Deploying an ipmi/pxe-boot Device
=================================

This page describes the hardware and software setup for IPMI/PXE-boot, such as
the setup used by LAVA for a Calxeda Highbank target.


Machines for Dispatching a Job
------------------------------

Dispatching a job to a pxe target involves several steps and communication
between several machines, including servers traditionally used for lava, and
also servers for serving the master address and master images for pxe booting.

The following diagram assumes the configuration for a Calxeda Highbank target.
Specifically, it shows an ethernet port dedicated to ipmi/serial communications
and a separate port used for booting the pxe image and also used as the
target's network connection.

.. image:: images/ipmi_pxe/pxe_machines.png

**dhcp server:** Serves the dhcp address for the target, specifies the address
of the tftp server for pxe boot.

**tftp server:** Serves the kernel and initrd to the target.

**dispatcher:** Controls the target via ipmi commands. Opens a serial-over-lan
connection to send commands to the target.

**target:** Takes boot image from the tftp server, then is controlled by the
dispatcher.


Dispatch Steps
--------------

The target boots using pxe boot for any modifications that are needed to
install the test image or to install or read files from the target. The target
is booted from its own local media (i.e. a disk drive) for running the actual
image and tests.

.. image:: images/ipmi_pxe/ipmi_pxe_lava_sequence.png


Configuration
-------------


Installing ipmitool
...................

The first configuration step is to get ipmitool installed. On Ubuntu, this is
very easy to do::

  $ apt install ipmitool

Other systems might have ipmitool already available in their package
repositories. If yours doesn't, you can always `install from source`_.

.. _install from source: http://ipmitool.sourceforge.net/

Address Configuration
.....................

Device address configuration will vary for different targets. It is important
to make sure that ipmitool can communicate with the target and that there is at
least one ethernet port for use by the test image.

The specific address used for ipmi commands is specified in each target config
file.


Addressing Calxeda Highbank Devices
...................................

For Calxeda Highbank machines, each node uses three addresses, one for
controlling the node, and two for networking.

* control

* eth0

* eth1


There is no requirement that the nodes be named in any particular way. Lava
requires two things with respect to addresses:

* the control channel address or name must be specified in the device
  configuration file

* eth0 must be served an address via dhcp.


For example, the devices were named as follows for initial testing:

::

  calxeda<mm>-<nn>-00 - eth0

  calxeda<mm>-<nn>-01 - eth1

  calxeda<mm>-<nn>-02 - control

where <mm> is the machine number and <nn> is the node number.

Using this naming convention, the following command turns on the power of
calxeda machine number 2, node number 1::

  $ ipmitool -H calxeda02-01-02 -U <user> -P <password> chassis power on


ipmitool usage
..............

ipmitool is used to control power on the device, to select the boot source, and
to open a serial terminal to the device.

powering on the device::

  $ ipmitool -H <target> -U <user> -P <password> chassis power on

powering off the device::

  $ ipmitool -H <target> -U <user> -P <password> chassis power off

resetting the device::

  $ ipmitool -H <target> -U <user> -P <password> chassis power reset

selecting pxe boot::

  $ ipmitool -H <target> -U <user> -P <password> chassis bootdev pxe

selecting disk boot::

  $ ipmitool -H <target> -U <user> -P <password> chassis bootdev disk

Opening a serial connection over the network::

  $ ipmitool -H <target> -I lanplus -U <user> -P <password> sol activate

Note: The serial-connection command is specified in the target type config
file. This allows the user to specify a command for connecting to the serial
terminal of a target:

*highbank.conf*

::

  client_type = highbank
  connection_command = ipmitool -I lanplus -U admin -P admin -H %(ecmeip)s sol activate

.. _sol_closed_bmc:

Serial over LAN input issues
............................

