Who's Gonna Do a Net Booting Write Up?

[Dyyryath]

Net booting machines for use as distributed computing nodes has gotten a lot of traffic around here the last week or two. With that in mind, I think it's time we found someone (or a small group of someones) who are willing to dedicate themselves to the task of making this work, and then documenting it for the group. I'd be happy to volunteer, but I'm doing the OS benchmarking thing right now and it's SLOW & TEDIOUS when you try to do it right.

So...who's gonna step up? You don't have to be an expert now, just willing to learn it and give the rest of a class.

[magnav0x]

I would be way be more than willing to do it, but I won't be purchasing my diskless pharm stuff for about 2 months. That'll be when I have the money to start up the project (plan on ordering 4-6 nodes worth of components at once), but if no one has done it by then you can count on me

[IronBits]

The M$ way is not an easy road nor is it inexpensive
Kind of defeats the $200 per node requirement.

I'm still looking into it, got the DNS/DHCP/TFTP server going, and a PXE 2+ nic, but M$ hardcode their OS to require C: and terminal server licensing is not cheap, nor was any other commercial product I could find so far.

Still looking tho...

[PCZ]

I am in the middle of getting remote booting setup at the moment.
I may document what I did to get it going.
It is a steep learning curve as I am a Windows admin and only have limited exposure to UNIX/Linux.

[dragongoddess]

A couple of URL's that may be useful. BTW why netboot when motherboards (some) will allow you to boot over a lan?

http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/
Rom-o-matic.net Home http://rom-o-matic.net/

[PCZ]

We are booting over the lan.
Etherboot using PXE.

[dragongoddess]

Then just purchase those boards that allow booting over a lan without going thru a diffcult process.

[magnav0x]

Then just purchase those boards that allow booting over a lan without going thru a diffcult process.

There is a lot more to it than just plugging them into a hub and letting them go. Remember....this is diskless booting. You still have to set up tftp,dhcp,dns server, etc and build a system image for them to load.

[dragongoddess]

I dont see the problem. You select the lan option in the bios and provide the address and it does its thing.

[PCZ]

dragongoddess

As you are obviously an expert in this field could you write up the documentation.

[dragongoddess]

Originally posted by PCZ
dragongoddess

As you are obviously an expert in this field could you write up the documentation.

No I'm not the expert. I just need it explained. From what I see if you are booting over a Lan then you already have a network set up. You have your DHCP server that can hand out the ip's to the other computers on the network. These computers then can boot from the hardfile. What else is there. Explain. dont act like an ass hole. Not everyone is the genius you think you are.

[Chinasaur]

dragongoddess,

Warning. Watch the language.

WE don't talk to one another like that nor do we treat one another like that. If you feel you've been wronged, politely state so. Do NOT resort to name calling/flaming.

That is not our way at FreeDC.

[dragongoddess]

Sorry but this isn't the first time this person has come after me. I guess I should just not said anything.

[PCZ]

dragongoddess

Please explain your last statement.

[dragongoddess]

The only thing I have to say if you want some more info on netbooting go to Ars and type it in the search and look in the DC forum . There are at least 100 pages of discussion on the issue.

[Dyyryath]

Heh, let's step back and take a breather here, OK?

Dragongoddess: I think the part you might be missing (or, perhaps not) is that there isn't a hardfile on the local machine. They are booting machines with no hard drive whatsoever. The kernel, disk image, client, everything...it's all on another remote machine.

Now, you're right, this isn't an insurmountable problem. However, given the multitude of different ways that it can be accomplished, and the variety of different hardware you can accomplish it on...it does require some research and experimentation to get right.

I realize that they've done this at Ars (I took part in some of those early threads while I was still there) and in other places, and we'd all appreciate links to any threads you'd care to point out.

Let's not let a little miscommunication make things all ugly, shall we? I'm fairly certain big daddy IronBits will put anybody around here that acts up into 'time out'. He may even make you wear one of those tall pointy hats and sit in the corner.

My Lord, the last thing we need is IronBits rampaging around here like a pissed off school marm brandishing a ruler .

[dragongoddess]

Originally posted by Dyyryath
Heh, let's step back and take a breather here, OK?

Dragongoddess: I think the part you might be missing (or, perhaps not) is that there isn't a hardfile on the local machine. They are booting machines with no hard drive whatsoever. The kernel, disk image, client, everything...it's all on another remote machine.

I understand that. What I don't understand is if you are going to netboot some things are a given such as:

you have a network
you have one machine that acts as a DHCP server
this machine can hand out IP's to those machines on the network that are without a hardfile. This machine also has a hard file otherwise it wouldn't be your server.



So why can't you boot from a hardfile thats on your server or even another machine on the network with a hardfile. What is it that I'm missing. I will be the first to agree that I have only a very limited knowledge of networking. Help me here. I see a simple problem probably because of my limited knowledge.

well I really have to go. The weather radar is showing a storm about to move over the mountains. Its a rather nasty looking one on doppler . Time to power down.