[Beowulf] kickstart install using NFS

[Erik Paulson]

On Tue, Jan 18, 2005 at 12:30:57AM -0500, Robert G. Brown wrote:
> 
> This is even MORE useful than floppies in so many ways.  I have a nice
> little list of what I can boot on a node.  A kickstart install.  A
> "redhat install" where I can select packages.  In principle, a "rescue"
> kernel and image, although the interactive install kernel and image can
> be used for most rescue purposes if you know what you are doing.  A
> choice of architectures and revisions.  A DOS floppy boot image for
> doing certain chores.  memtest86.  All via PXE.
> 
> Most of how to do this is in HOWTOs on the web.  
>

Can you give a pointer to a good memtest86/PXE setup? What I would love
to have is a memtest86 (or something similar - maybe PC Doctor) that
I could periodically have some of my nodes boot and go into diagonstic
mode for a while. I've even got everything on serial console, so I 
could screen scrape and watch for results. memtest spits out so much
ANSI crap that it's kind of a mess to do, so I was hoping someone
out there has already done it. Are there good alternatives to memtest -
maybe something with an easier-to-parse output?

It'd also be nice if there was a way to say "Run for an hour", but if
need be we've got Baytech PDUs with remote-control power, so I can
script a hard reboot if need be. 

Right now we periodically run a set of scripts that reads and writes files 
in /dev/shm to "test" memory - we've been able to find nodes with bad memory
by using 'cmp' on those files.

Thanks,

-Erik