NetBoot server principle

Revision as of 12:17, 5 June 2014 by WikiFreak (talk | contribs)


Overview of a NetBoot sequence

NetBoot sequence principle.png

1. Client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message.

2. The DHCP server responds with:

    • the computer IP address,
    • TFTP server address (called "next-server"),
    • PXE boot filename to load,
    • NetBoot root-path values.

3. The client sends a TFTP request to "next-server", asking to retrieve the PXE filename.

4. The TFTP server responds and sends filename to client.

5. Many things here:

    • The client executes filename, which is in PXE format.
    • The PXE menu will be display so the user can choose which kernel to load
    • Then PXE loads the kernel.
    • When the kernel executes, the root file system specified by root-path is mounted.
  If it's a diskless workstation then the client distribution will be mounted in NFS mode.



Requirements

As you can see on the previous picture, a DHCP server + TFTP server are mandatory.


It's also good to have a DNS server to use names instead of IP @.



References

The overview picture comes from the FreeBSD forum: http://www.nl.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-diskless.html