31.8. PXE Booting with an NFS Root File System
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31.8. PXE Booting with an NFS Root File System

Written by Craig Rodrigues.

The Intel® Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) allows booting the operating system over the network. PXE support is usually provided in the BIOS where it can be enabled in the BIOS settings which enable booting from the network. A fully functioning PXE setup also requires properly configured DHCP and TFTP servers.

When the host computer boots, it receives information over DHCP about where to obtain the initial boot loader via TFTP. After the host computer receives this information, it downloads the boot loader via TFTP and then executes the boot loader. This is documented in section 2.2.1 of the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Specification. In FreeBSD, the boot loader retrieved during the PXE process is /boot/pxeboot. After /boot/pxeboot executes, the FreeBSD kernel is loaded and the rest of the FreeBSD bootup sequence proceeds. Refer to Chapter 13, The FreeBSD Booting Process for more information about the FreeBSD booting process.

31.8.1. Setting Up the chroot(8) Environment for the NFS Root File System

  1. Choose a directory which will have a FreeBSD installation which will be NFS mountable. For example, a directory such as /b/tftpboot/FreeBSD/install can be used.

    # export NFSROOTDIR=/b/tftpboot/FreeBSD/install # mkdir -p ${NFSROOTDIR}

  2. Enable the NFS server by following the instructions in Section 29.3.2, “Configuring NFS”.

  3. Export the directory via NFS by adding the following to /etc/exports:

    /b -ro -alldirs

  4. Restart the NFS server:

    # service nfsd restart

  5. Enable inetd(8) by following the steps outlined in Section 29.2.2, “Settings”.

  6. Add the following line to /etc/inetd.conf:

    tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/libexec/tftpd tftpd -l -s /b/tftpboot

  7. Restart inetd(8):

    # service inetd restart

  8. Rebuild the FreeBSD kernel and userland (Section 24.7, “Rebuilding “world””):

    # cd /usr/src # make buildworld # make buildkernel

  9. Install FreeBSD into the directory mounted over NFS:

    # make installworld DESTDIR=${NFSROOTDIR} # make installkernel DESTDIR=${NFSROOTDIR} # make distribution DESTDIR=${NFSROOTDIR}

  10. Test that the TFTP server works and can download the boot loader which will be obtained via PXE:

    # tftp localhost tftp> get FreeBSD/install/boot/pxeboot Received 264951 bytes in 0.1 seconds

  11. Edit ${NFSROOTDIR}/etc/fstab and create an entry to mount the root file system over NFS:

    # Device Mountpoint FSType Options Dump Pass myhost.example.com:/b/tftpboot/FreeBSD/install / nfs ro 0 0

    Replace myhost.example.com with the hostname or IP address of the NFS server. In this example, the root file system is mounted read-only in order to prevent NFS clients from potentially deleting the contents of the root file system.

  12. Set the root password in the chroot(8) environment:

    # chroot ${NFSROOTDIR} # passwd

    This sets the root password for client machines which are PXE booting.

  13. Enable ssh(1) root logins for client machines which are PXE booting by editing ${NFSROOTDIR}/etc/ssh/sshd_config and enabling PermitRootLogin. This option is documented in sshd_config(5).

  14. Perform other customizations of the chroot(8) environment in ${NFSROOTDIR}. These customizations could include things like adding packages with pkg_add(1), editing the password file with vipw(8), or editing amd.conf(5) maps for automounting. For example:

    # chroot ${NFSROOTDIR} # pkg_add -r bash

31.8.2. Configuring Memory File Systems Used by /etc/rc.initdiskless

When booting from an NFS root volume, /etc/rc detects the NFS boot and runs /etc/rc.initdiskless. Read the comments in this script to understand what is going on. In this case, /etc and /var need to be memory backed file systems so that these directories are writable but the NFS root directory is read-only:

# chroot ${NFSROOTDIR} # mkdir -p conf/base # tar -c -v -f conf/base/etc.cpio.gz --format cpio --gzip etc # tar -c -v -f conf/base/var.cpio.gz --format cpio --gzip var

When the system boots, memory file systems for /etc and /var will be created and mounted and the contents of the cpio.gz files will be copied into them.

31.8.3. Setting up the DHCP Server

PXE requires a TFTP and a DHCP server to be set up. The DHCP server does not need to be the same machine as the TFTP server, but it needs to be accessible in the network.

  1. Install the DHCP server by following the instructions documented at Section 29.6.7, “Installing and Configuring a DHCP Server”. Make sure that /etc/rc.conf and /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf are correctly configured.

  2. In /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf, configure the next-server, filename, and option root-path settings to specify the TFTP server IP address, the path to /boot/pxeboot in TFTP, and the path to the NFS root file system. Here is a sample dhcpd.conf setup:

    subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { range 192.168.0.2 192.168.0.3 ; option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0 ; option routers 192.168.0.1 ; option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255 ; option domain-name-servers 192.168.35.35, 192.168.35.36 ; option domain-name "example.com"; # IP address of TFTP server next-server 192.168.0.1 ; # path of boot loader obtained # via tftp filename "FreeBSD/install/boot/pxeboot" ; # pxeboot boot loader will try to NFS mount this directory for root FS option root-path "192.168.0.1:/b/tftpboot/FreeBSD/install/" ; }

31.8.4. Configuring the PXE Client and Debugging Connection Problems

  1. When the client machine boots up, enter the BIOS configuration menu. Configure the BIOS to boot from the network. If all previous configuration steps are correct, everything should "just work".

  2. Use the net/wireshark package or port to debug the network traffic involved during the PXE booting process, as illustrated in the diagram below. In Section 31.8.3, “Setting up the DHCP Server”, an example configuration is shown where the DHCP, TFTP, and NFS servers are on the same machine. However, these servers can be on separate machines.

    Figure 31.1. PXE Booting Process with NFS Root Mount
    PXE Booting Process with NFS Root Mount

    1

    Client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message.

    2

    The DHCP server responds with the IP address, next-server, filename, and root-path values.

    3

    The client sends a TFTP request to next-server, asking to retrieve filename.

    4

    The TFTP server responds and sends filename to client.

    5

    The client executes filename, which is pxeboot(8), which then loads the kernel. When the kernel executes, the root file system specified by root-path is mounted over NFS.


  3. Make sure that the pxeboot file can be retrieved by TFTP. On the TFTP server, read /var/log/xferlog to ensure that the pxeboot file is being retrieved from the correct location. To test this example configuration:

    # tftp 192.168.0.1 tftp> get FreeBSD/install/boot/pxeboot Received 264951 bytes in 0.1 seconds

    The BUGS sections in tftpd(8) and tftp(1) document some limitations with TFTP.

  4. Make sure that the root file system can be mounted via NFS. To test this example configuration:

    # mount -t nfs 192.168.0.1:/b/tftpboot/FreeBSD/install /mnt

  5. Read the code in src/sys/boot/i386/libi386/pxe.c to understand how the pxeboot loader sets variables like boot.nfsroot.server and boot.nfsroot.path. These variables are then used in the NFS diskless root mount code in src/sys/nfsclient/nfs_diskless.c.

  6. Read pxeboot(8) and loader(8).

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