Customizing the network boot server environment
Many companies use a preboot execution environment (PXE) to boot, install, and deploy hypervisors and operating systems. To use your company's network boot server, you might need to make some configuration changes to match the DPM implementation for the network boot server environment. Use the information in this procedure to customize your existing configuration files to work with the DPM NetworkBoot function.
Before you begin
- A network boot server environment usually consists of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) server, a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server and, optionally, a Domain Name System
(DNS) server. These network boot server environments are based on the Intel Preboot eXecution Environment specification and specific Internet Engineering
Task Force (IEFT) requests for comments (RFCs) related to networking.
Before you complete the steps in this procedure, your installation must set up a DHCP server and a TFTP server, according to the IEFT RFCs. These servers can reside on the same or on different systems within the network. Note that the configuration examples in this procedure work for Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) DHCP servers; the configuration statements for other DHCP servers are different.
- When communicating with network boot servers, DPM sends the universally unique identifier (UUID) of the partition in DHCP option 61, so the
DHCP server must be configured to use that option and UUID in class or pool definitions.
You need to know the UUID of the partition, and the UUIDs of any other partitions for which you want to use the network boot server to install the hypervisor or operating system. To determine the UUID, open the Partition Details task for a specific partition, and find the value listed for Object ID in the General section.
To indicate that a request comes from an IBM Z® or IBM LinuxONE (LinuxONE) system, DPM also sends an identifier in DHCP option 93. This client-arch option has a fixed value of 32. You can use this option to tailor the processing related to a request from an IBM® system.