discuss: Thread: [Proposal] PXE Server HOWTO

Hi All,

I'm in the process of writing a new HOWTO that explains the intricacies of
using PXE and how to actually get it to work.  After spending weeks
searching the net, reading through various other howto's, not one explained
how it hangs together, what makes it work as a default mechanism, most were
tailored around a specific product or group of products, and even some of
those, were not exactly "functional".

None covered emerging technologies such as support for IA64 architecture
hardware, let alone covered the various types of servers available from
other vendors.

I'm currently about a fifth of the way through writing this in DocBook.sgml
book format, as article format didn't quite suit my needs, and apologies to
the guys at LDP, but unless you guys can come up with a template for use
that is a little more explanatory, and a little easier to use.... or someone
write an application that can simplify doing documentation (there are a lot
of people out there that would like to write doco, but the tools are
extremely lacking). Sitting down writing code to write a document is not
exactly what I enjoy when all I want to do is write doco. :)

anyway, back to my original subject, my PXE Server HOWTO... any comments,
suggestions would be appreciated.... should I continue ?? :)

regards

Keith Strachan
Strachan IT Consulting
Australia

On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 05:35:55AM +1100, Keith Strachan wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm in the process of writing a new HOWTO that explains the intricacies of
> using PXE and how to actually get it to work.  After spending weeks
> searching the net, reading through various other howto's, not one explained
> how it hangs together, what makes it work as a default mechanism, most were
> tailored around a specific product or group of products, and even some of
> those, were not exactly "functional".
> 
> None covered emerging technologies such as support for IA64 architecture
> hardware, let alone covered the various types of servers available from
> other vendors.
> 
> I'm currently about a fifth of the way through writing this in DocBook.sgml
> book format, as article format didn't quite suit my needs, and apologies to
> the guys at LDP, but unless you guys can come up with a template for use
> that is a little more explanatory, and a little easier to use.... or someone
> write an application that can simplify doing documentation (there are a lot
> of people out there that would like to write doco, but the tools are
> extremely lacking). Sitting down writing code to write a document is not
> exactly what I enjoy when all I want to do is write doco. :)

See http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/WikiText-HOWTO/ and see if that
would suit your needs.

> anyway, back to my original subject, my PXE Server HOWTO... any comments,
> suggestions would be appreciated.... should I continue ?? :)

I don't even know what PXE *is*. :-/

But if it's used on Linux, we're interested in the document.

-- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   ####@####.####
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org

As Microsoft moves further and further from its core, it starts to run into
competitors who are extremely good at what they do, know their domains a
lot better than Microsoft, and are extremely proactive. Companies like Sun
and IBM and Oracle don't just roll over and die.
	--Michael Borrus, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy

Keith,

Yes!

A PXE Server HOWTO would be cool.. I've been using On CCM w/PXE on Intel
cards to install windows and all of it's apps via the network for years, and
haven't found much out there on PXE either (other than at intel).  I've
always wondered if anybody else had thought of setting up something similar
to On CCM on Linux.   A PXE Server is built-in to RedHat now, right?  Let me
know if you need any help with sgml/xml markup, etc.

David,

PXE is pre-boot execution environment.  Basically you boot off your network
card (by boot ROM or ROM Img on floppy), dhcp an address, and load a pre-os
environment from a server which can allow you to partition, format, install,
etc. to the client machine.  I'm sure you've seen "network" as a choice in
your BIOS boot order selection.  This would be a HUGE step in the right
direction of enabling system administrators to easily do mass roll-outs of
Linux over Windows clients (for that microsoft-free utopian society :)

Randy Tata
Talcon Information Systems


-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Strachan ####@####.####
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 1:36 PM
To: discuss
Subject: [Proposal] PXE Server HOWTO


Hi All,

I'm in the process of writing a new HOWTO that explains the intricacies of
using PXE and how to actually get it to work.  After spending weeks
searching the net, reading through various other howto's, not one explained
how it hangs together, what makes it work as a default mechanism, most were
tailored around a specific product or group of products, and even some of
those, were not exactly "functional".

None covered emerging technologies such as support for IA64 architecture
hardware, let alone covered the various types of servers available from
other vendors.

I'm currently about a fifth of the way through writing this in DocBook.sgml
book format, as article format didn't quite suit my needs, and apologies to
the guys at LDP, but unless you guys can come up with a template for use
that is a little more explanatory, and a little easier to use.... or someone
write an application that can simplify doing documentation (there are a lot
of people out there that would like to write doco, but the tools are
extremely lacking). Sitting down writing code to write a document is not
exactly what I enjoy when all I want to do is write doco. :)

anyway, back to my original subject, my PXE Server HOWTO... any comments,
suggestions would be appreciated.... should I continue ?? :)

regards

Keith Strachan
Strachan IT Consulting
Australia



_________________________
http://list.linuxdoc.org/

On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 08:22:08PM -0500, Randy Tata wrote:
> Keith,
> 
> Yes!
> 
> A PXE Server HOWTO would be cool.. I've been using On CCM w/PXE on Intel
> cards to install windows and all of it's apps via the network for years, and
> haven't found much out there on PXE either (other than at intel).  I've
> always wondered if anybody else had thought of setting up something similar
> to On CCM on Linux.   A PXE Server is built-in to RedHat now, right?  Let me
> know if you need any help with sgml/xml markup, etc.
> 
> David,
> 
> PXE is pre-boot execution environment.  Basically you boot off your network
> card (by boot ROM or ROM Img on floppy), dhcp an address, and load a pre-os
> environment from a server which can allow you to partition, format, install,
> etc. to the client machine.  I'm sure you've seen "network" as a choice in
> your BIOS boot order selection.  This would be a HUGE step in the right
> direction of enabling system administrators to easily do mass roll-outs of
> Linux over Windows clients (for that microsoft-free utopian society :)

Ah. Yes, it does sound VERY cool. Very cool indeed.

