step by step configure pxe boot server in Centos 7 | PXE network boot server | pxe boot

PXE stand for Preboot eXecution Environment it works on Client-Server architecture and allows unattended or automated OS installation over the Network

Point to be noted :


This PXE Boot server configuration in Ubuntu 16.4,  

PXE network boot server with Configure dnsmasq with DHCP and dnsmasq without dhcp,

pxe boot server we add centos 7 boot entry in default pxelinux.cfg directory via NFS and http, 

We configure pxe boot with clonezilla iso and zip

CentOS iso pxeboot entry, Installing CentOS, Debian using network booting

Server IP = 172.17.20.100

Host name = pxe.linuxtopic.com

OS = CentOS 7

Step 1:

Install required packages

yum install tftp-server syslinux dnsmasq

Step 2:

Configure dnsmasq

cp /etc/dnsmasq.conf /etc/dnsmasq.conf-bk

Option 1 :  Configure dnsmasq as existing dhcp on network

vi /etc/dnsmasq.conf

# DNS Options

port=0

interface=eth0,lo

# DHCP Options

dhcp-range=172.17.0.1,proxy

dhcp-option=vendor:PXEClient,6,2b

dhcp-no-override

# PXE

dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0

#pxe-prompt="Press F8 for menu.", 10

pxe-service=X86PC, "www.linuxtopic.com", pxelinux

# TFTP Options

enable-tftp

tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot

Option 2 :  Configure dnsmasq with dhcp server

# DNS Options

port=0

interface=eth0,lo

# DHCP range-leases

dhcp-range= eth0,172.17.20.200,172.17.20.250,255.255.0.0,1h

# Gateway

dhcp-option=3,172.17.20.100

# DNS

dhcp-option=6,172.17.120.100, 8.8.8.8

# Broadcast Address

dhcp-option=28,172.17.255.255

# NTP Server

dhcp-option=42,0.0.0.0

# PXE

dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0

pxe-service=x86PC, "Linuxtopic.com", pxelinux

# Enable TFTP

enable-tftp

tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot

Explain :

port=0   -  disable dns

interface=eth0,lo   - Interfaces that the server should listen and provide services

dhcp-rang=172.17.20.100,proxy   -  existing dhcp server ip  

OR

dhcp-range= eth0,172.17.199.200,172.17.199.250,255.255.0.0,1h  - Dhcp IP Range

dhcp-option=3,172.17.199.199  - define gateway

dhcp-option=6,172.17.199.199, 8.8.8.8  - Define DNS

dhcp-option=28,172.17.255.255  - Broadcast Address

dhcp-option=42,0.0.0.0 - NTP Server

dhcp-option=vendor:PXEClient,6,2b    - download the boot file immediately by disable multicast and broadcast discovery.

dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0    -

pxe-service=X86PC, "www.linuxtopic.com", pxelinux    -  Use x86PC for 32-bit/64-bit architectures and enter a menu description prompt under string quotes. Other values types can be: Intel_Lean_Client, IA32_EFI, _EFI, Alpha, Arc_x86, BC_EFI, Xscale_EFI and X86-64_EFI, PC98, IA64

enable-tftp    -  Enables the build-in TFTP server.

tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot   -  the location for all netbooting files.

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Step 3:  

Create directory and copy required file

mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg

cp -v /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot

cp -v /usr/share/syslinux/menu.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot

cp -v /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk /var/lib/tftpboot

cp -v /usr/share/syslinux/mboot.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot

cp -v /usr/share/syslinux/chain.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot

cp -v /usr/share/syslinux/vesamenu.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/

ls -l /var/lib/tftpboot/

Step 4:

Create default  file and add menu entry

vi /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

default vesamenu.c32

prompt 0

timeout 50

# Local Hard Disk pxelinux.cfg default entry

LABEL 1

   MENU LABEL ^1) Boot local hard drive

   MENU AUTOBOOT

   MENU DEFAULT

   LOCALBOOT 0

Step 5:  

Download Clonezilla zip File from official website and extract

https://clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=stable

Create Directory and Copy clonezilla zip

mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/clonezilla
cd  /var/lib/tftpboot/clonezilla
unzip clonezilla-live-2.5.5-38-amd64.zip

