Detailed process of using vmware to test PXE batch installation server

1. Preparation

1. Prepare the environment

Vmware workstation

Centos7 as pxe-server

Address:192.168.138.5

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.138.2

Disable selinux and firewall

2. Installation method

Kickstart installation. Kickstart is an unattended installation method. Its working principle is to record various parameters that typically require manual intervention during the installation process and generate a file named ks.cfg. The installation program will first look for the file generated by Kickstart. If it finds suitable parameters, it will adopt these parameters. The installation program will restart the system according to the settings in ks.cfg and end the installation.

3. Network card configuration

Select hostonly mode for the network card and cancel the DHCP function in hostonly mode.

2. Installation Phase

Because the system-config-kickstart tool will be used later to generate the ks file, it must rely on X Windows, so we have to install the desktop environment in advance.

yum -y groupinstall 'X Window System'

yum -y groupinstall 'GNOME Desktop Environment'

1. Install httpd

An http environment is required to store system image files and ks files, so install http first

yum install httpd

Systemctl start httpd

Visit http://192.168.138.5

Configure yum
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
cd /mnt

2. Install tftp-server

yum -y install tftp-server

Modify /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and change the value of disable from yes to no

service tftp
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /var/lib/tftpboot
disable = no
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
flags = IPv4
}

Restart the xinetd process. If there is no xinetd, you need to install it with yum.

systemctl restart xinetd.service

Create a new tftpboot folder

mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot

3. Copy the pxe file

Install syslinux and copy the pxelinux.0 file to /var/lib/tftpboot

cp /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot

Create /var/www/html/cdrom and mount it

Mount /dev/cdrom /var/www/html/cdrom

Yum source configuration

Copy initrd.img and vmlinuxz on the CD to /var/lib/tftpboot

cp /var/www/html/cdrom/images/pxeboot/initrd.img /var/lib/tftpboot
cp /var/www/html/cdrom/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz /var/lib/tftpboot
cp /var/www/html/cdrom/isolinux/boot.msg /var/lib/tftpboot

Create a new pxelinux.cfg directory in tftpboot

mkdir pxelinux.cfg

Copy the isolinux.cfg in the cdrom directory to the pxelinux.cfg directory and change the file name to default
cp /var/www/html/cdrom/isolinux/isolinux.cfg /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
Edit the default file configuration as follows

default vesamenu.c32
timeout 6000
display boot.msg
#Clear the screen when exiting the menu, instead of leaving the menu displayed.
#For vesamenu, this means the graphical background is still displayed without
#the menu itself for as long as the screen remains in graphics mode.
menu clear
menu background splash.png
menu title CentOS 7
menu vshift 8
menu rows 18
menu margin 8
#menu hidden
menu helpmsgrow 15
menu tabmsgrow 13
#Border Area
menu color border * #00000000 #00000000 none

#Selected item
menu color sel 0 #ffffffff #00000000 none

#Title bar
menu color title 0 #ff7ba3d0 #00000000 none

#Press [Tab] message
menu color tabmsg 0 #ff3a6496 #00000000 none

#Unselected menu item
menu color unsel 0 #84b8ffff #00000000 none

#Selected hotkey
menu color hotsel 0 #84b8ffff #00000000 non

#Unselected hotkey
menu color hotkey 0 #ffffffff #00000000 none
#Help text
menu color help 0 #ffffffff #00000000 none

#A scrollbar of some type? Not sure.
menu color scrollbar 0 #ffffffff #ff355594 none

#Timeout msg
menu color timeout 0 #ffffffff #00000000 none
menu color timeout_msg 0 #ffffffff #00000000 none

#Command prompt text
menu color cmdmark 0 #84b8ffff #00000000 none
menu color cmdline 0 #ffffffff #00000000 none

#Do not display the actual menu unless the user presses a key. All that is displayed is a timeout message.

menu tabmsg Press Tab for full configuration options on menu items.

