jimklimov/omnios-pxe-boot.md

## omnios-pxe-boot.md

      
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              omnios-pxe-boot.md
            
          
    omnios pxe install notes

The goal was to be able to perform a network install of OmniOS from a Debian system.
I know there is refinement that can take place in this process (and these notes), but this got me up and running.
All testing took place on a Mac running VirtualBox with the extra extensions installed to allow for PXE booting. However I cannot see why this wouldn't work on real hardware in a network that is already setup to do PXE installs.
I setup:


omnios vm running bloody release (20121004 release)

Solaris 10/x64 type vm
512Mb RAM
16Gb drive
choose Intel networking
OS installed using all defaults from the ISO


vm running debian

two nics

choose Intel networking
first was host-only networking
second setup NAT


solaris 10/x64 blank vm

two nics

choose Intel networking
first was host-only networking, same network as debian vm, make a note of the MAC address
second setup for NAT


blank 16Gb disk attached
set boot order to network boot first, but you can do this from the F12 menu


PXE setup

To perform the PXE boot you're going to need the initial kernel environment and miniroot.
These are packaged in the "system/install/kayak-kernel" package. Unfortunately as far as I could see there is no way to download these packages using http, you can only get the manifest. I installed an OmniOS vm so that I would have access to pkg(5).
# mkdir pkgs
# pkgrecv -s https://pkg.omniti.com/omnios/bloody -d /root/pkgs --raw pkg:/system/install/kayak-kernel

Examples taken from http://omnios.omniti.com/wiki.php/PopulatingRepos
Now if you browse into pkgs you'll see the system/install/kayak-kernel dir which contains the release. In there are the actual package files. I used the manifest.file to match the checksummed filenames against what they should actually be. You should end up with:
pxegrub
miniroot.gz
unix
menu.lst

My VM had less than 4Gb of RAM and I ended up hitting a bug in the disk_help.sh script. If you've got more than 4Gb of RAM you can skip this step. This has been fixed, but the fix wasn't in the miniroot I had. Fortunately it's easy to patch:
# gzip -d miniroot.gz
# cp miniroot /tmp
# mkdir /mnt/test
# mount -o nologging `lofiadm -a /tmp/miniroot` /mnt/test/
# vi /mnt/test/kayak/disk_help.sh and apply this patch:

http://omnios.omniti.com/changeset.php/core/kayak/436e39c34bf354df2bd4a607856cb8047002db74

# umount /mnt/test
# lofiadm -d /tmp/miniroot
# cp /tmp/miniroot .
# gzip miniroot

Now copy the files onto your debian box.
You'll also need some install media. If you look at the menu.list file you'll see that the kernel boots with an install_media and install_config option:
install_media=http:///kayak/r151002.zfs.bz2,install_config=http:///kayak

The install_config is your kayak config, which I'll cover below. The install media is a compressed zfs image, which you can create with the kayak tools.
I used the kayak source:
# pkg install git
# mkdir src && cd src
# git clone anon@src.omniti.com:~omnios/core/kayak
# cd kayak

Now build the image:
# ./build_zfs_send.sh bloody

This will download the packages and install them into a zfs mount. It will then create a compressed snapshot using zfs and bzip.
When it's done you'll have /rpool/kayak_bloody.zfs.bz2, copy this to your debian box.
On the debian box you'll need to install a dhcp server, tftp server, and a webserver. I went with:
tftpd-hpa
isc-dhcp-server
nginx

I used the default config for the tftpd server, it uses /srv/tftp as its root, you install the file copied from the OmniOS box at:
/srv/tftp/kayak/miniroot.gz
/srv/tftp/kayak/kayak_bloody.zfs.bz2
/srv/tftp/pxegrub
/srv/tftp/boot/grub/menu.lst
/srv/tftp/boot/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix

Setup your webserver to serve out the files from /srv/tftp. The menu.list expects to get things from http://IP/kayak to make sure you can access that. Edit the menu.list and change r151002.zfs.bz2 to be kayak_bloody.zfs.bz2.
You'll need a basic kayak config. The wiki explains the config options http://omnios.omniti.com/wiki.php/KayakClientOptions
I used the example config:
BuildRpool c1t0d0
SetHostname omnios-installer
UseDNS 8.8.8.8
Postboot '/sbin/ipadm create-if e1000g1' # Use g1 here as the first nic is host-only networking
Postboot '/sbin/ipadm create-addr -T dhcp e1000g1/v4'
NO_REBOOT=1

it should be named after the MAC address of the card, and live in /srv/tftp/kayak
e.g.
/srv/tftp/kayak/0800278C5336

For the networking, I had eth0 using NAT/DHCP from virtualbox. eth0 was on the host only network. I statically assigned it 10.1.0.10/255.255.255.0
I've then used the following simple DHCP config. Change the MAC to be the MAC of your host only networking card from the solaris type vm.
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

allow booting;
allow bootp;

subnet 10.1.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 10.1.0.50 10.1.0.100;
  option broadcast-address 10.1.0.255;
  option routers 10.1.0.10;
  option domain-name-servers 10.1.0.10;
}

group {

  next-server 10.1.0.10;
  host tftpclient {
    hardware ethernet MAC;
    filename "pxegrub";
  }
}

Now you should be able to boot your solaris type vm. It will boot over the network, launch grub, then proceed into the omnios installer. When it finishes you can login as root with a blank password, shut down the box, and disable the pxe booting. Then start the box back up, and login (root and a blank password).
Troubleshooting

If the install fails you'll get left in a miniroot environment. There is a log in /tmp/kayak.log which should help figure out what's wrong. The miniroot I used had no less, so you'll need to use head to view it. If it gets as far as downloading the zfs image, then you'll have more tools in /mnt that you can use.