Bug 243098

Summary: pxeos command information incomplete
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Reporter: Fred New <fred.new2911>
Component: doc-Installation_GuideAssignee: Ruediger Landmann <rlandman>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact: ecs-bugs
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 5.0CC: jreed, mhideo, rlandman, syeghiay
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Documentation
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
URL: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/en-US/System_Administration_Guide/PXE_Boot_Configuration-Command_Line_Configuration.html
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2012-04-13 01:07:55 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Fred New 2007-06-07 10:20:44 UTC
Description of problem:
I am trying to set up an installation server with no previous experience.  I am
unable to make any sense of the information provided in the online System
Administration Guide and the pxeos man page.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
  See related URL.

How reproducible:
  Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try to read the documentation concerning the pxeos command:
pxeos -a -i "<description>" -p <NFS|HTTP|FTP> -D 0 -s client.example.com \
 -L <net-location> -k <kernel> \
 -K <kickstart><os-identifer>
  
Actual results:
The answers to the following questions remain unanswered:
  What do I use as the -L parameter if I am setting up an NFS server?
  What do I use as the -k parameter?
  What do I use as the -K parameter?

Expected results:
  The answers to the above questions along with a few examples.

Additional info:
  For my installation (TFTP) server is also my NFS and DHCP server.
  My installation directory for RHEL 4, i386 is
    /home/install/rh-es-4
  My kickstart file is
    /home/install/rh-es-4/ks.cfg
  If my server has an IP address of 192.168.0.1, what is the pxeos command that
would set this up?
  Some examples for system-config-netboot would probably be useful, too.
  And it is confusing to give a server a name of "client", so it might be better
to have "-s installer.example.com".

Comment 1 Don Domingo 2007-06-13 01:33:09 UTC
making this bug block 241618, for queueing

Comment 2 Fred New 2007-06-13 06:18:43 UTC
I've managed to set up an installation server using the graphical
system-config-netboot facility, so I have answered some of my own questions.

First, it looks like "<kickstart>" and "<os-identifer>" should be separated by a
space.  The command line shown doesn't have one.

For my NFS case, I think the kickstart parameter (-K) should be
     nfs:192.168.0.1:/home/install/rh-es-4/ks.cfg
And I assume an http example would be
     http://192.168.0.1/install/rh-es-4/ks.cfg
You could check that this works with a browser beforehand.

The kernel parameter (-k) is confusing because it says "version".  So can you
use "2.6"?  I think this parameter probably wants the location of the kernel you
will boot for installing this system.  Maybe
     /home/install/rh-es-4/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
is the correct setting.

Another question is how is the pxeboot command related to the pxeos command? 
Could we see a sample server setup that uses both pxeboot and pxeos?  And should
 there be a space between "<value>" and "<host>" in the pxeboot command?
(http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/en-US/System_Administration_Guide/Adding_PXE_Hosts-Command_Line_Configuration.html)?

Comment 5 Ruediger Landmann 2011-01-05 06:30:16 UTC
Some of the issues raised in this very old bug have persisted to the current version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Installation Guide. I've addressed them in build 3.1-11, with:

* expanded definitions for the -L, -K, and -k options
* changed name of example server to installer.example.com
* added a note about the existence of the pxeboot tool as an alternative

The issue of the space between <value> and <host> must have been addressed some time previously; it was already present in recent versions of the guide.

New version of the text:

34.2.1. Command Line Configuration
If the network server is not running X, the pxeos command line utility, which is part of the system-config-netboot-cmd package, can be used to configure the tftp server files as described in Section 34.4, “TFTPD”:

pxeos -a -i "<description>" -p <NFS|HTTP|FTP> -D 0 -s installer.example.com \ 
-L <location> -k <kernel> -K <kickstart> <os-identifer>

The following list explains the options:

    *
      -a — Specifies that an OS instance is being added to the PXE configuration.
    *
      -i "<description>" — Replace "<description>" with a description of the OS instance.
    *
      -p <NFS|HTTP|FTP> — Specify which of the NFS, FTP, or HTTP protocols to use for installation. Only one may be specified.
    *
      -D <0|1> — Specify "0" which indicates that it is not a diskless configuration since pxeos can be used to configure a diskless environment as well.
    *
      -s installer.example.com — Provide the name of the NFS, FTP, or HTTP server after the -s option.
    *
      -L <location> — Provide the location of the installation tree on that server after the -L option.
      For example, if the installation tree is exported as /install/rhel5 on an NFS share, specify -L /install/rhel5.
    *
      -k <kernel> — Provide the specific kernel for booting. Installation trees can contain multiple kernels.
      For example, if the installation tree contain a patched kernel named vmlinuz-du alongside the standard kernel named vmlinuz, use -k vmlinuz-du to specify the patched kernel.
    *
      -K <kickstart> — Provide the location of the kickstart file, if available. Specify this location as a full path, including the protocol; for example: -K nfs:192.168.0.1:/install/rhel5/ks.cfg
    *
      <os-identifer> — Specify the OS identifier, which is used as the directory name in the /tftpboot/linux-install/ directory. 

If FTP is selected as the installation protocol and anonymous login is not available, specify a username and password for login, with the following options before <os-identifer> in the previous command:

-A 0 -u <username> -p <password>

pxeos writes the results to the /tftpboot/linux-install/pxelinux.cfg/pxeos.xml file.
For more information on command line options available for the pxeos command, refer to the pxeos man page.
The pxeboot tool can also edit the /tftpboot/linux-install/pxelinux.cfg/pxeos.xml file and uses similar options to pxeos. Refer to the pxeboot man page for more detail.