Configuring PXE and iPXE

updated: 2022-02-04 19:42

Configuring PXE and iPXE¶

PXE setup¶

If you will be using PXE, it needs to be set up on the Bare Metal service node(s) where ironic-conductor is running.

Make sure the tftp root directory exist and can be written to by the user the ironic-conductor is running as. For example:
```
sudo mkdir -p /tftpboot
sudo chown -R ironic /tftpboot
```

Install tftp server and the syslinux package with the PXE boot images:

Ubuntu (Up to and including 14.04):

sudo apt-get install xinetd tftpd-hpa syslinux-common syslinux

Ubuntu (14.10 and after):

sudo apt-get install xinetd tftpd-hpa syslinux-common pxelinux

Fedora 21/RHEL7/CentOS7:

sudo yum install tftp-server syslinux-tftpboot xinetd

Fedora 22 or higher:

sudo dnf install tftp-server syslinux-tftpboot xinetd

SUSE:

sudo zypper install tftp syslinux xinetd

Using xinetd to provide a tftp server setup to serve /tftpboot. Create or edit /etc/xinetd.d/tftp as below:

service tftp
{
  protocol        = udp
  port            = 69
  socket_type     = dgram
  wait            = yes
  user            = root
  server          = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
  server_args     = -v -v -v -v -v --map-file /tftpboot/map-file /tftpboot
  disable         = no
  # This is a workaround for Fedora, where TFTP will listen only on
  # IPv6 endpoint, if IPv4 flag is not used.
  flags           = IPv4
}

and restart the xinetd service:

Ubuntu:

sudo service xinetd restart

Fedora/RHEL7/CentOS7/SUSE:

sudo systemctl restart xinetd

Copy the PXE image to /tftpboot. The PXE image might be found at [1]:

Ubuntu (Up to and including 14.04):

sudo cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot

Ubuntu (14.10 and after):

sudo cp /usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot

RHEL7/CentOS7/SUSE:

sudo cp /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot

If whole disk images need to be deployed via PXE-netboot, copy the chain.c32 image to /tftpboot to support it:

Ubuntu (Up to and including 14.04):

sudo cp /usr/lib/syslinux/chain.c32 /tftpboot

Ubuntu (14.10 and after):

sudo cp /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/chain.c32 /tftpboot

Fedora:

sudo cp /boot/extlinux/chain.c32 /tftpboot

RHEL7/CentOS7/SUSE:

sudo cp /usr/share/syslinux/chain.c32 /tftpboot/

If the version of syslinux is greater than 4 we also need to make sure that we copy the library modules into the /tftpboot directory [2] [1]. For example, for Ubuntu run:
```
sudo cp /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/*/ldlinux.* /tftpboot
```

Create a map file in the tftp boot directory (/tftpboot):

echo 're ^(/tftpboot/) /tftpboot/\2' > /tftpboot/map-file
echo 're ^/tftpboot/ /tftpboot/' >> /tftpboot/map-file
echo 're ^(^/) /tftpboot/\1' >> /tftpboot/map-file
echo 're ^([^/]) /tftpboot/\1' >> /tftpboot/map-file

[1]	(1, 2) On Fedora/RHEL the `syslinux-tftpboot` package already install the library modules and PXE image at `/tftpboot`. If the TFTP server is configured to listen to a different directory you should copy the contents of `/tftpboot` to the configured directory

[2]	http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Library_modules

PXE UEFI setup¶

If you want to deploy on a UEFI supported bare metal, perform these additional steps on the ironic conductor node to configure the PXE UEFI environment.

Install Grub2 and shim packages:

Ubuntu (14.04LTS and later):

sudo apt-get install grub-efi-amd64-signed shim-signed

Fedora 21/RHEL7/CentOS7:

sudo yum install grub2-efi shim

Fedora 22 or higher:

sudo dnf install grub2-efi shim

SUSE:

sudo zypper install grub2-x86_64-efi shim

Copy grub and shim boot loader images to /tftpboot directory:

Ubuntu (14.04LTS and later):

sudo cp /usr/lib/shim/shim.efi.signed /tftpboot/bootx64.efi
sudo cp /usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi-signed/grubnetx64.efi.signed /tftpboot/grubx64.efi

Fedora: (21 and later):

sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/shim.efi /tftpboot/bootx64.efi
sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grubx64.efi /tftpboot/grubx64.efi

