The proposal is that the DHCP server ( or servers, since it is possible for two to share the duty ) will offer one "next-server" PXE to each particular client. The decision as to which "next server" to use could be based upon MAC address, or subnetwork, depending upon your needs. It looks to me like some of your machines would want to PXE boot from the cobbler server, some from the Alteris server; if this doesn't suit your needs, I can't figure out why.
Here's the flow: client asks for DHCP server; DHCP server feeds "next-server" info to client; client uses next-server info to request PXE boot. The DHCP server can particularize the next-server address to fit the client. On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:48 AM, Brandon Young <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for being so patient and helpful, Michael. > > I guess I am not clear how the DHCP next-server parameter would help me. > Here's how I imagine it might work: Suppose there are two PXE servers on the > same network/VLAN/subnet. Both are listed as next-server entries in DHCP. > A client performs a DHCP DISCOVER request for a PXE Server, and both server > addresses are returned to the client by the DHCP server. The client then > sends a PXE boot request to both servers. Server A is configured to only > respond to a list of known clients right away, Server B will respond to all > clients after some short delay (thus giving the Server A time to respond to > the client first, if it's going to). The requesting client gets a response > from one or both of these servers, and begins its TFTP download of the > network boot program (pxelinux.0 in our case, right?), as directed by the > first responder. > > Is this a reasonable approximation of what you're proposing to me? If so, > the constraint I am attempting to work under is both Altiris (Server A) and > Cobbler (Server B) need the flexibility to be able to respond to any > arbitrary client, not just a list of known clients. I'm trying to avoid > making each server only available to certain networks/vlans/subnets, if > possible; though, it is an option we're willing to use if nothing else will > work. In our organization, we have sevaral VLANs that span across two > geographic locations that, ideally, would have access to both Altiris and > Cobbler Install servers. I'm shooting for the ability to sit down at any > workstation at any location, select PXE boot, and have the ability to choose > Altiris or Cobbler. > > Maybe I should start at a more basic level to understand what's going on: at > the point I see the blue Cobbler Menu screen on my client computer, have I > pxe booted yet, or am I just looking at a PXE boot management screen? I've > gotten the impression from various docs that you can chain pxe boots; so, > you could pxe boot from server A, then have server A tell you to PXE boot > from server B. I'm looking for a way to do that from Cobbler, if possible. > > -- > Brandon > > > > On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:51 AM, Michael DeHaan <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Brandon Young wrote: >> > Thank you all for your responses. gPXE looks very promising. >> > >> > -- >> > Brandon >> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > cobbler mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler >> > >> >> Can you elaborate as to why you'd prefer that to just configuring DHCP >> next-server parameters? >> >> --Michael >> _______________________________________________ >> cobbler mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler > > > _______________________________________________ > cobbler mailing list > [email protected] > https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler > > -- Terry McIntyre UNIX for hire Software Development, Systems Administration, Security [email protected] _______________________________________________ cobbler mailing list [email protected] https://fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
