Orbit > Building Orbit > PXE

PXE on Orbit

To bootstrap the testbed nodes, in fact any server in the system, we use ​PXE to have the nodes load an image which contains a nodeagent and a ​frisbee client.

PXE requires the following support:

1. A ​DHCP server pointing to an TFTP server
2. A ​TFTP server proving the following:
   1. A network bootstrap program (NBP)
   2. A file containing instructions for the NBP
   3. A boot image
3. A PXE grid service

Ideally the later referenced "orbit-pxe-server" apt package should include dependencies to all required packages and should setup everything. For instance, it should depend on gridservices and should then automatically instantiate the PXE grid service.

DHCP Server

Information primarily on how to configure DHCP. Maybe attach a sample file

Installing a TFTP server

This should go away as we should make a dependency on the orbit-pxe-server package.

Installing NBP — pxelinux

Installing an PXE image

The PXE client gets the address of the TFTP server through DHCP. Taking it's IP address it attempts to download a specific file containing further instructions from the TFPT server. The name of the file is created from the PXE client's IP address. For Orbit, the instructions are identical for every node and are stored in "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default.orbit-version". This file instructs the node to fetch the image "/tftpboot/initrd-orbit-pxe-version.img" from the TFTP server and boot into it.

Both files will be installed through:

% apt-get install orbit-pxe-server

Installing the PXE Grid Service

Every service on Orbit which can be controlled by the experimenter requires a grid service component. The PXE grid service must be installed on the TFTP server.

% apt-get install gridservices
% cd /etc/gridservices/enabled
% ln -s ../available/pxe .
% /etc/init.d/gridservices restart