menu separator # insert an empty line
menu separator # insert an empty line

label linux
menu label ^Install CentOS 7
kernel vmlinuz
#append initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=CentOS\x207\x20x86_64 quiet
append initrd=initrd.img repo=http://192.168.138.5/cdrom ks=http://192.168.138.5/ks.cfg

label check
menu label Test this ^media & install CentOS 7
menu default
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=CentOS\x207\x20x86_64 rd.live.check quiet

menu separator # insert an empty line

#utilities submenu
menu begin ^Troubleshooting
menu title Troubleshooting

label vesa
menu indent count 5
menu label Install CentOS 7 in ^basic graphics mode
text help
Try this option out if you're having trouble installing
CentOS 7.
endtext
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=CentOS\x207\x20x86_64 xdriver=vesa nomodeset quiet

default cdrom
prompt 0

label rescue
menu indent count 5
menu label ^Rescue a CentOS system
text help
If the system will not boot, this lets you access files
and edit config files to try to get it booting again.
endtext
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=CentOS\x207\x20x86_64 rescue quiet

label memtest
menu label Run a ^memory test
text help
If your system is having issues, a problem with your
system's memory may be the cause. Use this utility to
see if the memory is working correctly.
endtext
kernel memtest

label cdrom
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img ks=http://192.168.138.5/ks.cfg devfs=nomount

menu separator # insert an empty line

label local
menu label Boot from ^local drive
localboot 0xffff

menu separator # insert an empty line
menu separator # insert an empty line

label returntomain
menu label Return to ^main menu
menu exit

menu end

Restart the httpd service

cp /var/www/html/cdrom/isolinux/vesamenu.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/

4. Install DHCP service

yum –y install dhcp

cp /usr/share/doc/dhcp-4.2.5/dhcpd.conf.example /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

Modify dhcpd.conf

next-server 192.168.138.5; ------------------Local address, used as the address of the ks server
filename "pxelinux.0";

subnet 192.168.138.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

range 192.168.138.10 192.168.138.50; -----------Allocated address pool
option routers 192.168.138.5;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.138.5;
default-lease-time 86400;
max-lease-time 86400;
}

After configuration, start dhcp

service dhcpd start

3. Install the kickstart automatic installation tool

Yum direct installation

yum -y install system-config-kickstart

Launch Kickstart in the desktop environment

system-config-kickstart

Allocate partitions based on your needs. Try to allocate more than 4G for the usr directory.

Select the desktop version of the installation package to install the graphical version, you can choose it yourself. If this step reports an error, see the yum configuration

The following two items can be configured by default after file–>save

Save to this directory and view the ks.cfg file

#platform=x86, AMD64, or Intel EM64T
#version=DEVEL
#Install OS instead of upgrade
install
#Keyboard layouts
keyboard 'us'
#Root password
rootpw --iscrypted 11PObWbosO$B09PFFThWxWujr.TANYuJ.
#Use network installation
url --url="http://192.168.138.5/cdrom"
#System language
lang en_US
#System authorization information
auth --useshadow --passalgo=sha512
#Use graphical install
graphical
firstboot --disable
#SELinux configuration
selinux --disabled

#Firewall configuration
firewall --disabled
#Network information
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=ens33
#Reboot after installation
reboot
#System timezone
timezone Asia/Shanghai
#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --location=mbr
#Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr
#Partition clearing information
clearpart --all --initlabel
#Disk partitioning information
part / --fstype="xfs" --size=10240
part /boot --fstype="xfs" --size=2048
part /home --fstype="xfs" --size=1024
part /var --fstype="xfs" --size=2048
part /tmp --fstype="xfs" --size=2048
part /usr --fstype="xfs" --size=4096
part /opt --fstype="xfs" --size=4096
part swap --fstype="swap" --size=4096

%packages
@desktop-debugging
@fonts
@gnome-desktop
@kde-desktop
@legacy-x
@x11
xterm

%end

4. Test on the client host

Create a new virtual machine, enter pxe and choose to load dhcp from the network, and then it will be automatically installed.

In /var/lib/dhcpd/dhcpd.leases, you can see the IP address and other information assigned to the newly added machine

V. Related Services

systemctl start httpd
systemctl enable httpd
systemctl start dhcpd
systemctl enable dhcpd
systemctl start xinetd

You can test it yourself. If you have any questions, please feel free to consult!

This concludes this article about the detailed process of using VMware to test PXE batch installation servers. For more relevant VMware testing PXE content, please search 123WORDPRESS.COM's previous articles or continue to browse the following related articles. I hope everyone will support 123WORDPRESS.COM in the future!