Hi folks, I'm finally tired of dealing with floppy disks to control our remote installs and thought that PXELINUX sound like a great way to go. However, I've got multiple hurdles and I'd like some advice before I get myself dug in too deep... We currently have Solaris Jumpstart and Windows RIS running in the department and now we would like to intermix Linux PXELINUX booting. Any suggestions on how this should be designed? I tried a really quick test, following the instructions to set up a tftp server and dhcp server, but the windows RIS server always answered the tftp request. We did have the next-server option listed in the DHCP server conf, it's almost as though it is ignoring this option. How are other people dealing with RIS and PXELINUX in the same environment? I looked through the past archives and couldn't find anything really appropriate. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mark
Mark Dieterich wrote:> Hi folks, > > I'm finally tired of dealing with floppy disks to control our remote installs > and thought that PXELINUX sound like a great way to go. However, I've got > multiple hurdles and I'd like some advice before I get myself dug in too > deep... We currently have Solaris Jumpstart and Windows RIS running in the > department and now we would like to intermix Linux PXELINUX booting. > Any suggestions on how this should be designed? >What DHCP server do you use?> I tried a really quick test, following the instructions to set up a tftp > server and dhcp server, but the windows RIS server always answered the tftp > request.The TFTP request is a unicast, not a broadcast. The PXE stack will download from whereever it is requested. This probably means the RIS server is answering the DHCP request, or possibly the followon pseudo-DHCP request to port 4011 which is part of the PXE protocol. The latter is usually unicasted, but can be multicasted if the original DHCP reply contained the appropriate magic. We did have the next-server option listed in the DHCP server conf,> it's almost as though it is ignoring this option. How are other people dealing > with RIS and PXELINUX in the same environment? I looked through the past > archives and couldn't find anything really appropriate. Any help/suggestions > would be greatly appreciated.A good question is perhaps: what do you expect to be keeping them apart? Unlike the Solaris case there isn't a hardware difference to cue off the servers. If you have a list of hosts, for example, that is RIS vs. PXELINUX, make sure that *all* DHCP servers (including RIS, if applicable) respect it and don't answer requests not directed to it. If RIS is set up to answer all requests with a "PXEClient" tag, then RIS is going to run on all PC machines. -hpa
There isn't really any such as a TFTP request. The box is going to TFTP to whatever box you tell it (using the next-server line). Perhaps the Windows box is answering the DHCP request and pointing it back to itself for the TFTP server. Try looking at the PXE information when it gets its IP, and see what it lists for its bootserver. Confirm that it is the correct IP. Why don't you post a copy of your dhcpd.conf. James Mark Dieterich wrote:> Hi folks, > > I'm finally tired of dealing with floppy disks to control our remote installs > and thought that PXELINUX sound like a great way to go. However, I've got > multiple hurdles and I'd like some advice before I get myself dug in too > deep... We currently have Solaris Jumpstart and Windows RIS running in the > department and now we would like to intermix Linux PXELINUX booting. > Any suggestions on how this should be designed? > > I tried a really quick test, following the instructions to set up a tftp > server and dhcp server, but the windows RIS server always answered the tftp > request. We did have the next-server option listed in the DHCP server conf, > it's almost as though it is ignoring this option. How are other people dealing > with RIS and PXELINUX in the same environment? I looked through the past > archives and couldn't find anything really appropriate. Any help/suggestions > would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Mark > _______________________________________________ > SYSLINUX mailing list > Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com > Unsubscribe or set options at: > http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux >
Josef, Thanks for the suggestions, I'll start investigating these...> > 11:17:23.787348 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: xid:0xb4284a46 secs:4 flags:0x8000 file ""[|bootp] > > 11:17:23.790017 linuxserver.cs.brown.edu.bootps > 255.255.255.255.bootpc: xid:0xb4284a46 secs:4 flags:0x8000 Y:workstation.cs.brown.edu S:godzilla.cs.brown.edu G:router-33.cs.brown.edu ether 0:2:b3:28:4a:46 file ""[|bootp] (DF) > > The client is told its IP address. Are you sure that there's nothing > in 'file'?How do I determine if there is something in this "file"?> Does it load pxelinux?It does prompt for the user to hit F8 and comes up with the boot local or install linux options. I blieve this is coming from pxelinux, right? If so, then it is loading pxelinux.> Perhaps you should try to put some additional parameters into your > dhcpd.conf, I think of the bootp vs. dhcp options for the > tftp server. Perhaps you should try to put the IP address of your dhcp > server there.I'm apologize for my ignorance here, but additional options like? I've got "allow booting" and "allow bootp" listed above this group. In fact, here is the top of my dhcp.conf file: option domain-name "cs.brown.edu"; default-lease-time 36000; max-lease-time 86400; option nis-domain "sun"; # This is all for fai installs option option-170 "nas:/sys0/Linux/fai"; option option-171 "install"; option option-172 "createvt sshd"; allow booting; allow bootp; group { stuff I listed before ... }> I still don't like the pxe server, since this splits > IP address assignment (dhcp) from the bootfile/bootserver assignment > (pxe server). So you need to tell your pxe server to hand out this > information. Perhaps you should try to get along completely without > it.If I don't have the PXEClient argument in the group declaration, then the machine always goes to the RIS server. If I have the PXEClient argument listed, then it at least boots from the pxelinux instead.> BTW, it seems you are tracing with quite few packet length, try to > increase it ('tcpdump -s 500' should do it). The standard length > is 64 bytes, which is quite small for dhcp.Thanks, I didn't realize this and will make use of it in the future. Mark