Installation and Configuration of CentOS7 Diskless OS for x86_64 and armv7

Table of Contents

1. Installation and Configuration Intro

The following guide describes the installation and configuration of CentOS7 for use with diskless clients running x86_64 (e.g. VME Controllers) or armv7 (VTPs). It's my hope that this will be useful to anyone left to do this on their own.

This guide assumes that you have a DHCP that can be configured with these parameters

filename "pxelinux.0";
next-server 129.57.xxx.xxx;

Where next-server should reflect the IPv4 address of your (tftp) host machine.

It also assumes that your host machine and VME/VTP have DNS entries.

dnsmasq is a program that can be used to handle TFTP, DHCP, and DNS. Here's a good write-up I found describing it's use with pxelinux: PXELinux using Proxy DHCP

1.1. The Boot Process

1.1.1. VME

BIOS configured for PXE (check your settings from these pages)

  1. DHCP provides info to connect to bootloader
    • ip address
    • tftp server address (your machine's hostname)
    • tftp filename to load (pxelinux.0)
  2. pxelinux
    • boot environment configured pxelinux.cfg/<address files>
    • tftp to get kernel and initial ramdisk
  3. kernel
    • loads up operating system filesystem using NFS

1.1.2. VTP

uboot loaded on power up

  1. uboot
    • environment loaded from env.txt on microSD
    • tftp to get kernel and initial ramdisk
  2. kernel
    • loads up operating system filesystem using NFS

2. Host packages to install

nfs-utils, tftp-server, syslinux-tftpboot, syslinux
  • I installed these on my host system using yum
yum install nfs-utils tftp-server syslinux-tftpboot syslinux

3. Download

3.1. centos7_dist

  • Clone the centos7_dist repo from github
git clone --depth 1 git@github.com:JeffersonLab/centos7_dist.git

or on site

git clone --depth 1 /site/coda/contrib/devel/centos7_dist

3.2. tgz’s

Download and install the root and tftp pair for your module(s).

  • VTP (armv7):
  • VME (x86_64):
  • I downloaded these and moved them into the tgz directory

    centos7_dist/tgz/root_x86_64-rc5.tgz
    centos7_dist/tgz/tftp_x86_64-rc2.tgz
    

4. Configure the distribution

4.1. VME OS

I put together the following configuration for my system:

# The local paths for NFS exports to diskless paths: /, /home, and snapshot files
#   using base path
#       /usr/local/diskless
#
# Uncomment and set, if running the diskless_* scripts on a machine
#  that's not the indented NFS server.  Otherwise the default is NFS_SERVER_HOSTNAME=$(hostname -s)
#NFS_SERVER_HOSTNAME="daqfs.jlab.org"

NFS_PATH=/usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64

NFS_ROOT_PATH=${NFS_PATH}/root
NFS_SNAPSHOT_PATH=${NFS_PATH}/snapshot
NFS_HOME_PATH=${NFS_PATH}/home

NFS_EXPORTS=centos7-x86_64.exports

#
# The hostname of our vme controller
#
CLIENT_HOSTNAME[0]="davme6"

#
# root filesystem and kernel boot files
#
TGZ_ROOT=tgz/root_x86_64-rc5.tgz
TGZ_TFTP=tgz/tftp_x86_64-rc2.tgz

#
# kernel boot files specific to TGZ_TFTP version
#
VMLINUZ=vmlinuz-3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64
INITRD=initramfs-3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64.img

#
# tftp files
#
TFTP_PATH=/var/lib/tftpboot
TFTP_PXELINUX_CFG_PATH=${TFTP_PATH}/pxelinux.cfg
TFTP_PXELINUX_CFG_DEFAULT=centos7-x86_64.default
TFTP_KERNEL_PATH=${TFTP_PATH}/CentOS7-x86_64-Diskless

#
# Template files
#
TEMPLATE_PATH=templates
YP_CONF_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/yp.conf
READONLY_ROOT_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/readonly-root
PXECONFIG_ADDR_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/pxelinux.cfg_ADDR
AUTOFS_HOME_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/auto.home
UBOOT_ENV_TEMPLATE=${TEMPLATE_PATH}/env.txt
  • NFS_PATH

    This is where the centos7 x86_64 filesystem will be unpacked.

    • I updated this path to this location on my host system
    NFS_PATH=/usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64
    
  • CLIENT_HOSTNAME[n]

    • I only have one VME controller at the moment, it's hostname will be davme6.jlab.org. But's short hostname is what is needed here:
    CLIENT_HOSTNAME[0]=davme6
    
  • TGZ_ROOT, TGZ\underTFTP, VMLINUZ, INITRD
    • These ought to be defined in an sample configuration file provided with the tgz's. They contain the root filesystem, and boot files needed for the diskless client.
  • TFTP_PATH

    Sometimes this path will be different for different types of tftp servers.

