Diskless Fedora

DHCP

yum -y install dhcp

cat > /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf <<EOF
authoritative;
ddns-update-style none;

# set lease time to infinite (-1)
default-lease-time -1;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  option domain-name "pxetest";
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
  option routers 192.168.0.1;
  use-host-decl-names on;
  allow booting;
  allow bootp;
  class "pxeclients" {
   match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
   next-server server-ip;
   filename "pxelinux.0";
  }

  host pxe-test { hardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00; fixed-address 192.168.0.2; }
}
EOF

systemctl enable dhcpd.service
systemctl restart dhcpd.service

TFTP

yum -y install tftp-server
yum -y install syslinux
cp /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.0

# Enable the particular xinetd service
sed -i 's/disable\t\t\t= yes/disable\t\t\t= no/' /etc/xinetd.d/tftp

systemctl enable xinetd.service
systemctl restart xinetd.service

NFS

yum -y install nfs-utils
mkdir /srv

cat > /etc/exports << EOF
/srv/ 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_root_squash)
EOF

systemctl enable nfs-server.service 
systemctl restart nfs-server.service 

PXE Linux

CLIENT_IP=192.168.0.2
MAC=`printf '%02X' ${CLIENT_IP//./ }`

mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/
cat > /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/fedora16 <<EOF
timeout 5
default fedora16

label fedora16
  kernel fedora16/vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64
  append initrd=fedora16/initramfs-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64.img ip=p4p1:dhcp root=nfs:192.168.0.1:/srv/pxe-test rw panic=30
EOF

# For tftp to work it needs a relative link
cd /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/
ln -svf fedora16 $MAC

mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/fedora16/

# Deal with kernel and initramfs
yum -y install dracut-network # needed for root=nfs
dracut /var/lib/tftpboot/fedora16/initramfs-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64.img 3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64 --force
cp /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64 /var/lib/tftpboot/fedora16/vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64

# Not sure why, but the initrd doesn't have read permission
chmod o+r /var/lib/tftpboot/fedora16/*

Client Root Prep

# Install a base system that we will nfs export
# Alternatevly you can take an existing system:
# rsync -aPv --exclude='/proc/*' --exclude='/sys/*' hostname.com:/ /srv/hostname/

# Fresh install into an alternate root:
yum -y groupinstall Base --installroot=/srv/pxe-test
yum -y remove sendmail --installroot=/srv/pxe-test

# Screw the kvm, just ssh:
yum -y install openssh-server --installroot=/srv/pxe-test
mkdir -p /srv/pxe-test/root/.ssh/
chmod 700 /srv/pxe-test/root/.ssh/
cp /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub /srv/pxe-test/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 /srv/pxe-test/root/.ssh/authorized_keys 

# Need an fstab for the client
cat > /srv/pxe-test/etc/fstab <<EOF
none		/tmp		tmpfs	defaults	0 0
tmpfs		/dev/shm	tmpfs	defaults	0 0
sysfs		/sys		sysfs	defaults	0 0
proc		/proc		proc 	defaults	0 0
EOF

# Don't bother going graphical
ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /srv/pxe-test/etc/systemd/system/default.target

# Disable NFSv4 boot slowness
rm /srv/pxe-test/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nfs-idmap.service
rm /srv/pxe-test/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rpcbind.service
# Disable network manager as the kernel takes care of dhcp for us:
rm /srv/pxe-test/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/NetworkManager.service 

References

• https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/14/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/nfs-diskless-systems.html