[Beowulf] OT: PXE boot with no control over DHCP?

[Brian R Smith]

David,

I've done this before.  

1) Set up your own dhcp server and make sure you have all the mac
addresses for your hosts so that your server only offers addresses to
your clients and no one else.

2) Make sure these hosts are on the same router or switch as your dhcp
server so your server manages to offer an address first, before the
campus dhcp that you don't manage.

3) Configure PXE boot as per the norm and make sure you turn off dhcpd
when you're done.

If you need any more details, let me know.  We did this a while back
when we had a condor grid set up and a bunch of linux boxes attached to
it.

-Brian Smith

On Wed, 2005-09-21 at 10:08 -0700, David Mathog wrote:
> This is a bit off topic but here goes anyway...
> 
> On our beowulf's private subnet I control the DHCP server and
> have all the nodes set to PXE boot.  What happens after that
> PXE boot is controlled by the DHCP server: they either load an
> image, or the dhcp server doesn't specify a boot file and then
> the boot off their internal disks.
> 
> I have a set of workstations I want to be able to reimage 
> on the campus net using similar tools.  Preferably remotely
> (the workstations will boot if sent a WOL).  However the campus
> network folks block dhcp servers other than their own on the
> campus nets.  Consequently even if I set these machines to
> PXE boot there seems to be no way I could control the process.
> 
> Can any of you suggest a way to control a PXE boot without
> having control over DHCP on the local subnet net?  
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> David Mathog
> mathog at caltech.edu
> Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech
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-- 
Brian R. Smith
HPC Systems Administrator
Research Computing Core Facility, USF
Phone: 1(813)974-1467   Cell: 1(813)230-3441
Address: 4202 E Fowler Ave LIB 608
         Tampa, FL 33620
Web: http://rccf.acomp.usf.edu