Hello World, 

In the past, we have spoken about custom tftp and pxe configuration that could be used to deploy windows operating system.  Then, we have been speaking about MDT (Microsoft Deployment Tool) that provide the necessary tools and script to deploy windows operating system. 

Since a long time, we wanted to cover the pxe and tftp technology on the Linux side but we never had the chance to do so.   In the past, we had a working setup on Linux systems. However, as technology evolve quite rapidly nowadays, we had to look for most current information about pxe installation infrastructure on Linux.    And… we didn’t find right away the correct information…. 

So, this post (which will probably become a series of posts) will try to describe how to deploy Ubuntu through network… 

Let’s go ! 

Overview

Nowadays, all large infrastructure are relying on some sort of network installation infrastructure to deploy operating system.  WDS,MDT and SCCM are common deployment solutions that can be found in enterprise based on Microsoft technology. In Linux world, you could use solution like FOG, MAAS, Clobber (??)… Most solutions that can perform network installation are basically relying on a number of well known technologies.  To implement a network based installation infrastructure, you need to have the following components/technologies available on your network 

• DHCP server 
• TFTP server 
• PXE boot file 
• File server or web server (used to store the OS installation files)  

These components/technologies can be hosted on a single server or on multiple servers.  To keep it simple, in this post, we will assume that a single server will be hosting all the necessary services and packages software. 

So, let’s start our journey  🙂 

Assumptions 

In this post, we have made the following assumptions in order to have working scenario 

• A single Server installation will be performed
• the server hosting DHCP,TFTP,PXE and File services is running Ubuntu 18.04 or Ubuntu 18.10 operating system 
• The server is configured with a static IP address
• dnsmaq package will be used to provide dhcp,dns and tftp capabilities
• apache will be used as repository for the installation files 
• Ubuntu 18.04.x server will be deployed. You have an Ubuntu 18.04.x valid iso file 
• only BIOS computer will be able to connect to the PXE server and start the installation (no UEFI yet !) 
• You have internet connection in order to download necessary packages  

 

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Step by Step Guide 

Step 1 – Install all the necessary packages 

By default, Ubuntu 18.04/18.10 does not ship with necessary software needed to setup a PXE server.  To build up such server, you will need to install  

• Apache Web Server package 
• dnsmasq package

The dnsmasq package is a easy to use package that allow you to configure DHCP and TFTP settings through a single file.  This package seems to be the standard nowadays for PXE/TFTP implementation

To install the apache package, you will issue the following command  sudo apt-get install apache2

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Start the apache service using the following command  sudo systemctl start apache2 

Check the apache service using the following command  sudo systemctl status apache2 

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To install the dnsmasq package, you will issue the following command  sudo apt-get dnsmasq

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During the installation process, you will see some errors about port 53 already in use… At this stage, you can ignore these errors 

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Step 2 – Set Static IP address 

Usually, Ubuntu installation are using dynamic ip addresses (DHCP). We will move from the dynamic configuration to a static configuration.  To perform such operation, you will click on the network icon on the right side of the top bar > expand the wired connected and select wired settings

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In the right pane, click the gear to open the properties pages 

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Go to the IPv4  

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Change from Automatic to Dynamic and set the necessary ip address information. Press the Apply button and you are back to the network settings page  

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To effectively apply the changes, you have to disable and re-enable the network by using the slider button (or you can reboot the computer)

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To check that the correct ip address has been set, you can open the terminal console and issue the following command ip addr.  In the screenshot, we can see that the ip address is set accordingly.  take also a note of the name of the interface (in the screenshot, it’s eth0) as this information will be needed at a later stage

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Step 3 – Create your TFTP folder structure 

In this step, we will simply create a simple tftp directory structure to host the files needed to perform the network boot. In this post, we will keep the structure quite simple and we will not make any distinction about x86 or x64 architecture.  In this post, we are focusing only on x64 architecture systems.  We will create a top folder called /tftp and a sub-folder called boot 

tftp
 |--boot

To create the top folder, issue the following command  sudo mkdir /tftp 

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To create the sub folder, issue the following command sudo mkdir /tftp/boot .  Using nautilus file explorer, you should see your folder structure 

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Step 4 – Copy the necessary files to the TFTP Folder  

In this step, we have to populate our TFTP folder structure.  To perform such operation, we will need to mount the iso file of Ubuntu 18.04 server on the computer. When the cd is mounted, you will need to locate the install folder (see screenshot)  and copy the netboot folder available on the cd to the /tftp/boot location.  

