bionic (8) fai-chboot.8.gz

Provided by: fai-server_5.3.6ubuntu1_all bug

NAME

       fai-chboot - manage the network boot configuration files

SYNOPSIS

       fai-chboot [OPTION]... KERNELNAME HOST...
       fai-chboot -l[e|d|t|o|g] [PATTERN]
       fai-chboot -e HOST...
       fai-chboot -d HOST...
       fai-chboot -c HOST|TEMPLATE HOST|TEMPLATE...
       fai-chboot -i [OPTION]... HOST...
       fai-chboot -I [OPTION]... HOST...

DESCRIPTION

       This command creates the configuration files for network booting using pxelinux and DHCP.

       KERNELNAME is the file name of the kernel that will be booted. This kernel will mount the root filesystem
       via NFS. You can add additional kernel parameters and define some FAI specific flags. For each  host  one
       configuration  file  is  created. The file name of the configuration file is its IP address in upper case
       hexadecimal or its MAC address with the prefix "01-". HOST can be a host name, an IP or a MAC address  or
       the keyword "default".

OPTIONS

       -B     Set default values for FAI_FLAGS. This is the same as -f verbose,sshd,reboot

       -c     Copy  an  existing  config  file  to  one  or  more hosts or templates and enable them for network
              booting.

       -C CFDIR
              Use CFDIR as the configuration directory. Default is /etc/fai. You can also  set  the  environment
              variable FAI_ETC_DIR.

       -D DIR Set   the   directory   for   the  network  boot  configuration  to  DIR.  The  default  value  is
              /srv/tftp/fai/pxelinux.cfg/.

       -d     Disable the PXE configuration for the specific HOST. This  renames  the  config  file  adding  the
              suffix .disable to it, making PXE boot fall back to the default.

       -e     Re-enable network booting for HOST. This renames the config file removing the suffix .disable from
              it, so the next time it uses its own PXE configuration.

       -E     Add FAI_FLAG initial. This causes setup-storage to disable preserving partitions. This  may  erase
              (therefore option E) data on the disk.

       -f fai_flags
              Set FAI_FLAGS. The flags must be comma separated.

       -F     Set default values for FAI_FLAGS. This is the same as -f verbose,sshd,createvt

       -h     Show simple help and version.

       -i     Set  parameters  for  booting the FAI install kernel (proper initrd, boot from nfs). This does not
              set FAI_ACTION

       -I     Same as -i but also sets FAI_ACTION=install. So a fully automatic installation will be  performed.
              ATTENTION! This will erase most of the data on the local disks of the install clients.

       -k parameters
              Set kernel append parameters.

       -l     List  the  configuration  for  all  hosts  in  short  format. If PATTERN is given, list only hosts
              matching PATTERN. Lists hostname, FAI_ACTION, kernel name and IP address in hex. Use -le, to  list
              only  enabled hosts, -ld to list only disabled hosts, -lt to list only templates, -lo to list only
              hosts that do not match any of the previous categories, and -lg to list the configuration for  all
              hosts,  sorted  and  ordered  by  groups  (enabled,  disabled,  templates,  others).   Note that a
              combination of multiple -l options is not supported and that in listing mode no other action  will
              be performed.

       -L     List  the  configuration  for  all  hosts.  Also list the kernel append parameters.  If PATTERN is
              given, list only hosts matching PATTERN.

       -n     Do not create configuration but show what would be done. This also enables the verbose flag.

       -o     Do localboot via PXE. Do not boot via network card, but use next boot device which is specified in
              the BIOS. Normally this is the local disk.

       -p     Preserve existing config files. The default is to overwrite an existing config file.

       -P     Add  the pxelinux option IPAPPEND 6 to the config file. This will add the two variables BOOTIF and
              SYSUUID to the kernel command line, that are also defined as variables inside FAI.

              Example:
                   BOOTIF=01-08-00-27-12-34-56
                   SYSUUID=00234567-1111-2222-3333-123456789000

       -s SUFFIX
              Use SUFFIX to determine which kernel and initrd to use.

       -S     Same as -i but also sets FAI_ACTION=sysinfo.

       -u URL Set FAI_CONFIG_SRC to URL. Setting this variable is  mandatory  for  the  operation  of  FAI.  See
              fai.conf(5) for the format of this variable.

       -U URL Add URL to kernel and initrd file names. lpxelinux.0 can use FTP and HTTP for getting these files.

       -v     Create verbose output.

EXAMPLES

       fai-chboot -l
              List  the  configuration for all hosts.  fai-chboot -FSPv -u nfs://faiserver/srv/fai/config atom02
              The host atom02 will boot the FAI install kernel but with FAI_ACTION sysinfo.

       fai-chboot -l tmpl
              All templates are listed.

       fai-chboot -IBPv -u nfs://faiserver/srv/fai/config atom02
              The host atom02 will be installed. ATTENTION! All data on the local hard disks are  lost  in  most
              cases,  because  we  want  to  install a new system. After the installation the host automatically
              reboots.

       fai-chboot -vSP -s2.6.18-4-amd64 faiserver
              Booting kernel vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-amd64
               append initrd=initrd.img-2.6.18-4-amd64 ip=dhcp

              faiserver has 1.2.3.4 in hex 01020304
              Writing file /srv/tftp/fai/pxelinux.cfg/01020304 for faiserver

       fai-chboot -IFv -u nfs://faiserver/srv/fai/clusterconf node03
              node03 will be installed using the configuration space /srv/fai/clusterconf, which is mounted from
              faiserver via NFS.

       fai-chboot memtest86+ atom02
              The  host atom02 will boot the memory test. Install the package memtest86+ and copy the executable
              memtest86+.bin to /srv/tftp/fai without the .bin suffix.

       fai-chboot -o default
              All hosts, that do not have a PXE configuration for their IP-address will  do  a  localboot,  i.e.
              booting from local disk.

       fai-chboot -vc lenny64 james007
              This command will tell the host james007 to use the template called lenny64.  Beforehand, you have
              to manually create the template and save it to /srv/tftp/fai/pxelinux.cfg/lenny64.tmpl.

       fai-chboot -iFPv atom02 atom03 dom kueppers
              The hosts atom02, atom03, dom and kueppers will boot the FAI install kernel. FAI_ACTION  will  not
              be  set  unless  specified with option -k or -I. You can also use the script class/LAST.var on the
              install server to set FAI_ACTION.

       NOTES  Currently only PXE boot is supported.

SEE ALSO

       /usr/share/doc/syslinux/pxelinux.doc.gz The pxelinux documentation.

       This program is part of FAI (Fully Automatic Installation). See the FAI manual for  more  information  on
       how to use fai-chboot. The FAI homepage is http://fai-project.org.

AUTHOR

       Thomas Lange <lange@informatik.uni-koeln.de>