RHEL7/CentOS7:

sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/centos/shim.efi /tftpboot/bootx64.efi
sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grubx64.efi /tftpboot/grubx64.efi

SUSE:

sudo cp /usr/lib64/efi/shim.efi /tftpboot/bootx64.efi
sudo cp /usr/lib/grub2/x86_64-efi/grub.efi /tftpboot/grubx64.efi

Create master grub.cfg:

Ubuntu: Create grub.cfg under /tftpboot/grub directory:
```
GRUB_DIR=/tftpboot/grub
```
Fedora: Create grub.cfg under /tftpboot/EFI/fedora directory:
```
GRUB_DIR=/tftpboot/EFI/fedora
```
RHEL7/CentOS7: Create grub.cfg under /tftpboot/EFI/centos directory:
```
GRUB_DIR=/tftpboot/EFI/centos
```
SUSE: Create grub.cfg under /tftpboot/boot/grub directory:
```
GRUB_DIR=/tftpboot/boot/grub
```
Create directory GRUB_DIR:
```
sudo mkdir -p $GRUB_DIR
```
This file is used to redirect grub to baremetal node specific config file. It redirects it to specific grub config file based on DHCP IP assigned to baremetal node.
```
set default=master
set timeout=5
set hidden_timeout_quiet=false

menuentry "master"  {
configfile /tftpboot/$net_default_mac.conf
}
```
Change the permission of grub.cfg:
```
sudo chmod 644 $GRUB_DIR/grub.cfg
```

Update the bare metal node with boot_mode capability in node’s properties field:

openstack baremetal node set <node-uuid> --property capabilities='boot_mode:uefi'

Make sure that bare metal node is configured to boot in UEFI boot mode and boot device is set to network/pxe.

Note

Some drivers, e.g. ilo, irmc and redfish, support automatic setting of the boot mode during deployment. This step is not required for them. Please check Drivers, Hardware Types and Hardware Interfaces for information on whether your driver requires manual UEFI configuration.

Note

For more information on configuring boot modes, see Boot mode support.

iPXE setup¶

If you will be using iPXE to boot instead of PXE, iPXE needs to be set up on the Bare Metal service node(s) where ironic-conductor is running.

Make sure these directories exist and can be written to by the user the ironic-conductor is running as. For example:

sudo mkdir -p /tftpboot
sudo mkdir -p /httpboot
sudo chown -R ironic /tftpboot
sudo chown -R ironic /httpboot

Create a map file in the tftp boot directory (/tftpboot):

echo 'r ^([^/]) /tftpboot/\1' > /tftpboot/map-file
echo 'r ^(/tftpboot/) /tftpboot/\2' >> /tftpboot/map-file

Set up TFTP and HTTP servers.

These servers should be running and configured to use the local /tftpboot and /httpboot directories respectively, as their root directories. (Setting up these servers is outside the scope of this install guide.)

These root directories need to be mounted locally to the ironic-conductor services, so that the services can access them.

The Bare Metal service’s configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf) should be edited accordingly to specify the TFTP and HTTP root directories and server addresses. For example:
```
[pxe]

# Ironic compute node's tftp root path. (string value)
tftp_root=/tftpboot

# IP address of Ironic compute node's tftp server. (string
# value)
tftp_server=192.168.0.2

[deploy]
# Ironic compute node's http root path. (string value)
http_root=/httpboot

# Ironic compute node's HTTP server URL. Example:
# http://192.1.2.3:8080 (string value)
http_url=http://192.168.0.2:8080
```
Install the iPXE package with the boot images:

Ubuntu:
```
apt-get install ipxe
```
Fedora 21/RHEL7/CentOS7:
```
yum install ipxe-bootimgs
```
Fedora 22 or higher:
```
dnf install ipxe-bootimgs
```
Note

SUSE does not provide a package containing iPXE boot images. If you are using SUSE or if the packaged version of the iPXE boot image doesn’t work, you can download a prebuilt one from http://boot.ipxe.org or build one image from source, see http://ipxe.org/download for more information.
Copy the iPXE boot image (undionly.kpxe for BIOS and ipxe.efi for UEFI) to /tftpboot. The binary might be found at:

Ubuntu:
```
cp /usr/lib/ipxe/{undionly.kpxe,ipxe.efi} /tftpboot
```
Fedora/RHEL7/CentOS7:
```
cp /usr/share/ipxe/{undionly.kpxe,ipxe.efi} /tftpboot
```

