How to Set up TFTP Access

The distribution should be accessible through NFS for each subnet served from this boot and install server.

Steps

1. Look for the server_args parameter in the /etc/xinet.d/tftp file.

   This defines the root directory used by the TFTP server. If the directory does not exist, create it.

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   Note –

   This task uses /tftpboot as an example.

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2. Enable TFTP and restart the xinetd daemon.

   Use commands similar to the following example, which works on RedHat AS 3.0:

   #chkconfig tftp on #service xinetd restart

3. Copy or create the following directories under the TFTP root directory:

   • /tftpboot/pxelinux.0 – You can download the Linux PXE bootstrap file from http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php.

   • /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ – This directory contains the PXE configuration files. These files contain parameters specific to each hardware platform and Linux distribution.

   • /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/v20z-config – A specific directory for the V20z platform.

   • /tftpboot/vmlinuz – The installation kernel found under the distribution, in /images/pxeboot.

   • /tftpboot/initrd.img – The installation RAM disk found under the distribution, in /images/pxeboot.

Example 6–1 Sample PXE Configuration File

The following example shows the PXE configuration file for a SunFire V20z system.

default el30 ks
serial 0 9600
label el30
kernel vmlinuz
append linksleep=30 ksdevice=eth0 console=tty0 console=ttyS1,9600 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=initrd.img network

Where:

• The first line (default) indicates to use label el30 and do a Kickstart installation (passing ks to the kernel).

• The third line (label) defines a label el30.

• The fourth line (kernel) identifies the kernel to load. The path is relative to pxelinux.0.

• The fifth line (append) contains a series of network configuration parameters. The append parameters must be all on one line. The specific parameters shown here are as follows:

  linksleep=30 tells the kernel to wait before determining that the system is not working. Some network interfaces require a long time to come up.

  ksdevice=eth0 indicates to perform the installation through the eth0 interface. If this parameter us omitted, eth0 is assumed.

  console=tty0 console=ttyS1,9600 specify console parameters to show the installation output on the console. The parameters vary depending on the target hardware platform.

  load_ramdisk indicates to use initrd.img for the RAM disk. The path for the RAM disk is relative to pxelinux.0

  initrd indicates to perform a network installation.

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  Note –

  vmlinuz and initrd files only work with a specific version of a specific distribution. If using the server to provide multiple distributions, or multiple versions of a distribution, each vmlinuz and initrd pair must be uniquely identifiable. You can create the unique identifiers either by using separate directories or by renaming the files, as shown in the following example:

  /tftpboot/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/RHEL2.1/vmlinuz /tftpboot/RHEL2.1/initrd /tftpboot/RHEL3.0/vmlinuz /tftpboot/RHEL3.0/initrd or /tftpboot/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/rhel2.1-vmlinuz /tftpboot/rhel2.1-initrd /tftpboot/rhel3.0-vmlinuz /tftpboot/rhel3.0-initrd

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