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This section describes how to boot a cluster from the network using the Intel Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) specification. This booting process (commonly referred to as network booting) is supported by most NICs. PXE is one way to boot your storage cluster nodes.
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| title | Platform ServerIf you use Platform Server, skip this section: your network booting is set up. |
To enable nodes to boot from a USB flash drive, see Initializing a Storage Cluster.
To enable nodes to boot using a configuration file server, see the section below.
To enable nodes to PXE boot, perform these steps:
Configure your DHCP server with next-server and filename parameters.
Configure PortFast on the switch ports leading to the storage cluster nodes.
Configure the TFTP server with PXE bootstrap, configuration, and Swarm files.
Set up the nodes' BIOS configurations for network booting.
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RequirementIncrease the size of the initrd RAM disk to 160MB on your PXE boot server to prevent PXE boot failures. This does not apply if using Platform Server. |
Setting up the DHCP server for PXE booting
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WarningSwarm can erase all non-Swarm data on hosts that boot accidentally from the network. When you set up your DHCP server, verify that it provides network booting information to the correct network hosts only. |
The following example shows the configuration lines from the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) DHCP server that is commonly available on UNIX systems. As shown below, the next-server parameter defines the IP address of the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server and the filename parameter to define the bootstrap loader program to download.
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To set up your TFTP server:
Install and configure TFTP server software on the boot server.
Create the /tftpboot directory hierarchy.
Copy the kernel and fsimage files to the /tftpboot/profiles/castor directory.
See DHCP and Boot Server Redundancy, below.
Installing and configuring TFTP
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After you copy the directory template and the Swarm software files, the tftpboot directory on the TFTP server should contain these files:
File name | Description |
|---|---|
| Boot loader program |
| Swarm software |
| Swarm operating system kernel |
| PXELINUX configuration file |
See the documentation and ZIP file in the samples/Network-Boot directory on the Swarm distribution media for help with using the PXELINUX boot loader.
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When you set up your DHCP server, configure both a primary and secondary DHCP server. This configuration eliminates a single point of failure if one of the servers goes offline for any reason.
To set up the ISC DHCP daemon for redundancy, see "Failover with ISC DHCP" at madboa.com/geek/dhcp-failover.
To provide redundancy at the network booting layer, you can use your primary and secondary DHCP servers as TFTP servers.
When you set up your DHCP servers, set the next-server parameter in each server to specify their own IP address. When the primary or secondary DHCP server answers a DHCP query, it will also handle the PXE boot.To prevent any network interruptions, ensure that the TFTP boot servers are located in the same broadcast domain (or VLAN) as the Swarm nodes or enable a DHCP relay server on the VLAN.
Setting up a configuration file server
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Platform ServerIf you use Platform Server, skip this section: your centralized configuration is set up. |
Swarm supports centralized node configuration files on an HTTP or FTP server. This method allows you to boot from a network or a standard USB flash drive. A centralized configuration file server simplifies storage cluster administration by supporting configuration file updates and providing a method to group similar node configurations together.
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See the /caringo/node.cfg.sample in the Swarm software distribution.
See Managing Configuration Settings.
Disabling monitor power-saving activation
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