Enable/Configure iPXE in the Bare Metal Service’s configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf):

[pxe]

# Enable iPXE boot. (boolean value)
ipxe_enabled=True

# Neutron bootfile DHCP parameter. (string value)
pxe_bootfile_name=undionly.kpxe

# Bootfile DHCP parameter for UEFI boot mode. (string value)
uefi_pxe_bootfile_name=ipxe.efi

# Template file for PXE configuration. (string value)
pxe_config_template=$pybasedir/drivers/modules/ipxe_config.template

# Template file for PXE configuration for UEFI boot loader.
# (string value)
uefi_pxe_config_template=$pybasedir/drivers/modules/ipxe_config.template

It is possible to configure the Bare Metal service in such a way that nodes will boot into the deploy image directly from Object Storage. Doing this avoids having to cache the images on the ironic-conductor host and serving them via the ironic-conductor’s HTTP server. This can be done if:
1. the Image Service is used for image storage;
2. the images in the Image Service are internally stored in Object Storage;
3. the Object Storage supports generating temporary URLs for accessing objects stored in it. Both the OpenStack Swift and RADOS Gateway provide support for this.
  - See Ceph Object Gateway support on how to configure the Bare Metal Service with RADOS Gateway as the Object Storage.
Configure this by setting the [pxe]/ipxe_use_swift configuration option to True as follows:
```
[pxe]

# Download deploy images directly from swift using temporary
# URLs. If set to false (default), images are downloaded to
# the ironic-conductor node and served over its local HTTP
# server. Applicable only when 'ipxe_enabled' option is set to
# true. (boolean value)
ipxe_use_swift=True
```
Although the HTTP server still has to be deployed and configured (as it will serve iPXE boot script and boot configuration files for nodes), such configuration will shift some load from ironic-conductor hosts to the Object Storage service which can be scaled horizontally.

Note that when SSL is enabled on the Object Storage service you have to ensure that iPXE firmware on the nodes can indeed boot from generated temporary URLs that use HTTPS protocol.

Restart the ironic-conductor process:

Fedora/RHEL7/CentOS7/SUSE:

sudo systemctl restart openstack-ironic-conductor

Ubuntu:

sudo service ironic-conductor restart

PXE multi-architecture setup¶

It is possible to deploy servers of different architecture by one conductor. To use this feature, architecture-specific boot and template files must be configured using the configuration options [pxe]pxe_bootfile_name_by_arch and [pxe]pxe_config_template_by_arch respectively, in the Bare Metal service’s configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf).

These two options are dictionary values; the key is the architecture and the value is the boot (or config template) file. A node’s cpu_arch property is used as the key to get the appropriate boot file and template file. If the node’s cpu_arch is not in the dictionary, the configuration options (in [pxe] group) pxe_bootfile_name, pxe_config_template, uefi_pxe_bootfile_name and uefi_pxe_config_template will be used instead.

In the following example, since ‘x86’ and ‘x86_64’ keys are not in the pxe_bootfile_name_by_arch or pxe_config_template_by_arch options, x86 and x86_64 nodes will be deployed by ‘pxelinux.0’ or ‘bootx64.efi’, depending on the node’s boot_mode capability (‘bios’ or ‘uefi’). However, aarch64 nodes will be deployed by ‘grubaa64.efi’, and ppc64 nodes by ‘bootppc64’:

[pxe]

# Bootfile DHCP parameter. (string value)
pxe_bootfile_name=pxelinux.0

# On ironic-conductor node, template file for PXE
# configuration. (string value)
pxe_config_template = $pybasedir/drivers/modules/pxe_config.template

# Bootfile DHCP parameter for UEFI boot mode. (string value)
uefi_pxe_bootfile_name=bootx64.efi

# On ironic-conductor node, template file for PXE
# configuration for UEFI boot loader. (string value)
uefi_pxe_config_template=$pybasedir/drivers/modules/pxe_grub_config.template

# Bootfile DHCP parameter per node architecture. (dict value)
pxe_bootfile_name_by_arch=aarch64:grubaa64.efi,ppc64:bootppc64

# On ironic-conductor node, template file for PXE
# configuration per node architecture. For example:
# aarch64:/opt/share/grubaa64_pxe_config.template (dict value)
pxe_config_template_by_arch=aarch64:pxe_grubaa64_config.template,ppc64:pxe_ppc64_config.template

updated: 2022-02-04 19:42

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