Preparing Your Network to Provision the RedHat Linux OS

Before you create the RedHat Linux image server, you need to perform the following tasks.

• Set up TFTP access to the RedHat Linux images on your boot and install server.

  For instructions, see How to Set up TFTP Access.

• Create the RedHat Linux OS installation image.

  For instructions, see How to Copy the RedHat Linux Files.

How to Set up TFTP Access

If you use JET to create your RedHat Linux image server, the TFTP service is automatically configured to support provisioning. You need to create or copy additional directories and files to the TFTP root directory on the boot and install server. The OS distribution should be accessible through NFS for each subnet served from this boot and install server.

Before You Begin

Be sure that the appropriate TFTP server software is installed on the boot and install server.

Steps

1. 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.

     For instructions about how to create the PXE configuration file, see How to Create a PXE Configuration File for RedHat Linux OS Provisioning.

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   Note –

   This task uses /tftpboot as an example of the TFTP root directory.

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2. For RedHat Linux provisioning profiles that do not use JET, copy the following files to the TFTP root directory

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

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

   If you want to support provisioning of multiple releases of the RedHat Linux OS, assign a unique name to this file, such as vmlinuz_3.0.

How to Copy the RedHat Linux Files

This procedure describes how to create RedHat Linux OS images by copying the files from the product media. You can locate these copies on a system that is running either the RedHat Linux OS or the Solaris OS. You can also place the physical product media in the CD-ROM drives of a system, and point to these CDs as the image source for your provisioning plans. You are not required to locate these copies on your RedHat Linux boot and install server.

If you locate these copies on a system that is not the boot and install server, the copies must meet the following criteria.

• For RedHat Linux provisioning that uses JET, the boot and install server and target host must be able to access the copies through NFS.

• For RedHat Linux provisioning that does not use JET, the target host must be able to access the copies through NFS.

Follow these steps to create copies of the RedHat Linux files.

Steps

1. Create a directory to contain the Linux files.

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   Note –

   To serve multiple distributions from the same server, create a separate directory for each distribution.

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2. Mount the first CD-ROM or ISO image file.

   Use a command similar to one of the following examples:

   #mount /dev/cdrom by default, will mount on /mnt/cdrom, check /etc/fstab #mount -o loop /path-to-first-iso /mnt/loop assumes /mnt/loop exists

3. Copy the content from the CD-ROM or ISO image file to the directory that you created in Step 1.

   Use a command similar to one of the following examples:

   #/bin/cp -avf /mnt/cdrom/* /export/RHEL3.0 #/bin/cp -avf /mnt/loop/* /export/RHEL3.0

4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for all the CD-ROM or ISO media in the distribution.