Some PXE bootloaders are unable to buffer serial input, causing loss of
characters. To simulate interactive command input, a delay can be added between
characters sent to the bootloader using the ``bootloader_serial_delay_ms``
option in the device-type configuration. Values are specified in milliseconds::

  bootloader_serial_delay_ms = 300

Some Serial over LAN (SOL) controllers are similarly unable to process bursts
of input over the serial connection. The :term:`BMC` drops the serial connection
and outputs the error::

  SOL session closed by BMC

To avoid this problem, set a delay to use between each character sent over the
serial line during the operation of the test shell::

  test_shell_serial_delay_ms = 100

.. seealso:: :ref:`input_speeds` for the updated syntax on setting
   character delays in the device configuration.

busybox httpd + wget
....................

busybox httpd is used to serve files from the target to the dispatcher. wget
can then be used to download the files.

Execute on the target:

::

  (initrd) cd /lava
  (initrd) busybox httpd -f -v
  (initrd) dispatcher
  (initrd) wget http://calxeda02-02-00/fs.gz


PXE Boot
--------

PXE booting requires a dhcp and tftp services on the network. These services
provide the kernel and initrd images to the target.

Server Configuration
....................

The addresses for each target are defined in dnsmasq.conf. In addition, the
first interface is set up for tftp boot.

*dnsmasq.conf (sample)*

::

  dhcp-host=set:lava-master,fc:2f:40:17:da:28,calxeda02-01-00,192.168.2.76
  dhcp-host=fc:2f:40:17:da:29,calxeda02-01-01,192.168.2.77
  dhcp-host=fc:2f:40:17:da:2a,calxeda02-01-02,192.168.2.78
  dhcp-host=set:lava-master,fc:2f:40:08:7e:4c,calxeda02-02-00,192.168.2.79
  dhcp-host=fc:2f:40:08:7e:4d,calxeda02-02-01,192.168.2.80
  dhcp-host=fc:2f:40:08:7e:4e,calxeda02-02-02,192.168.2.81

  ...

  # Set the boot filename for netboot/PXE. You will only need
  # this if you want to boot machines over the network and you will need
  # a TFTP server; either dnsmasq's built in TFTP server or an
  # external one. (See below for how to enable the TFTP server.)

  dhcp-boot=tag:lava-master,master/pxelinux.0
  dhcp-boot=tag:netinstall,netinstaller/pxelinux.0

  ...

  # Enable dnsmasq's built-in TFTP server
  enable-tftp

  # Set the root directory for files available via FTP.
  tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot


tftpboot Directory
..................

The default configuration is specified in default-arm-highbank:

*/var/lib/tftpboot/master/pxelinux.cfg/default-arm-highbank*

::

  DEFAULT menu
  PROMPT 0
  MENU TITLE LAVA Master Image
  TIMEOUT 20
  ONTIMEOUT lava-master
  LABEL lava-master
  initrd files/highbank/initrd.gz
  MENU LABEL lava-master
  append console=ttyAMA0 nosplash break
  kernel files/highbank/vmlinuz

The kernel and initrd are then placed in the locations that are specified in
the config file:

*/var/lib/tftpboot/master/files/highbank (directory listing)*

::

  initrd.gz
  vmlinuz


Creating the kernel and initrd for pxe booting
..............................................

An initrd can be created from a running ubuntu system

1. Install ubuntu on a target server.

2. Set up busybox for initrd.

Note: It is important to include a full-featured version of busybox. This
version must support the 'busybox --install -s' command to automatically
install links to commands that can then be called from a bash shell.

Copy the correct version of busybox into /usr/lib/initramfs-tools/bin:

::

  $ /bin/busybox
  BusyBox v1.19.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.19.3-7ubuntu1.1) multi-call binary.
  Copyright (C) 1998-2011 Erik Andersen, Rob Landley, Denys Vlasenko
  and others. Licensed under GPLv2.
  See source distribution for full notice.

  Usage: busybox [function] [arguments]...
     or: busybox --list[-full]
     or: function [arguments]...

          BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix
          utilities into a single executable.  Most people will create a
          link to busybox for each function they wish to use and BusyBox
          will act like whatever it was invoked as.

