How to Launch an Unattended Session From a PXE-Based Server

Before You Begin

Create the image file and prepared for booting. See How to Create the Application Image and Prepare for a PXE-Based Launch.

1. Ensure that the target server is configured on the same network as the PXE server, and then reset the target server. For example:
   • From the Oracle ILOM Remote Console web interface, click Remote Control->Remote Power Control then select Reset to reset the host server.

     –or–

   • Press the Power button on the front panel of the server to turn it off (hold the button in until the server powers off), then press the Power button to turn on the server.

   The server boots and the BIOS screen appears. An example is shown below (your server’s BIOS screen might look different).

   
   

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   Tip - The next events occur very quickly. 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.

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2. As the system boots, do one of the following to start a network boot:
   • When the prompted, press F12 to boot from the first network boot device found.
   • When prompted, press F8 to display the boot menu and specify the network boot device.

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   Tip - On a Sun Blade server module, you can determine the PXE interface boot device by (1) matching the PXE:Slot# (listed on the Please Select Boot Device menu) with the physical NEM or EM slot number label on the chassis, and (2) matching the F# (listed on the Please Select Boot Device menu) with the physical NIC port number label on the NEM (ports 0.0 to 9.0 and 0.1 to 9.1) or EM (ports 0 or port 1).

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   After the network boot device is specified, the system attempts to get the IP address from the DHCP PXE boot server. After the PXE server is found, the PXE boot prompt appears.

3. At the PXE boot prompt, press Enter or type: install

   The Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant installation image downloads to the server and the screen for “Launching the Oracle Hardware Installation Assistant” appears.

See Also

For information on observing an unattended installation, proceed to the section Observing Unattended PXE-Based Provisioning Tasks.