How to Create a PXE Installation Image for Red Hat Linux

When you create a Red Hat Linux Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) installation image on the same server that is your DHCP server, it will also act as your PXE server. The PXE server provides the operating system files to your PXE client.

Before you install a Red Hat Enterprise Linux image on your PXE server, you must configure your Linux network to support PXE images. See Overview of PXE Servers.

Before You Begin

The PXE installation procedure requires the following items:

A CD/DVD drive on the DHCP Server.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux media set. This can be a set of CDs or a DVD.
A copy of the Red Hat files from the Tools and Drivers CD. See How to Copy Files from the Tools and Drivers CD for details.

Set up the directory structure that will hold the Red Hat Enterprise Linux software.
```
# mkdir -p /home/pxeboot/rhel4/
```
Note - The examples in this procedure use /home/pxeboot/rhel4/ as an example. You can use a different target directory if you choose. For example, you could use /home/pxeboot/rhel5/. If you used a different directory name, substitute it where appropriate.
For each Red Hat Enterprise Linux Distribution CD, type the following commands to copy the contents of the each distribution CD to the appropriate PXE target subdirectory.
Note - Eject and insert CDs only when the CD/DVD drive is unmounted.
```
# mount dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
```
```
# cp -r /mnt/cdrom/* /home/pxeboot/rhel4/
```
```
# umount /mnt/cdrom
```
If you are installing from a DVD, you only have to do this once. When the copy is done, proceed to the next step.

Copy the vmlinuz and initrd.img files to the appropriate PXE target subdirectory (/home/pxeboot/rhel4/).

# cp /home/pxeboot/rhel4/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz /home/pxeboot/rhel4/
# cp /home/pxeboot/rhel4/images/pxeboot/initrd.img /home/pxeboot/rhel4/

Copy the kickstart file ks.cfg to your PXE server. Type:
```
# cp /tmp/rhel4u3-pxefile/ks.cfg /home/pxeboot/rhel4/
```
The kickstart configuration file contains a configuration that might not be optimal for your operating environment. Modify the file as necessary to suit your environment.
For example, to make the RHEL 5.3 installation process fully automatic, add the following line to the end of the kickstart configuration file:
```
key --skip
```
On your PXE server, edit and save the kickstart file: /home/pxeboot/rhel4/ks.cfg.
Edit the nfs line is as follows:
```
nfs --server n.n.n.n --dir /home/pxeboot/rhel4/
```
where n.n.n.n is the IP address of your PXE server. Ensure that the location indicated after --dir is pointing to the top level of your image.
Add the following entry to the file /home/pxeboot/pxelinux.cfg/default:
Note - Type the text block from append through ks.cfg as one continuous string with no returns.
```
default rhel4
label rhel4kernel 
rhel4/vmlinuz
append ksdevice=eth0 console=tty0 load_ramdisk=1
initrd=rhel4/initrd.img network
ks=nfs:n.n.n.n:/home/pxeboot/rhel4/ks.cfg
```
where n.n.n.n is the IP address of your PXE server.

Note - For console-based installations, add console=ttyS0,9600 to the append line.
Save the modified version of the /home/pxeboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file.

Next Steps

How to Install RHEL and SUSE Linux From a PXE Server

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