[mythtv-users] Best options/howto for diskless frontends

Per Jessen per at computer.org
Mon Nov 26 09:33:40 UTC 2012


Paul Gardiner wrote:

> My hopes are (anyone of which can be dropped if it simplifies things):
> 
> 1) Not to have to add a disk to my Zotac ION.

You can boot with root on NFS.

> 2) To use opensuse because it's the linux I best know.

I have servers on openSUSE that boot with root on NFS, it works.  I had
to generate the initrd separately though.

> 3) To do the initial install actually on the diskless machine,
> so that I get as much automatic config as possible.

I think that means hooking up a drive first, then installing, then
copying the filesystem to your NFS-server.  I don't think I've ever
tried installing straight onto NFS. 

> 4) To be able to switch off the diskless machine without
> shutting down.

So suspend?  Yes, I've been meaning to look into that too. 

> I have dhcp/pxe/tftp already set up on my opensuse server/backend
> already, so it should be just a case of altering that.

This is from one my pxe config files:

append initrd=<your-initrd> root=/dev/nfs rw
nfsroot=192.168.2.170:/var/pifs/stork1/root
rootflags=hard,intr,v3,wsize=8192,rsize=8192 

You need NFS v3 because the suse initrd does not work with NFS v4 for
booting.

> I found this fairly simple description of how to install opensuse
> to a diskless machine:
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:PXE_boot_installation
> but it makes no mention of a writable NFS share, so I don't understand
> to where it installs!

To a local disk most probably.


-- 
Per Jessen, Zürich (9.6°C)
http://www.dns24.ch/ - free DNS hosting, made in Switzerland.



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