PowerEdge: HTTP Boot in SLES 15

HTTP Boot

HTTP Boot is a client/server communication-based application. It combines the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to provide the capability for system deployment and configuration over the network. This new capability can be used as a higher-performance replacement for Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) based Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Boot methods of network deployment.

This document provides a brief introduction to the HTTP Boot mechanism, instructions on setting up the HTTP Boot server on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15(SLES15), and a practice of installing SLES15 on a Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G and above servers using HTTP Boot.

Configuring the HTTP Boot server

In this section, we demonstrate how HTTP Boot can be used with Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. We also show how to establish an HTTP Boot server in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES 15) operating system.OS installations through HTTP Boot uses grub as HTTP NBP, we must edit the grub.cfg file, which loads the kernel and initrd from the installation image through the http protocol and kicks the installation to start.

Steps:

In our example, /var/www/html is used as the HTTP server root directory.

1. Set up a server with an HTTP service running on it.

systemctl start httpd 

2. Copy the SLES 15 iso in the root directory and mount it to a temp folder.
3. Create a folder in /var/www/html/

                        For example: Here httpboot folder is created.

4. Copy the contents of /root/tmp/EFI/BOOT in /var/www/html/httpboot

5. Create another folder inside /var/www/html/sles15 and copy the initrdefi and linuxefi from /root/tmp/boot/x86_64/loader. These are the initrd and kernel that are used for initial boot from http boot server.

6. Create another folder with the repository of SLES 15. This is the repository from where the installer picks the packages during installation.
7. Edit the grub.cfg file to get the menu entries (if you require additional OS entries)

Configuring HTTP Boot Client:

HTTP Boot should be supported and enabled on the UEFI HTTP Boot clients in the BIOS.

1. Power on the server and press the F2 key to enter the System Setup menu.
2. Select System BIOS.

3. Select Boot Settings:

          Select Boot Mode as UEFI.  Save the Settings.

4. Select Network Settings

5. Under UEFI HTTP Settings select HTTP Device 1: Enabled

6. Go to HTTP Device1 Settings:

           Enable an Interface.

           Select Protocol as IPv4.

           Disable VLAN.

           Enter a URI :

Installing an OS through HTTP Boot

Before you install the OS through HTTP Boot, verify the following:

The HTTP Boot server, and client machine are in the same network segment. The HTTP service and DHCP service are in active status. 

The HTTP Boot option is enabled, and the boot mode is set to UEFI in the BIOS on the client side. 

Steps:

To install the OS through HTTP Boot on the server, perform the following steps:

1. Power on the Dell PowerEdge server and press F11 to enter the BOOT MANAGER.

2. Select Boot Menu option as HTTP Device1.