Diskless Remote Boot in Linux (DRBL)
For Red Hat Linux, Fedora Core, Mandriva and CentOS

[Copyright] [Authors] [Preamble] [Change Logs] [Requirements] [Installation] [Acknowledgement] [Misc] [Donate!] [Wiki] [Reference]

2005/Jun/28



1. Copyright

This copyright is preserved for the author and publisher. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document under the terms of the GNU FDL Free Documentation License. If you do make any distribution and modification on the documents, please add your name in the author list.

We recommend this document principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference. The author and publisher will not take any responsibility if there is any damage caused by this document.

2. Authors

Steven Shiau (steven _at_ nchc org tw)
Blake, Kuo-Lien Huang (klhaung _at_ gmail com)
H. T. Wang (c00wht00 _at_ nchc org tw)
Ceasar Sun (ceasar _at_ nchc org tw)
Jazz Wang (jazz _at_ nchc org tw)

3. Preamble

This documentation descripes the steps to setup a "DRBL" environment in RedHat Linux (8.0, 9), Fedora Core Linux (1, 2, 3), Mandriva Linux (9.2, 10.0, 10.1) or CentOS (4).

4. Change Logs

    1. 2003/07/28 Begin to write this manual "DRBL for RedHat 9"
    2. 2003/08/01 Add the notes for bug of RH9 glibc
    3. 2004/03/27 Support RedHat 8.0, 9, FC1 and Mandrake linux 9.2, 10
    4. 2004/07/22 Add doc for FC2.
    5. 2005/01/28 Add url of unstable version.
    6. 2005/02/07 Add FC3 note.
    7. 2005/03/11 Add screenshot and donation.
    8. 2005/05/01 Use etherboot 5.4.0 as an example in step 4.
    9. 2005/06/23 Update some messages.

5. Basic requirements

6. Setup the Diskless Remote boot in Linux (DRBL) Environment

I. Setup the Linux Server


II. Setup the clients

notes: This process is done in server, but the purpose is for clients use

<Step 2a> Download the package here:
Stable branch:
sourceforge site or NCHC site
Testing branch:
sourceforge site or NCHC site (package maybe newer than that in sourceforge)
Unstable branch:
NCHC site

Before downloading or installing, it's a good idea to have a look at some change logs: Stable, Testing, Unstable, and known issues: Stable, Testing, Unstable.

<Step 2b> Install the downloaded rpm, such as "rpm -Uvh drbl-current.i386.rpm" or "rpm -Uvh drbl-1.3.10-19.i386.rpm" (Note: From version 1.3.10, the old package name "drbl-setup" is renamed as "drbl").

<Step 2c> run "/opt/drbl/setup/drblsrv -i". Examples are shown here

For the impatient: If you are impatient, just run "/opt/drbl/setup/drbl4imp" to finish step "2c" and "3a". "drbl4imp" will use the default vaules to setup the DRBL server. PLEASE REMEMBER! The default value might not fit your environment! It uses the "range" option in dhcp server, so your DRBL client will not always get the same IP address, and it assumes each network card in server (except eth0) provides DRBL services to 12 clients. If you want the setup to fit your environment, please run step "2c" and "3a" step by step.

III. Set up the file system for client in the Server

         NIC    NIC IP                    Clients
+-----------------------------+
| DRBL SERVER |
| |
|+-- [eth0] public IP +- to WAN
| (ex. 61.216.116.23) |
| |
|+-- [eth0:1] 192.168.100.254 +- to clients group 1 [ 10 clients, their IP
| | from 192.168.100.1 - 192.168.100.10]
|+-- [eth1] 192.168.101.254 +- to clients group 1 [ 10 clients, their IP
| | from 192.168.101.1 - 192.168.101.10]
|+-- [eth2] 192.168.102.254 +- to clients group 2 [ 10 clients, their IP
| | from 192.168.102.1 - 192.168.102.10]
|+-- [eth3] 192.168.103.254 +- to clients group 3 [ 10 clients, their IP
| | from 192.168.103.1 - 192.168.103.10]
+-----------------------------+

When you use multiple NICs to expand the bandwith, we DO recommend you set the MAC addresses so that every node will get the same IP address all the time. (i.e. in the fillowing step 3a, when you run "/opt/drbl/setup/drblpush -i", it prompts "Do you want to fix the IP address of client connected to eth1 by giving MAC address ? [y/N]", say "Y"). If you do NOT set MAC address (we will call it "range" from now), and you have only one 48-port network switch (or many switches but connected to be one), and you use 4 NICs (or more than 2...) in DRBL server to expand the network bandwith, 1 problem will occur, i.e. some clients will not lease IP from DHCP server, so it will not be able to boot.
On the other hand, if your DRBL server use 4 NICs to expand the network bandwidth (This means that 4 NICs with 4 private subnets, such as 192.168.100.x, 192.168,101,x, 192.168.102.x, 192.168.103.x), and you have exactly 4 switches, which is seperated, not connected to each other. Then you can use range, i.e. you do not have to set the MAC address of clients.
Please remember, if you use N NICs to expand network bandwidth in DRBL server, if you want to use "range" way, then you must have N switches, which are not connected to each other. ("not connected" is very important)


IV. Setup the clients to use DRBL environment
V. Additional Usage for the DRBL environment

Acknowledgements

Misc

Donate!

Wiki

Reference




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