Packages required: tftp, dhcp & syslinux
1. Install the required packages on the server. Syslinux is usually by default installed on the server.
#yum install tftp-server dhcp syslinux
2. Edit /etc/xinet.d/tftp file to run the tftp service under xinetd daemon. Modify the following lines in the conf file as follows:
disable = no
server_args = -s /tftpboot
Make sure the both the lines should be exactly like this, because we are going to use the /tftpboot dir as default root-pxe dir. If the path given here in server-args is different from our pxe root dir, then we'll normally get "PXE-T01: File not found." error. Save the above file after making the changes.
3. Restart the xinetd services to start the tftp service and make it executable on startup.
#service xinetd start
#chkconfig xinetd on
4. Copy the required files from the Syslinux dir to /tftpboot dir.
#cp /usr/lib/syslinux/{pxelinux.0,menu.c32,mboot.c32,memdisk,chain.c32} /tftpboot/
5. Create PXE Menu directory.
# mkdir /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
6. Create dir for centos image in tftpboot dir. Suppose you have centos 5.5 i386 and centos 5.5 x86_64 linux iamges, then create dir as follows.
# mkdir -p /tftpboot/images/centos/i386/5.5
# mkdir -p /tftpboot/images/centos/x86_64/5.5
7. mount the linux iso image that you have to /mnt and copy initrd.img and vmlinuz files from the /mnt/images/pxeboot dir to the respective tftpboot image paths that you have created.
# mount -o loop /home/centos-5.5.i386.iso /mnt
# cp /mnt/images/pxeboot/{ initrd.img, vmlinuz} /tftpboot/images/centos/i386/5.5
# umount /mnt
# mount -o loop /home/centos-5.5.x86_64.iso /mnt
# cp /mnt/images/pxeboot/{ initrd.img, vmlinuz} /tftpboot/images/centos/x86_64/5.5
# umount /mnt
8. Edit dhcpd.conf file and add the following lines to the configuration. Use your pxe server ip in place of the 000.000.000.000.
allow bootp;
allow booting;
filename "pxelinux.0";
next-server 000.000.000.000;
option option-128 code 128 = string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;
9. Create a file /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default for default menu and add the following.
default menu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 300
ONTIMEOUT local
MENU TITLE PXE MENU
LABEL Centos 5.5 x86
MENU LABEL Centos 5.5 x86
KERNEL images/centos/i386/5.5/vmlinuz
APPEND ks initrd=image/centos/i386/5.5/initrd.img ramdisk_size=100000 ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp url --url http://path to ks file
LABEL Centos 5.5 x86_64
MENU LABEL Centos 5.5 x86_64
KERNEL images/centos/x86_64/5.5/vmlinuz
APPEND ks initrd=image/centos/x86_64/5.5/initrd.img ramdisk_size=100000 ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp url --url http://path to ks file
10. Restart the dhcpd server and restart the xinetd service.
1. Install the required packages on the server. Syslinux is usually by default installed on the server.
#yum install tftp-server dhcp syslinux
2. Edit /etc/xinet.d/tftp file to run the tftp service under xinetd daemon. Modify the following lines in the conf file as follows:
disable = no
server_args = -s /tftpboot
Make sure the both the lines should be exactly like this, because we are going to use the /tftpboot dir as default root-pxe dir. If the path given here in server-args is different from our pxe root dir, then we'll normally get "PXE-T01: File not found." error. Save the above file after making the changes.
3. Restart the xinetd services to start the tftp service and make it executable on startup.
#service xinetd start
#chkconfig xinetd on
4. Copy the required files from the Syslinux dir to /tftpboot dir.
#cp /usr/lib/syslinux/{pxelinux.0,menu.c32,mboot.c32,memdisk,chain.c32} /tftpboot/
5. Create PXE Menu directory.
# mkdir /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
6. Create dir for centos image in tftpboot dir. Suppose you have centos 5.5 i386 and centos 5.5 x86_64 linux iamges, then create dir as follows.
# mkdir -p /tftpboot/images/centos/i386/5.5
# mkdir -p /tftpboot/images/centos/x86_64/5.5
7. mount the linux iso image that you have to /mnt and copy initrd.img and vmlinuz files from the /mnt/images/pxeboot dir to the respective tftpboot image paths that you have created.
# mount -o loop /home/centos-5.5.i386.iso /mnt
# cp /mnt/images/pxeboot/{ initrd.img, vmlinuz} /tftpboot/images/centos/i386/5.5
# umount /mnt
# mount -o loop /home/centos-5.5.x86_64.iso /mnt
# cp /mnt/images/pxeboot/{ initrd.img, vmlinuz} /tftpboot/images/centos/x86_64/5.5
# umount /mnt
8. Edit dhcpd.conf file and add the following lines to the configuration. Use your pxe server ip in place of the 000.000.000.000.
allow bootp;
allow booting;
filename "pxelinux.0";
next-server 000.000.000.000;
option option-128 code 128 = string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;
9. Create a file /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default for default menu and add the following.
default menu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 300
ONTIMEOUT local
MENU TITLE PXE MENU
LABEL Centos 5.5 x86
MENU LABEL Centos 5.5 x86
KERNEL images/centos/i386/5.5/vmlinuz
APPEND ks initrd=image/centos/i386/5.5/initrd.img ramdisk_size=100000 ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp url --url http://path to ks file
LABEL Centos 5.5 x86_64
MENU LABEL Centos 5.5 x86_64
KERNEL images/centos/x86_64/5.5/vmlinuz
APPEND ks initrd=image/centos/x86_64/5.5/initrd.img ramdisk_size=100000 ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp url --url http://path to ks file
10. Restart the dhcpd server and restart the xinetd service.
#service dhcpd restart
#service xinetd restart
You can add more images to your pxe configuration later on in the similar way.