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Note :

if you do not see this netboot folder, this means that the cd version you have download is not a correct one and you need to download the proper and latest version…

To copy the files, you can use the GUI (nautilus) or use the command line. If you use the command line, you will have to browse to the correct location and then execute the following command

cp -rf  <%Your Path to Install files%>/netboot/*  /tftp/boot

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Step 5 – Copy the installation files in your web server 

By default, after installing apache web server, a folder structure is created under /var/www/html.  Under /var/www/html, we will create a folder called bionic-server that will contains the os installation files of the Ubuntu 18.04.x Server 

To create this folder,from a terminal session, we have issued the following command line 

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/server/bionic

Like in the previous step, we know need to copy the content of the mounted cd in the computer into this newly created folder.  To perform this operation, from the terminal console, navigate to the top folder for the cdrom and execute the following command 

sudo cp -rf  <%Your Path To Install Files%>/*  /var/www/html/server/bionic

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Finally, open a browser and go to the following url from the pxe server, http://localhost/server/bionic. You should see the copied folder structure in the browser

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Step 6 – Configure your system to use dnsmasq service 

We are almost there ! Now, it’s time to configure dnsmasq service which will provide the glue between the different services.  Dnsmasq is an easy to use software that provides DNS,DHCP and TFTP configuration capabilities.  The configuration is done through a single file located under /etc/dnsmasq.conf

To edit the configuration file, issue the following command  sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf and copy/paste the following information at the bottom of the file

Note : You will need to modify it accordingly to reflect your own infrastructure

#Interface information 
#--use ip addr to see the name of the interface on your system
interface=eth0,lo
bind-interfaces
domain=c-nergy.local
#--------------------------
#DHCP Settings
#--------------------------

#-- Set dhcp scope
dhcp-range=192.168.1.160,192.168.1.200,255.255.255.0,2h
#-- Set gateway option
dhcp-option=3,192.168.1.1
#-- Set DNS server option
dhcp-option=6,192.168.1.1
#-- dns Forwarder info
server=8.8.8.8

#----------------------#
# Specify TFTP Options #
#----------------------#

#--location of the pxeboot file
dhcp-boot=/boot/pxelinux.0,pxeserver,192.168.1.150
#--enable tftp service
enable-tftp

#-- Root folder for tftp
tftp-root=/tftp

 

To have the change applied to your system, you will need to restart the dnsmasq service.  To perform such task, you will execute the following command 

sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq

Then, you should check that the dnsmasq is started correctly and that no errors are reported by issuing the command 

sudo systemctl status dnsmasq

Note :

At this stage, you should see that dnsmasq service is running and no error port 53 already in use is thrown on the screen. To avoid this error message, you have to ensure that the three first line of the dnsmasq.conf are correctly set and reflect the settings on your own system…(remember, I asked you to take a note of the interface name showed when you have executed the ip address command…:-) )   

 

Step 7 – Test your setup by pxeboot a BIOS computer… 

If you have followed these instructions, you should be able to boot a BIOS based computer, receive an ip address, pxeboot and you should see the familiar Ubuntu installation Menu (see screenshot)

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Select the option Install and go through the text based Wizard. Select the Language to use  

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Then select provide the name you want to use for this computer.. 

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Select the appropriate options within the wizard till you reach the Select a mirror for Ubuntu Archive. Select the option, enter information manually and proceed to the next screen

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In the next screen, provide the name or the ip address of the pxe server hosting the installation media. Proceed 

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In the directory page, provide the location where the installation files are located.  In our example, we have stored the files under the /server/bionic folder structure

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Specify if you need a proxy or not and Proceed

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If everything goes fine, you should see the installation process starting… 

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You should see after this, wizard pages with some additional questions in order to complete your installation…. 

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Note : 

After completing the installation, there is a need apparently to update the information to retrieve valid ubuntu repositories.  You will need to update the file /etc/apt/sources.list and replace your pxe ip or hostname zith valid archive name for ubuntu (something like archive.ubuntu.com).  you can achieve this by executing the following command 

sudo sed -i.bak ‘s/<%Your IP address or Hostname%>/archive.ubuntu.com/g’ /etc/apt/sources.list

 

And this is it ! 

Final Notes 

This is it for this post !

In this post, we have really covered the basics of PXE installation of Ubuntu Server 18.04.  This guide should be working for Ubuntu 18.10 and Ubuntu 19.04.  So, at this stage, we can boot a computer and start the Ubuntu installation from the network.  However, a manual installation is still needed at this stage. 

We have the feeling that this is just the beginning of the journey.  In this post, we have explained how to deploy Ubuntu Server Edition. In the next post (we are already preparing), we will see if we can also deploy Ubuntu Desktop edition through PXE infrastructure.  Deploying Ubuntu Desktop through PXE seems a little bit more challenging than Ubuntu Server based on our research through Internet.  

Stay tuned 

Till next time 

See ya