Linux Booting in Rescue Mode with PXE

APPLIES TO:

Linux OS – Version: 4.4 to 5.3 – Release: OEL4U4 to OEL5U3
Linux x86
Linux x86-64

GOAL

To be able to boot into Rescue Mode with PXE

SOLUTION

Requirements

  • DHCP Server
  • TFTP Server
  • HTTP Server

In the following Example the dhcp, tftp and http server is 192.168.79.110. The server that should be booted with PXE has the MAC Address: 00:16:3E:53:17:D7

Configuration

  1. add the following entry into your dhcpd.conf
    host pxetest {
    hardware ethernet 00:16:3E:53:17:D7;
    next-server 192.168.79.110;
    filename "/el4u5/pxelinux.0";
    }

    – restart the dhcpd server

  2. kickstart config ( in /var/ww/kickstart/ks.cfg ):
    lang en_US.UTF-8
    langsupport --default=en_US.UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
    keyboard us
    mouse none
    url --url http://192.168.79.110/el4u5/
    network --bootproto=dhcp
  3. mount an Enterprise Linux iso file
    # mount -o loop Enterprise-R4-U5-i386-dvd.iso /var/www/el4u5
  4. copy all necessary files to /tftpboot/el4u5
    # up2date syslinux
    # mkdir /tftpboot
    # mkdir /tftpboot/el4u5
    # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/el4u5
    # mkdir /tftpboot/el4u5/pxelinux.cfg
    # touch /tftpboot/el4u5/pxelinux.cfg/default
    # cp /var/www/el4u5/images/pxeboot/* /tftpboot/el4u5/

  5. configure /tfpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default entries:
    default linux
    timeout 100
    prompt 1

    LABEL linux
    KERNEL vmlinuz
    APPEND initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=10000 text rescue ks=http://192.168.79.110/kickstart/ks.cfg

  6. httpd config ( not necessary if you already have a running httpd )
    DocumentRoot "/var/www"

    # This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
    #
    <Directory "/var/www">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    </Directory>

    – start httpd

    # /etc/init.d/httpd start
  7. tftp server
    – install tftp server

    # up2date tftp-server

    – enable the tftp server

    # /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 xinetd on

    – in /etc/xinetd.d/tfpt change

    "disable = yes"

    to

    "disable = no"

    – restart xinetd

    # /etc/init.d/xinetd restart

    Now your client 00:16:3E:53:17:D7, if pxe boot enabled, will boot into Rescue Mode.


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