Add  Clonezilla menu entry in  pxelinux.cfg/defalut

vi /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

# Clonezilla pxelinux.cfg default entry

LABEL 2

   MENU LABEL ^2) Clonezilla Live

   KERNEL clonezilla/live/vmlinuz

   APPEND ramdisk_size=32768 initrd=clonezilla/live/initrd.img boot=live union=overlay username=user config components noswap edd=on nomodeset noeject locales=en_US.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=NONE net.ifnames=0 ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" ocs_live_batch="yes" ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" vga=788 ip=frommedia nosplash  fetch=tftp://172.17.20.100/clonezilla/live/filesystem.squashfs

Centos 7 pxelinux.cfg default boot entry

Download / Copy CentOS 7 ISO in pxe boot server  and mount on /mnt:

mount -o loop /tmp/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1708.iso /mnt/

Create Folder

mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/data/centos7_64Bit

Note: If you want to install CentOS 32 bit edition, make a relevant directory called centos7_32Bit (Ex. /var/lib/tftpboot/data/centos7_32Bit).

Copy the ISO file contents to /var/lib/tftpboot/data/centos7_64Bit

cp -fr /mnt/* /var/lib/tftpboot/data/centos7_64Bit/

Set the proper permissions to the above directory.

chmod -R 755 /var/lib/tftpboot/data

Access data for Installation :

Option 1 : NFS Server

yum install nfs-server

echo "/var/lib/tftpboot/data  *(rw)" >> /etc/exports

restart service

systemctl restart nfs-serversystemctl enable nfs-server

Check nfsmount

showmount -e 172.17.20.100

Option 2 : HTTP Server

yum install httpd

Create a apache configuration file for PXE server under /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory:

cat > /tmp/pxeboot.conf << EOFAlias /pxeboot /var/lib/tftpboot/data<Directory /var/lib/tftpboot/data>Options Indexes FollowSymLinksRequire all granted</Directory>EOF

systemctl disable firewalldsystemctl stop firewalld

setenforce 0
sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/sysconfig/selinux

systemctl restart httpdsystemctl enable  httpd

Now test http by access url

http://172.17.20.100/pxeboot

Add  Centos 7  menu entry in  pxelinux.cfg/defalut

vi /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

# CentOS 7 pxelinux.cfg default entry

LABEL 3

   MENU LABEL ^3) Install CentOS 7 - NFS

   kernel data/centos7_64Bit/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz

   append initrd=data/centos7_64Bit/images/pxeboot/initrd.img inst.stage2=nfs:172.17.20.100:/var/lib/tftpboot/data/centos7_64Bit quiet

# CentOS 7 pxelinux.cfg default entry

LABEL 4

   MENU LABEL ^4) Install CentOS 7 - HTTP

   KERNEL data/centos7_64Bit/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz

   APPEND initrd=data/centos7_64Bit/images/pxeboot/initrd.img method=http://172.17.20.100/pxeboot/centos7_64Bit devfs=nomount

Restart DNSMASQ

systemctl restart dnsmasqsystemctl enable dnsmasq

Option 3: FTP Server

yum install vsftpd

Configure vsftpd

vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).

anonymous_enable=YES

#

# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.

# When SELinux is enforcing check for SE bool ftp_home_dir

local_enable=NO

#

# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.

write_enable=NO

# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.

xferlog_enable=YES

# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and

# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction

# with the listen_ipv6 directive.

listen=NO



# Add This in bottom

anon_root=/var/lib/tftpboot/data

anon_max_rate=2048000

systemctl restart vsftpdsystemctl enable vsftpd

Add  Centos 7  menu entry in  pxelinux.cfg/defalut

vi /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

# CentOS 7 pxelinux.cfg default entry

LABEL 5

MENU LABEL ^5) Install CentOS 7 - FTP

KERNEL data/centos7_64Bit/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz

APPEND initrd=data/centos7_64Bit/images/pxeboot/initrd.img  inst.repo=ftp://172.17.20.100:/centos7_64Bit 



 

Now PXE Boot Server is Ready - Go to client side and Select first boot device "Network" in BIOS setting