PXE boot of 3.5 using nfs

[mikef123]

I can pxe boot 3.02 without any issuse. I try to pxe boot 3.5 and i get this error. I have tried both dell 1950's and hp dl360, same issue. Any one else had any luck with pxe and 3.5

thanks

mike f

[Ken_Cline]

I try to pxe boot 3.5 and i get this error.

It would help if you told us what the error was...

Ken Cline

Technical Director, Virtualization

Wells Landers

VMware Communities User Moderator

[lamw]

I would suggest looking over your ks.cfg configuration file, I've tested 3.5 through a pxe boot and building over NFS and it works fine. You can even get away with using your 3.0.x ks.cfg as a base configuration.

[mikef123]

Hi Ken, I uploaded the error i am getting but i guess it didn't post. I'll upload again. The erros is in the images.pyc file.

Mike

[mikef123]

Hi I was wondering if i could take a look at you ks file. Here is the error i'm getting.

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/bin/anaconda", line 955, in ?

methodobj = NfsIsoInstallMethod(method[8:], intf.messageWindow, rootPath)

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/image.py", line 466, in_init_

self.mountImage(1)

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/image.py" + '/' + self.discImages[cdNum]

KeyError: 1

instal exited abnormally

sending termination signals done

[lamw]

Looks like a mount issue, during the intial boot, you can look at the various consoles altf1,altf2,etc to see whats going on, usually it'll let you know if its bad media or boot image isn't working. You can also look at your tftp logs on your PXE server, is the system getting an IP when it first contacts DHCP/PXE and is it able to mount the media to pull the kickstart.

[mikef123]

I am having a mount issue. It seems as if the 3.5a iso won't loop mount. It mounts the export then it won't loop mount the iso. I loop mount the iso by hand and it loads fine. On my 3.02 iso image I do not have to loop mount it by hand, the images.pyc file does it for me. Has anyone run into this issue with the 3.5 64607a build? I though that it might be the iso itself but I ripped a cd from the iso I'm using and installed from cd just fine.

Thanks

[David_Blake]

Mike,

I see the same thing with the 82663 (Update 1) ISO. I've used it to burn cd's that install ok so I'm fairly sure the ISO is ok. Forgive my ignorance, but how do I loop mount the iso by hand?

cheers

David

[lamw]

mount -o loop <vmware_iso.iso> /some/tmp/path

[David_Blake]

Thanks for that. As you can see I am fairly new at this - at what point during the install do I run this and from what screen (I assume it's one of the screens accessed from ALT F1 etc)?

cheers

David

Typo

[lamw]

For a kickstart automated installation, you usually mount loop the .iso and extract the contents and store that on either an FTP or NFS server. Your kickstart should reference a line that defines the method installation (http,ftp,nfs) and providing the path to your extracted contents. From your extracted contents, there is a directory called images which has a boot.iso, this is the iso you'll usually mount from a remote console (iLO/DRAC) and from there you'll pass in arguments to the commandline on where your ks.cfg (unattended installation) file that describes your installation, and inside that file it'll tell where to get the image and method. So you don't manually mount the iso to do the installation.

If you're new at this, I suggest searching the forum's for kickstart examples, you can also use 3rd party utilities like UDA or RDA, but I really believe standard ks.cfg via nfs with some bash scripts for customization is the best approach. No need for additional tools, just need to take the time to learn it and take a look at the thousands of examples on this forum, anything you can think of, it's probably been done.

[David_Blake]

OK,

thanks for that.

cheers

David