[ipxe-devel] Testing for sanboot feature on DHCP server

[Oliver Rath]

Hi James,

you're right! This is the best option if the use of virtualbox is a
must. I did not see the forest in front of trees :-)

Unfortunatly this feature seems not documented very well, so for
Johannes the hint:

~/gits/ipxe/src$ make  bin/ipxe.iso

for creating the iso and

~/gits/ipxe/src$ make EMBED=myscript.pxe bin/ipxe.iso

for embedding your own start script in ipxe.

Regards,

Oliver


Am 13.06.19 um 01:31 schrieb James Peltier:
> Why not simply build an iPXE ISO image that is already scripted to do what you need it to do and then have your VirtualBox instance boot that ISO image all the time?
>
> In fact, you don't even need to script it, just make sure that your iPXE binary has all the options you need in order to properly communicate with your DHCP server to get the options iPXE needs.
>
> ________________________________________
> From: ipxe-devel-bounces at ipxe.org <ipxe-devel-bounces at ipxe.org> on behalf of Johannes Thoma <johannes at johannesthoma.com>
> Sent: June 12, 2019 12:23 PM
> To: ipxe-devel at ipxe.org
> Subject: Re: [ipxe-devel] Testing for sanboot feature on DHCP server
>
> Hi Oliver,
>
> Thank you for your response.
>
> Am 12.06.19 um 20:46 schrieb Oliver Rath:
>
> Hi Johannes!
>
> I see 3 possibilities:
>
>   1.  You can chainload an ipxe variant, which supports. You can build an undionly.kpxe or (for uefi)  ipxe.efi image with the needed code. The ipxe code of virtualbox is made as much as possible to work like pxe, so the dhcp filename option (for tftp load) should work
>
> I already did that but I had to type the commands over the keyboard .. what I
> wanted to do is to automate this via DHCP. In order to do so I need to
> tell the VirtualBox iPXE (without sanboot) from my iPXE (with sanboot and
> some other options). Else there is either an error message from the VirtualBox
> iPXE (because it does not understand sanboot) or an endless boot loop
> (iPXE loading my self-compiled iPXE in a loop).
>
>   1.
>   2.  You could try to replace the ipxe code of virtual box, but there seems to be a size issue
>
> I think I will try that. The solution is then specific to VirtualBox, but so is the problem,
> so I think "it works for me" ;)
>
>   1.  You can change to qemu (qemu-system-x86_64). Qemu has already an ipxe version on board, which supports http-boot.
>
> Good to know. That will make things much easier for those running WinDRBD
> with a Linux Server.
>
>
> Hth,
>
> Yes it did,
>
> Best wishes,
>
> - Johannes
>
> Oliver
>
>
> Am 12.06.19 um 18:31 schrieb Johannes Thoma:
> Dear iPXE list,
>
> I am using VirtualBox in order to boot diskless clients via WinDRBD
> (www.github.com/LINBIT/WinDRBD<http://www.github.com/LINBIT/WinDRBD>). Virtual box has a built in iPXE
> variant which does not support sanboot. We need sanboot in order
> to boot and load Windows drivers until WinDRBD takes over. This
> is currently done via http and a small cgi script on the server that
> basically does a dd (disk dump) to stdout.
>
> Is there a way to test if a iPXE variant supports sanboot?: what I would
> like to do is something like (in /etc/dhcpd.conf):
>
> if exists ipxe.sanboot-feature {
> # sanboot enabled iPXE already running
>         filename "";
>         option root-path "http://192.168.56.102/cgi-bin/drbd.cgi"<http://192.168.56.102/cgi-bin/drbd.cgi>;
> } else {
> # sanboot enabled iPXE not running yet, load it via boot command
>         filename "http://192.168.56.102/~johannes/ipxe/ipxework.pxe"<http://192.168.56.102/~johannes/ipxe/ipxework.pxe>;
> }
>
> However all features I've tried are either disabled on both iPXE builds
> or enabled in both iPXE builds, thereby I can't distinguish between
> them.
>
> I am using isc-dhcp-server on Linux. The DHCP server that comes with
> VirtualBox is disabled.
>
> Thanks for any insights,
>
> Kind regards,
>
> - Johannes
>
>
>
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