Re: PXE, automatic installation and reboot
Hi
On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 04:30:04PM +0100, Jimmy Thrasibule wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've setup and environment to automatically install some Debian boxes
> via the network using PXE, TFTP and Preseed. If this part is working
> fine, I'm facing a little issue when the installation is done.
>
> I'm trying to make everything automatic with no human intervention. The
> problem is that when the installation is done, the box will reboot, boot
> again using PXE and start a new installation process.
>
> How can I prevent that without having to monitor every installation
> process? The idea would be to kind of deny access to `pxelinux.0` when a
> host had already made a request.
I believe that this is normally done by setting up the BIOS to boot
from HD first, and network 2nd. Thus on the initial boot, there will
be no bootable HD and it will continue onto the next option: network
boot.
If you *must* have network before HD in the boot order, then I imagine
that you will have to do one (or more) of:
* Tweak the DHCP server to not give out an IP address for the MAC
address anymore. Obviously this assumes that your server does not
need DHCP during normal boot.
* Tweak the DHCP server to not give out "next-server" for the MAC
address in question - thus making PXE boot unavailable for that MAC
address.
* Make TFTP requests fail for the server in question (clumsy...). This
should make network boot fail, and (hopefully) it will continue to
the next boot option.
* Tweak the PXE Boot menu to load the kernel + initrd from local disk
by default, and have it chose the default menu option after XX
seconds. This will end up duplicating the local grub config, which
is not ideal, as you'll have to modify the PXE boot menu if/when the
path to the kernel and/or initrd changes. Or when the partitioning
changes.
On a related note: You may want to look into FAI, which fills pretty
much the same space but is more powerful (and complicated) than
pre-seeding.
Hope this helps
--
Karl E. Jorgensen
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