Some notes on node image deployment

Nodes are provided in ISO format. These ISO images can be deployed by either:

1. Writing the image to a CD
2. Writing the image to USB flash using livecd-iso-to-disk utility
3. Creating pxe bootable files using livecd-iso-to-pxeboot utility

To burn a Node image to a usb stick accessible as /dev/sdb: livecd-iso-to-disk --format /usr/share/ovirt-node-image/ovirt-node-image.iso /dev/sdb

To create vmlinuz and initrd images suitable for pxe booting: livecd-iso-to-pxeboot /usr/share/ovirt-node-image/ovirt-node-image.iso

The output of livecd-iso-to-pxeboot is a directory called tftpboot that has the following files in it: ./pxelinux.0 ./pxelinux.cfg/default ./vmlinuz0 ./initrd0.img

The vmlinuz0/initrd0.img files can be imported into a cobbler server or any other PXE/tftp server. pxelinux.cfg/default provides a template for configuring the pxe server to export the Node image:

DEFAULT pxeboot TIMEOUT 20 PROMPT 0 LABEL pxeboot KERNEL vmlinuz0 APPEND rootflags=loop initrd=initrd0.img root=/ovirt-node-image.iso rootfstype=auto ro liveimg check rootfstype=iso9660 elevator=deadline ONERROR LOCALBOOT 0

In addition, PXE booted Nodes rely on the PXE server passing the mac address of the pxe interface to the kernel. This is provided by using the IPAPPEND 2 parameter as follows:

DEFAULT pxeboot TIMEOUT 20 PROMPT 0 LABEL pxeboot KERNEL vmlinuz0 IPAPPEND 2 APPEND rootflags=loop initrd=initrd0.img root=/ovirt-node-image.iso rootfstype=auto ro liveimg check rootfstype=iso9660 elevator=deadline ONERROR LOCALBOOT 0