PXE Formula

The PXE formula is used to configure PXE booting on the branch server.

Procedure: Configuring PXE booting

  1. In the SUSE Manager Web UI, open the details page for the branch server, and navigate to the Formulas tab.

  2. Select the Pxe formula, and click Save.

  3. Navigate to the Formulas  Pxe tab, and set these parameters:

    • In the Kernel filename field, keep the default value.

    • In the Initrd filename field, keep the default value.

    • In the Kernel command line parameters field, keep the default value. For more information about possible values, see Kernel Command Line Parameters.

    • In the PXE root directory field, enter the path to the saltboot directory (for example, /srv/saltboot).

    • In the Branch id field, type a name to use as a branch identifier (for example: Branch0001). Use only alphanumeric characters for the branch identifier.

  4. Click Save Formula to save your configuration

  5. Apply the highstate.

Kernel Command Line Parameters

Saltboot supports common kernel parameters and saltboot-specific kernel parameters. All the parameters can be entered in the Kernel Command Line Parameters field of the PXE formula.

kiwidebug=1
Do Not Use in Production

Do not use this parameter in a production environment as it creates a major security hole. This parameter should be used only in a development environment for debug purposes.

+

Starts a shell on tty2 during boot and enables debug log level in Salt.

MASTER

Overrides auto-detection of the Salt master. For example:

MASTER=myproxy.domain.com
SALT_TIMEOUT

Overrides the local boot fallback timeout if the Salt master does not apply the saltboot state within this timeout (default: 60 seconds). For example:

SALT_TIMEOUT=300
DISABLE_HOSTNAME_ID

If the terminal has a hostname assigned by DHCP, it is by default used as a minion ID. Setting this option to 1 disables this mechanism, and SMBios information will be used as a minion ID.

DISABLE_UNIQUE_SUFFIX

Setting this option to 1 disables adding random generated suffix to terminal minion ID.

If you set this parameter make sure your terminal has either a unique hostname provided by DHCP and DNS, or the terminal hardware comes with a unique serial number stored in its SMBios memory. Otherwise there is a risk of terminal minion ID duplicity, and bootstrapping the minion will fail.

The following parameters (MINION_ID_PREFIX, salt_device, root) are usually autoconfigured and should be used only in specific conditions such as debugging or development:

MINION_ID_PREFIX

Branch ID set in the PXE formula form.

salt_device

Device that contains the Salt configuration.

root

Device that contains the already deployed root filesystem. Used for falling back to local boot.