Using gPXE to alter boot configuration with Server Side Scripting
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Using gPXE to alter boot configuration with Server Side Scripting

Jurjen Bokma

April 2009

gPXE is a PXE boot loader that supports HTTP. This makes it possible for a client to be booted with what the server thinks is appropriate, based on whatever information we like to make it depend on. gPXE is actually meant to be put in a BOOT ROM, but a gPXE bootstrap can be chainloaded onto a standard NIC with onboard PXE support using a DHCP and a TFTP server. The basic setup also describes other DHCP servers, but the Linux case in short is:

  1. Roughly:

    apt-get -y install tftpd-hpa
    mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/tftpboot
    scp ~/tmp/syslinux-3.75/gpxe/src/bin/undionly.kpxe !$

  2. group gpxe
  {
  if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient"
    {
      allow booting;
      next-server 129.125.36.36;
      filename "undionly.kpxe"; # This file compiled from the newest PXELinux source
    }
  if exists user-class and option user-class = "gPXE"
    {
      filename "http://my.domain.com/pub/boot/boot.php";
    }
  
  host sandbox  { hardware ethernet 00:11:22:33:44:55 ; fixed-address 192.168.65.43 ; }
  
  } # end group gpxe