy and it would bring it back to what I just installed. Be sure to check all the options (interactive or not, partionning, etc.).
I know RH has always been installable n network (ftp, nfs). Probably some other ones too (Debian). It's before you start that your problem lies (booting the computer to start the install). Sorry, I don't see how you could just hook a new PC to the network and start installing without being at the console.
Also, what do you use on the Wintel side? It works with your current hardware, right? Is it (or could it be made) enough OS agnostic to be used with Linux?
I found the following site with google. It has a rough outline of booting intel hardware right off a network like a Sun machine. Good luck.
_ st b-howto.html
http://www.linuxdevices.com/files/misc/pxe_boot
System Installer Suite I can't say enough about how cool this project is. Plus the developers all hang out on irc.openprojects.net in #sisuite.
if linux had un-attended remote install capabilities, I would have installed it on every server that beat on my firewall after that last web virus.
Most of the questions you need to be asking at this point (especially "how do I boot a PC over the network?") are answered in this section of the Diskless-HOWTO. It discusses TFTP, BOOTP, and network boot ROM's.
D'oh, typed the name in wrong. Duh, also see this page for a more in-depth explanation.
I just installed Mandrake 8.1 and it has an option to create a auto-install boot disk for unattended installs. I believe you could make a CD with only the packages you need, and use it to create the auto-install boot disk, it would be fairly unattended (you would need to put the disk in and probably confirm the install)
101010b 2Ah 52o
If you can initiate a network install from the network, then you have a security problem. I'm glad it doesn't work like that. But PXE comes close, allowing a machine to boot from the network. Redhat supports this and the support code is available from them and Intel (who created PXE, which is found in their server grade network cards). There are also some machines that have serial consoles (like Sun). The Intel ISP-1100 rack mount servers have this, and I can control the BIOS and select the boot source this way.
Tell me why installing from a CD is a deal breaker. Is it because you see it as an interactive thing, requiring you to sit at the keyboard for each machine? I'm working on the design of a CD-based headless non-interactive install system. It can either have the files to install on the CD, or on the network (uses DHCP or generates a 10.X.X.X IP address from the low 24 bits of the ethernet address). You make sure the machine is configure to boot from a CD, stick in the CD, press reset to reboot, and the CD boots up and does it's thing without any more interaction from you. You have to have pre-built your system tree (I've done this with Slackware as well as Linux From Scratch). Unfortunately, my work is still a work in progress.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Also there are a number of places that do stuff like this with Linux as they have networks of computers. Try going to linuxdoc.org and readding the howtoos... http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html
Also read this howto http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/KickStart-HOWTO.html as it is about the RH kickstart. It talks about network installs and nfs install as well.
Only 'flamers' flame!
Not a customer of real weasel, but try them with RH install scripts plus a boot PROM. Should do the trick. Just remember to check for a pre-existing install of RH before installation, or you'll wipe out your install at every boot.
(Sorry if this is a repeat. Just had some browser weirdness)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
The Solaris Jumpstart Design Notes provide a fairly good outline of what would be needed to accomplish remote installation of linux boxes.
/etc/ethers or the ethers NIS/NIS+ map depending on the ethers setting in /etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/bootparams
Here's the overview from that document:
1. Client sends a RARP for its IP address
2. The Boot Server responds via RARPD (in.rarpd) with the IP address in
3. The client sends a tftp request for a bootimage
4. The server starts in.tftp from inetd and sends the small net kernel image
5. The client then sends out a bootp request
6. The server responds with the clients entry from
7. The client NFS mount it's root partition from the install server
8. The client then mounts the configuration server (/jumpstart) and runs "sysidtool".
9. It then mounts the install image and runs Suninstall to begin the install process.
It seems that Kickstart provides one, but not all, of the key components that are needed.
Checking out the Kickstart Documentation it seems that no provisions are made for remote installations. You must insert a boot floppy and be at the console to handle special cases that will most assuredly arise.
VNC may meet the need for the remote console component. Of course you would need to get a basic kernel and IP running on the box before you could even start up VNC. That mght present a chicken and egg scenario.
There certainly would also be a fair amount of code required to glue it all together.
I remain to be convinced that anyone has actually had this working.
I spent ages working with various combinations of dhcpd, tftpd, Solaris and Linux in a vain attempt to boot my laptop off the network.
