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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi,<br>
<br>
On 02/21/2014 08:29 PM, Andrew "Arthur" Summers wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAP0YRgZwcu+Ner1LnvDb1_StH_SOynogV-EaO_3uwGOf9qBvnw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">As I’m sure you’re aware, no enterprise datacenter
uses DHCP for its systems. What’s more, even if DHCP is used for
backend interfaces, this becomes a problem when NATs and subnets
are part of the picture.<br>
Even more frustrating is the fact that reconfiguring a system or
attaching an ISO to an iLO or a VM usually requires involving a
different team, filling out a form, logging hours, and jumping
through a dozen or so hoops.</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Do not really see having multiple VLANs as a problem, DHCP relaying
("ip-helper address") is easy enough to setup on a L3 switches for
this.<br>
Note that datacenters that rent dedicated servers to the general
public, do widely use DHCP/PXE during operating system installation
(and set a static network configuration to be used afterwards).<br>
If those tell a customer he has to fill in paperwork for something
as simple as an operating system reinstall, he is going to shop
elsewhere. <br>
<br>
<br>
However we have looked into similar solutions to the one you are
suggesting in the past for a different problem, namely that some
(office) networks have other existing DHCP servers in them, that we
cannot change the configuration of, and which conflict with PXE
booting.<br>
<br>
The main problems are:<br>
<br>
- While iPXE is able to pass the static IP configuration easily to
the installer of Linux distributions as kernel parameters, this is
not the case for other operating systems. If you also want fully
automated deployments of Windows and FreeBSD you have a problem.<br>
- iPXE only works with the NICs it has drivers for when booted as
ISO. While it works with practically every NIC when chainloaded
through PXE by piggy backing on the boot firmware. <br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<ul>
<li>Tool to generate iPXE ISOs with preseeded static IP
information</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br>
Our idea was to simply use IPv6 and derive the IP used during
installation from MAC, so you only need one iPXE image per network
prefix. <br>
<br>
<br>
Yours sincerely,<br>
<br>
Floris Bos<br>
( <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.noc-ps.com">www.noc-ps.com</a> )<br>
<br>
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