Creating the /etc/netboot Hierarchy on the WAN Boot Server

During the installation, WAN boot refers to the contents of the /etc/netboot hierarchy on the web server for instructions about how to perform the installation. This directory contains the configuration information, private key, digital certificate, and certificate authority required for a WAN boot installation. During the installation, the wanboot-cgi program converts this information into the WAN boot file system. The wanboot-cgi program then transmits the WAN boot file system to the client.

For planning information about how to design the /etc/netboot hierarchy, see Storing Configuration and Security Information in the /etc/netboot Hierarchy.

To Create the /etc/netboot Hierarchy

1. Become superuser on the WAN boot server.

2. Create the /etc/netboot directory.

   # mkdir /etc/netboot

3. Change the permissions of the /etc/netboot directory to 700.

   # chmod 700 /etc/netboot

4. Change the owner of the /etc/netboot directory to the web server owner.

   # chown web-server-user:web-server-group /etc/netboot/

   web-server-user

   Specifies the user owner of the web server process

   web-server-group

   Specifies the group owner of the web server process

5. Exit the superuser role.

   # exit

6. Assume the user role of the web server owner.

7. Create the client subdirectory of the /etc/netboot directory.

   # mkdir -p /etc/netboot/net-ip/client-ID

   -p

   Instructs the mkdir command to create all the necessary parent directories for the directory you want to create

   (Optional) net-ip

   Specifies the network IP address of the client's subnet.

   (Optional) client-ID

   Specifies the client ID. The client ID can be a user-defined value or the DHCP client ID. The client-ID directory must be a subdirectory of the net-ip directory.

8. For each directory in the /etc/netboot hierarchy, change the permissions to 700.

   # chmod 700 /etc/netboot/dir-name

   dir-name

   Specifies the name of a directory in the /etc/netboot hierarchy

Example 40–1 Creating the /etc/netboot Hierarchy on the WAN Boot Server

The following example shows how to create the /etc/netboot hierarchy for the client 010003BA152A42 on subnet 192.168.255.0. In this example, the user nobody and the group admin own the web server process.

# cd /
# mkdir /etc/netboot/
# chmod 700 /etc/netboot
# chown nobody:admin /etc/netboot
# exit
server# su nobody
Password:
nobody# mkdir -p /etc/netboot/192.168.255.0/010003BA152A42
nobody# chmod 700 /etc/netboot/192.168.255.0
nobody# chmod 700 /etc/netboot/192.168.255.0/010003BA152A42