In the end I cracked and bought a floppy drive for it.
Could anyone that has a working config publish it, together with the version numbers and config files of all the servers installed? All the vendor-specific messing in the DNS, ick.
W.A.S.T.E.
See fais homepage or Debians package page for fai
marko
System Imager can be used to automate remote installs, updates, software distribution and data distribution.
To configure the system after the software installation there is System Config which integrates into System Imager.
Here are the correct links. (Note to self: Drink more coffee, less vodka.)
Jumpstart Design Notes
Redhat Kickstart
Kickstart How-to
The Linux Terminal Server Project (ltps.org) has some parts that could be used to create and automated network boot/install. Etherboot is used to enable an Intel arch. machine to load and boot a kernel from a network server. RARP and tftp are used much the same as Jumpstart. You would need to create a bootable mini-system that would install the OS and configure it to your specs.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/esg_pedge_rac kmain_servers_1_pedge_1650.htm
I seem to recall these having decent serial consoles, supported by the BIOS (one can even configure the BIOS via serial console).
Try doing your own research next time
Slightly OT, but: while you're at it, check OpenBSD -
http://www.openbsd.org - out, it is a very fine OS
for desktop and server.
Ok, now to your topic: for upgrading the Slowlaris
boxen (for the Windoze it is possible, too, only
the transfer way differs), first get some boot disc
thingy of your new OS, whether it be GNU/Linux or
BSD. Then you get that boot image, which preferably
consists of a kernel, an initrd (for OpenBSD it's
integrated into the kernel file) and a loader.
Modify the initrd so it automatically gets IP
address from DHCP, makes partitions, filesystems
and untars some archive get over the network to
the target root filesystem.
Then prepare the archive, i.e. a complete install,
and put it to the server.
Put the initrd+kernel and loader somewhere to the
hard disc where the next boot can find it, e.g.
another partition, something available to GRUB,
be improvisating. You'll find a way.
For DOS, there is LoadLin.
Then modify the next boot to load the new OS' loader
instead of the old, or put a
loadlin linux initrd=initdisk.gz
in the autoexec.bat of the DOS boxen.
Then reset the machine. All of this can be done
remotely.
The next boot should load the new OS, the initramdisc,
partition the hard discs, make filesystems and popu-
larize them. Then reboot, and voilá you got it.
My Karma isn't excellent, damn it! (And
I talked to some of these folks at LinuxWorld Expo, and it looked like they had things working. Somebody was even selling NICs and boot PROMs. They would be the logical starting point.
l
Unfortunately, I don't have my bag 'o swag with me here at work, or I might even be able to find the docs.
Also look at the Linux Journal article on LinuxBIOS
http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4888
http://ltsp.org Linux Terminal Server Project who were using NetBoot, if I remember correctly.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/netboot/
and not sure if you got the netboot howto
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DisklessHOWTO.htm
(netboot is linux based, etherboot is bsd based)
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
RedHat and Mandrake's answer to jumpstart (wonder how they came up with the name :-) ). You have 1 server dedicated to being the jumpstart server, and then boot each machine off a specially made floppy. You can do multiple machines at once. The machines can be set to boot off dhcp after that, and you ssh in and tweak things out. You can set them with a static, but then the floppy has to be customized for each static address, which is a pain, and relatively or you can set them with a static, but then the floppy has to be customized for each static address, which is a pain, and relatively pointless for a mass installation
I'm not sure if the machines can get an IP address through dhcp while loading packages, which would mean the floppies couldn't be clones of each other, but clones minorly modified. I think they can get from dhcp while loading, but I'm not certain.
I've loaded 20 machines in one day using this.
We never had them reboot automatically, because we needed to eject the floppies, but if you make CD images, you can probably figure a way to eject them and then they will load off the HD correctly on the reboot.
You can also use the same jumpstart server with floppies customized for different machines if you have clusters of machines with different baseline package sets.
Drawbacks: It works over nfs (not sure if there are other delivery methods), which you would want to firewal off at the router.
Random nice things: you can put the passwd files on the floppy, which is more secure than having `them fly across the netowrk, methinks. It does mean you need to take care with the floppies, however.
Rob
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
I had the process working perfectly with SunOS and NetBSD, but Debian was rumored to have the best support for the dBRI audio chipset...
