[syslinux] Help with PXE over ISO

[Scott Savarese]

In this environment I don't have access to DHCP. I can't build a server on the subnet nor point it to another one... So, I have to get to my tftp server somehow... ipxe was exactly what i needed.

Sorry for the delayed response... Thank you guys for helping with it.

Scott

On Nov 19, 2015, at 10:04 PM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:20 PM, Phil Pokorny via Syslinux
> <syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Here is a bit of an odd request... II'm in a large company with lots of
>>> politics getting in the way of things. We were able to convince the main IT
>>> team to let us take over a subnet and run our own DHCP server. This lets us
>>> create a really nice PXE environment where we can build servers and ship
>>> them out. However, now we are in need to rebuild servers already deployed.
>>> We have machines in over 70 subnets around the company. Politics won't let
>>> me update the DHCP settings to point to my TFTP server.
>>> 
>> 
>> How fancy is your pxe config file?  Could you just burn the contents of
>> your /ftfpboot directory to a CD-ROM and use isolinux to load the files
>> from the CD-ROM?  Eliminate DHCP, TFTP, and PXE entirely.
>> 
>> If you get the kernel and initrd loaded with the right commandline, the
>> kernel will initialize the network interface and let you finish the process
>> via TCP/IP...
> 
> Just a matter of setting the commandline essentially the same.  Just
> don't try to use PXE to feed IP addresses.  Use it to seed a real DHCP
> client (and hopefully accelerate the DHCP transaction.
> 
>>> So, is there a way to create an ISO image that will do the job of the
>>> initial DHCP request and can either send the TFTP request to my server,
>>> or simply run pxelinux for me pointing to the configuration on my TFTP
>>> server? I tried gPXE's rom-o-matic and got it to work for VM's but the
>>> second I ran it on HP machines it complained about memory issues (didn't
>>> like it when gPXE tried to overwrite the ethernet card's driver I
>>> think).
> 
> If you want an ISO, you'll likely need iPXE or gPXE since you could do
> the initial DHCP for addressing then load your stuff.
> 
> Precise errors will help your diagnosis.
> 
> -- 
> -Gene