Installing RHEL 5.5 or 6.0 Using a PXE Network Environment

This section describes how to boot RHEL 5.5 or 6.0 from a PXE network environment. It assumes that you are booting the install media from one of the following sources:

• RHEL 5.5 or 6.0 (or subsequent release) CD or DVD set (internal or external CD/DVD)

• RHEL 5.5 or 6.0 (or subsequent release) ISO DVD image or KickStart image (network repository)

  ---

  Note - KickStart is Red Hat's automated installation method. It enables a system administrator to create a single image containing the settings for some or all installation and configuration parameters that are normally provided during a typical Red Hat Linux installation. Typically, a KickStart image is placed on a single network server and read by multiple systems for installation.

  ---

Before You Begin

The following requirements must be met prior to performing the RHEL PXE installation:

• If you are using a KickStart image to perform the installation, you must:

  • Create a KickStart file.

  • Create a boot media with the KickStart file or make the KickStart file available on the network.

  Follow the KickStart installation instructions in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux: System Administration Guide at: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise.

• To use PXE to boot the installation media over the network, you must:

  • Configure the network (NFS, FTP, HTTP) server to export the installation tree.

  • Configure the files on the TFTP server necessary for PXE booting.

  • Configure the Sun Server X2-4 MAC network port address to boot from the PXE configuration.

  • Configure the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

  Follow the PXE network installation instructions in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux: System Administration Guide at:

  http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise

Install RHEL 5.5 or 6.0 Using PXE Network Boot

1. Ensure that the PXE network environment is properly set up and the RHEL installation media is available for PXE boot.
2. Reset the power on the server.

   ---

   Note - The following steps use Oracle ILOM 3.1 command syntax. If you are using Oracle ILOM 3.0, refer to the Oracle ILOM 3.0 Documentation Collection at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=ilom30.

   ---

   For example:

   • From the Oracle ILOM web interface, select Host Management > Power Control in the navigation tree. Then, select Reset from the Select Action list box and click Save.
   • From the local server, press the Power button (approximately 1 second) on the front panel of the server to power off the server, then press the Power button again to power on the server.
   • From the Oracle ILOM CLI on the server SP, type: reset /System

   The BIOS screen appears.

   ---

   Note - The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages as they appear on the screen for a brief time. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars.

   ---

3. In the BIOS screen, press F8 to specify a temporary boot device.

   The Please Select Boot Device menu appears listing the available boot device.

4. In the Boot Device menu, select the network port that is configured to communicate with your PXE network install server.

   The network bootloader loads and a boot prompt appears. After a few seconds the installation kernel will begin to load.

5. To complete the installation, refer to Step 5 of Install RHEL 5.5 or 6.0 Using Local or Remote Media.