I tried Debian, I tried RedHat, I read the HOWTOs and FAQ files, but Linux just would not work with network booting a Sparc and mounting a NFS root. There's been orders of magnitude more effort put into NetBSD's netboot support, to the point that I have better luck booting Linux from the 64K NetBSD tftp bootloader than the Linux method of tftp'ing a 1.6M kernel.
Eventually, I give up, and go back to NetBSD for these LX boxes. They boot, use NFS for root, and even swap to a file mounted on NFS. Works like a charm, boots fast and reliably, they just can't play music.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
In '99 I started using the procedure below. This works really well if you need to support hardware that might vary from box to box. If you know you will be using the exact same hardware for every box, you might as well use dd or some drive imaging package.
1) Figure out what you want your final image to look like, set up a test system, and configure it fully. Make note of all config files that you changed and all packages you have installed.
2) Create an RPM containing all the config files you modified.
3) copy RedHat CD 1 to the hard drive of an FTP server
4) copy all CD 2 RPMS to the RPMS directory that was created when you copied the first CD
5) replace all outdated RPMS with the update versions, and put the RPM you created in step 2 into this directory.
6) install anaconda on the FTP server & run the genhdlist script.
7) create a kickstart config file listing all the packages you want to install, including the RPM you created in step 2, and specifying the address of the FTP server.
8) make as many boot disks with the above kickstart config file as machines you want to install at once.
9) plug in as many machines at once as your network can handle, put a copy of the floppy in each, turn them on.
10) go get some coffee while the install completes.
11) yank the floppies and reboot the boxes. Your drives are partitioned, all packages installed, and all software configured. Proceed to the next batch of machines. I'm pretty sure there's a way to do this from a network-boot setup and just put the kickstart file on the FTP server, but it seemed to me like more hassle than it was worth given how easy it is to use floppies.
include $sig;
1;
Check out PC Weasel. It's a VGA/MDA emulator board that adds a remote-control serial port, just like Alphaservers and other serious server boxen. You just throw this thing into a spare ISA or PCI slot and use your favorite terminal software to talk to it on the serial port. I've worked with them in the past and they work great, no quirks whatsoever.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
My servers have Sun LOM/RSC serial consoles connected to a 'secure' (OpenBSD) serial console server, so forcing a re-install of the base OS is as simple as shuttting down, entering 'boot net - install' at the 'ok' prompt, and waiting 45 minutes or so. I can do this as easily from across the office or across the country.
I routinely build, hack, and rebuild test servers several times a day. Others report doing 500 machine rollouts with little or no human intervention.
Some of the features of the Sparc PROM and Jumpstart can be duplicated with a boot floppy, but many of the coolest features are not as easily imitated. The PC Weasel is a pale imitation of the boot PROM. APC remote power cycling doesn't come close to the functionality of Sun's Remote System Control. Linux 'netboot' is years behind Sun's Jumpstart software.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Compaq has some nice offerings. I'm working with their blade servers which, because of stringent space requirement are very difficult to do a traditional installation. as a token url, here's a link to some info on the subject from compaq. as a side note, compaq's blade aren't the most flexible in the world, but they look from a price/manageability perspective.
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -- Homer Simpson
Depending on network equpiment you may beable to build some images that you send out via tftp at boot time that would do the trick. you just have to push the net boot button at the machine at boot time.
I use tftp with ghost floppy images that automaticaly start the ghosting of machines at work all the time it works great. i just turn the box on wait a sec and hit n. walk away for 20 min and reboot and take care of ghostwalk stuff..
If, instead, you are willing to put in a certain amount of effort to reap the benefits in a large-scale installation, a week spent hacking RedHat's installer or writing your own scripts would be well spent. To get you started in the right direction: install linux on a computer, dd if=/dev/hda of=/nfs_mount_on_server/linux.image, reverse if and of to install on next computer, repeat. Better yet, install a small version of Linux on a partrition on each computer that simply updates the hard drive image from the server. Boot to that version of Linux whenever you need to upgrade.
In Linux, there is no "pre-packaged" plug-and-play solution for ANYTHING, but EVERYTHING can be made to do exactly what you want. From what I hear, Norton Ghost works on Linux partitions, too.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"