PXE boot and installation only works correctly if the server running the tftpboot server is also running the DHCP server. As this is obviously not the case if the OSCAR server node can not run a DHCP server, client nodes must be installed using a boot floppy. Further, the boot floppies created with the ``Make Boot Floppy'' option in the OSCAR wizard assumes there is a DHCP server running on the server node, so we must use a special boot floppy.
Unfortunately, we have to make a boot floppy for every node (since the boot floppy will have IP information encoded in it)7. First, a configuration file that provides SIS with the needed boot information must be created. The sample below is used to create a machine thumb1.osl.iu.edu. The fields are self-explanatory. The IMAGESERVER should be set to the IP address of the OSCAR server node (where you are running the OSCAR wizard). The other networking information must match the information given in Step 2 of the installation, otherwise your system might not be installable.
HOSTNAME=thumb1 DOMAINNAME=osl.iu.edu DEVICE=eth0 IPADDR=129.79.247.11 NETMASK=255.255.252.0 NETWORK=129.79.244.0 BROADCAST=129.79.247.255 GATEWAY=129.79.247.254 IMAGESERVER=129.79.247.10
The boot floppy can be created by running mkautoinstalldiskette with the -config FILE option specifying the location of the configuration file created above.
root 2002-11-08