And it sounds like maybe you have someone who would at least proofread
and check your work, and maybe even help? ;-)

I am strongly in favor of sharing the load for a HOWTO. I like to see
them regularly maintained, and having multiple maintainers spreads the
load.

Take care,

-- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   ####@####.####
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org

Everybody in the communications business is paranoid of Microsoft, including
me.
	--News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch

Peter,

Sounds like we're on a similar path, but I'm "wanting" to take it a few
steps further forward.  I'm sure yourself, and I could both benefit from our
experiences.  From what you've referred me to re:LTSP, I've not gotten that
far myself as yet. I had a tinker, and then gave up due to lack of sleep.
The work your currently doing is most probably going to be of benefit to
whatever doco I manage to pump out.  I've read the info from H Peter Anvin,
and yes, I have to agree there are pitfalls with the implementation,
however, as you are also aware, in many cases, we're stuck with what we've
got :).

I'm about to restructure my doco that I have so far, as someone has given me
a location to a template that I might be able to utilise more efficiently
than what I've been attempting to use, but what I'd like to do is send you a
mail possibly on monday as what I'm intending to cover topic wise in the PXE
HOWTO, and what we could possibly do to merge our documentation together.
There is another person, Randy Tata, whom also has offered assistance with
his experiences, and I think that the three of us may be able to put out a
decent document that will allow people, network admins and corporations
better utilise their available systems.

I have a friend who is very experienced in Macintosh environments, I'll be
asking him if he can contribute info regarding Mac OS/X (seeing as it is
Unix based)

Randy,

My SGML/XML knowledge is very lacking, but I'm learning fast :) but of
course, any help when I get stuck would be very appreciated.


But, first things first, I'll send out a summary of topics, and sections
that I'm considering covering, and comments, additions, of criticisms would
be appreciated.  If you both can, could you send me drafts of whatever you
have currently as far as doco, or URL's for me to have a look see at.  I'll
send along on monday my drafts as to what I have done so far as well.

regards

Keith Strachan






-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Lister ####@####.####
Sent: Saturday, 26 January 2002 4:56 AM
To: Keith Strachan
Cc: ####@####.####
Subject: Re: [Proposal] PXE Server HOWTO



> I'm in the process of writing a new HOWTO that explains the intricacies of
> using PXE and how to actually get it to work.  After spending weeks
> searching the net, reading through various other howto's, not one
explained
> how it hangs together, what makes it work as a default mechanism, most
were
> tailored around a specific product or group of products, and even some of
> those, were not exactly "functional".

I've been lurking on ####@####.#### after proposing a PXE
mini-howto a few months back. I've got something in the editor; a couple
of others have produced specific guides, and I was intending to add
these as appendices. Have you seen Marty Connor's ltsp howto?

http://www.ltsp.org/documentation/pxe.howto.html

My intention is a specific Linux-via-PXE mini-howto, i.e. "you just took
a new system with a PXE rom out of the box, here's how to get a Linux
kernel running ASAP". My main interest is server clusters, but it's
equally applicable to LTSP clients. So my emphasis is Linux NBPs -
pxelinux vs Etherboot vs others, and DHCP and TFTP settings they need.
Anything else would be a reference to Intel's docs or to other net boot
howtos.

> None covered emerging technologies such as support for IA64 architecture
> hardware, let alone covered the various types of servers available from
> other vendors.

> anyway, back to my original subject, my PXE Server HOWTO... any comments,
> suggestions would be appreciated.... should I continue ?? :)

By PXE *server* you mean server software specifically for PXE, yes?
Stuff that talks Intel MTFTP? Way outside my experience, so no conflict
here, I think. It sounds like my ideas and yours are fairly
complementary. I'd like to improve the various other netboot related
howtos as well, given that I now have quite some experience here.

I should add by the way, that I don't *like* PXE: it is a clunky design,
implemented badly. My colleague who wrote the PXE code for Etherboot
laughs at it; H Peter Anvin, who wrote pxelinux, has a list of
implementation bugs and design flaws. One of my sections will be how to
replace it with something better, e.g. flashing Etherboot. However it's
what many of us are stuck with coutesy of vendors, site policies and the
need to be able to use Windoze.

On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 08:22:08PM -0500, Randy Tata wrote:
> Keith,
> 
> Yes!
> 


> 
> PXE is pre-boot execution environment.  Basically you boot off your network
> card (by boot ROM or ROM Img on floppy), dhcp an address, and load a pre-os
> environment from a server which can allow you to partition, format, install,
> etc. to the client machine.  I'm sure you've seen "network" as a choice in
> your BIOS boot order selection.  This would be a HUGE step in the right
> direction of enabling system administrators to easily do mass roll-outs of
> Linux over Windows clients (for that microsoft-free utopian society :)

This sounds like it could be useful for bare metal restore, aka
complete backup & recovery. I have a HOWTO in the pipeline on exactly
that, so will be interested to see what you come up with.

-- 

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