    • I'm using tftp-server on RHEL 7. So this path is the default:
    TFTP_PATH=/var/lib/tftpboot
    

The scripts will generate the necessary configuration files and commands to install them (as root or with sudo)

4.1.1. diskless_ROOTOS.sh

  • I ran this command using my config file as the only argument

    ./diskless_ROOTOS.sh walkthrough_example.cfg
    
    #
    # Generating yp.conf
    #
    # ... Generated: output/yp.conf
    #
    # Generating home.autofs
    #
    # ... Generated: output/auto.home
    #
    # Generating readonly-root
    #
    # ... Generated: output/readonly-root
    #
    # #   Extract TGZ_ROOT=tgz/root_x86_64-rc5.tgz to
    # #   NFS_ROOT_PATH=/usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root
    install -b -p -m 755 -d /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root
    tar xzf tgz/root_x86_64-rc5.tgz -C /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root
    #
    # #  Make the snapshot and home directories
    install -b -p -m 755 -d /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/snapshot
    install -b -p -m 755 -d /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/home
    #
    # #   To install yp.conf
    install -b -p -m 644 output/yp.conf /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root/etc/yp.conf
    #
    # #   To Install auto.home
    install -b -p -m 644 templates/home.autofs /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root/etc/auto.master.d/home.autofs
    install -b -p -m 644 output/auto.home /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root/etc/auto.master.d/auto.home
    #
    # #   To Install readonly-root
    #
    install -b -p -m 644 output/readonly-root /usr/local/diskless/CentOS7/x86_64/root/etc/sysconfig/readonly-root
    
  • This one generates a number of config files for the client OS and provides the installation commands to be run in sequence using sudo or as the root user.

4.1.2. diskless_NFSexports.sh

  • This script generates the exports files needed for NFS

    ./diskless_NFSexports.sh walkthrough_example.cfg
    
    #
    # Generating NFS exports...
    #   ... Generated: output/centos7-x86_64.exports
    #
    # To install NFS exports:
    install -b -p -m 644 output/centos7-x86_64.exports /etc/exports.d/centos7-x86_64.exports
    

4.1.3. diskless_PXE-TFTP.sh

  • This script generates the configuration and installation commands for PXE and TFTP.

    ./diskless_PXE-TFTP.sh walkthrough_example.cfg
    
    #
    # Generating pxelinux config files
    #   ... Linked: output/81391D92 to centos7-x86_64.default
    #
    # To Install pxelinux config files
    install -b -p -m 755 -d /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/
    install -b -p -m 644 output/centos7-x86_64.default /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/
    #
    # Link: /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/81391D92 to centos7-x86_64.default
    ln -sf centos7-x86_64.default /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/81391D92
    #
    # Extract TGZ_TFTP=tgz/tftp_x86_64-rc2.tgz to
    # TFTP_KERNEL_PATH=/var/lib/tftpboot/CentOS7-x86_64-Diskless
    install -b -p -m 755 -d /var/lib/tftpboot/CentOS7-x86_64-Diskless/
    tar xzvf tgz/tftp_x86_64-rc2.tgz -C /var/lib/tftpboot/CentOS7-x86_64-Diskless
    

4.2. VTP OS

If you've got a VTP, the configuration will be very similar, mostly swapping x86_64 with armv7.

  • CLIENT_HOSTNAME[n]

    I only have one VTP, it's hostname will be davtp1.jlab.org. It's short hostname is all that's needed here:

    CLIENT_HOSTNAME[0]="davtp1"
    
  • VTP_MAC_ADDR

    This parameter is used in the generation of the VTPs environment file. The MAC address is unique for each VTP, and can be obtained from Ben Raydo.

    VTP_MAC_ADDR="ce:ba:f0:03:cc:ff"
    

Execute the scripts that were called for the VME OS using the armv7 config file.

4.2.1. diskless_UBOOT.sh

This script generates the uboot env.bin that needs to be loaded onto the microSD used by the VTP

./diskless_UBOOT.sh walkthrough_vtp_example.cfg
#
# Generating U-Boot Environment
#  output/env.bin now ready for VTP microSD
  • Copy the resulting file output/env.bin to the VTPs microSD FAT partition.

5. Enable and start the NFS-server service

  • As root, execute

    systemctl enable nfs-server.service
    systemctl start nfs-server.service
    

6. Enable and start the TFTP server

  • As root, execute

    systemctl enable tftp
    systemctl start tftp
    

7. First Login

7.1. Setup daq account

  • I logged in as root and set up the home directory for the daq account and set its password
ssh root@davme6
/usr/sbin/mkhomedir_helper daq
passwd daq
  • Change the root password while you're at it.
  • Now you can log in as the daq user
ssh daq@davme6

Author: Bryan Moffit <moffit@jlab.org>

Created: 2022-06-30 Thu 20:33

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