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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 the storage cluster nodes.

• 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:

1. Configure

   your

   the DHCP server with next-server and filename parameters.

2. Configure PortFast on the switch ports leading to the storage cluster nodes.

3. Configure the TFTP server with PXE bootstrap, configuration, and Swarm files.

4. Set up the nodes' BIOS configurations for network booting.

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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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In this example, the Swarm nodes are explicitly defined by MAC address to prevent Swarm from initiating an unattended boot by other servers or workstations.

Configuring PortFast on

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switch ports

PortFast is a switch port configuration parameter that enables a port to bypass the listening and learning Spanning Tree states so the port will immediately forward forwards traffic.

If you connect a storage cluster node is connected to a network switch, ensure that PortFast is configured on the switch ports leading to each node. Otherwise, the extended time delay can prevent netboot from delivering the Swarm image to a PXE-enabled node in a timely manner.

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The TFTP server transfers configuration or boot files between systems in a local environment. After you configure your configuring the DHCP server, configure your the TFTP server to load the Swarm software onto the cluster nodes.

To set up your the TFTP server:

1. Install and configure TFTP server software on the boot server.

2. Create the /tftpboot directory hierarchy.

3. Copy the kernel and fsimage files to the /tftpboot/profiles/castor directory.

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TFTP server software is available in both free and commercial packages. UNIX distributions commonly include TFTP server software with the standard setup. For example, the tftp-hpa package for UNIX can integrate with Swarm. You can also obtain source code Source code can be obtained from the Linux Kernel Archives website located at kernel.org/pub/software/network/tftp.

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Creating the tftpboot directory hierarchy

After you install installing the TFTP server, configure the server to access the network boot file directory. This directory is typically labeled /tftpboot because TFTP is almost exclusively used for booting network devices.

A sample template is included in the samples/NetworkBoot directory of your the Swarm software distribution.

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The Swarm software distribution media includes the kernel and fsimage files, which contain the Swarm embedded operating system. Copy these files to the tftpboot/profiles/castor directory on the TFTP server so they will load onto each Swarm node during bootup.

After you copy copying the directory template and the Swarm software files, the tftpboot directory on the TFTP server should contain these files:

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DHCP and boot server redundancy

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DHCP DHCP

When you set setting up your the 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 the primary and secondary DHCP servers as TFTP servers.
  When you set setting up your the DHCP servers, set the next-server parameter in each server to specify a separate IP address. When the primary or secondary DHCP server answers a DHCP query, it will also handle handles 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

Swarm supports centralized node configuration files on an HTTP or FTP server. This method allows you to boot booting 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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Although Swarm configuration settings can be defined multiple times, only the last definition is used. By redefining the settings, you can layer configuration files can be layered so that they contain generally applicable values for a cluster, a group of similar nodes, and values specific to one node.

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