  Currently defined functions:
          [, [[, adjtimex, ar, arp, arping, ash, awk, basename, blockdev, brctl, bunzip2, bzcat, bzip2, cal, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown,
          chroot, chvt, clear, cmp, cp, cpio, crond, crontab, cttyhack, cut, date, dc, dd, deallocvt, depmod, df, diff, dirname, dmesg,
          dnsdomainname, dos2unix, dpkg, dpkg-deb, du, dumpkmap, dumpleases, echo, ed, egrep, env, expand, expr, false, fdisk, fgrep, find,
          fold, free, freeramdisk, ftpget, ftpput, getopt, getty, grep, groups, gunzip, gzip, halt, head, hexdump, hostid, hostname, httpd,
          hwclock, id, ifconfig, ifdown, ifup, init, insmod, ionice, ip, ipcalc, kill, killall, klogd, last, less, ln, loadfont, loadkmap,
          logger, login, logname, logread, losetup, ls, lsmod, lzcat, lzma, md5sum, mdev, microcom, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mkswap, mktemp,
          modinfo, modprobe, more, mount, mt, mv, nameif, nc, netstat, nslookup, od, openvt, passwd, patch, pidof, ping, ping6, pivot_root,
          poweroff, printf, ps, pwd, rdate, readlink, realpath, reboot, renice, reset, rev, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, rpm, rpm2cpio,
          run-parts, sed, seq, setkeycodes, setsid, sh, sha1sum, sha256sum, sha512sum, sleep, sort, start-stop-daemon, stat, static-sh,
          strings, stty, su, sulogin, swapoff, swapon, switch_root, sync, sysctl, syslogd, tac, tail, tar, taskset, tee, telnet, telnetd,
          test, tftp, time, timeout, top, touch, tr, traceroute, traceroute6, true, tty, tunctl, udhcpc, udhcpd, umount, uname, uncompress,
          unexpand, uniq, unix2dos, unlzma, unxz, unzip, uptime, usleep, uudecode, uuencode, vconfig, vi, watch, watchdog, wc, wget, which,
          who, whoami, xargs, xz, xzcat, yes, zcat


3. Specify additional binaries and libraries that you need in a new initrd.

Note: The busybox command implements many commands by default, but it is best
to include the actual binaries for each command since the busybox versions
generally provide limited functionality.

Commands that are required in the initrd image include:

  - bzip2
  - gzip
  - tar
  - busybox (with httpd support)
  - wget
  - ifconfig

Note: It is good to include many common commands since the master initrd may be
used for debugging issues.


*/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/master-extras  (sample)*

::

  . /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions

  copy_exec /bin/tar
  copy_exec /bin/bzip2
  copy_exec /bin/gzip
  copy_exec /bin/ping
  copy_exec /usr/bin/wget
  copy_exec /sbin/ifconfig
  copy_exec /sbin/parted
  copy_exec /sbin/resize2fs
  copy_exec /usr/bin/mkimage
  copy_exec /sbin/mkfs
  copy_exec /sbin/mkfs.ext2
  copy_exec /sbin/mkfs.ext3
  copy_exec /sbin/mkfs.ext4
  copy_exec /sbin/mkfs.vfat
  copy_exec /bin/nc
  copy_exec /sbin/dhclient
  copy_exec /sbin/fdisk

  # support dhclient
  copy_exec /sbin/dhclient
  copy_exec /sbin/dhclient-script
  copy_exec /sbin/ip
  copy_exec /bin/hostname
  copy_exec /bin/rm
  copy_exec /bin/mv
  copy_exec /etc/fstab

  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_compat-2.15.so
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_compat.so.2
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_dns-2.15.so
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_dns.so.2
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_files-2.15.so
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_files.so.2
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_hesiod-2.15.so
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_hesiod.so.2
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_nis-2.15.so
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_nisplus-2.15.so
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_nisplus.so.2
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libnss_nis.so.2

  # Add bash
  copy_exec /bin/bash
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libtinfo.so.5
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libdl.so.2
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libgcc_s.so.1
  copy_exec /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6
  copy_exec /lib/ld-linux-armhf.so.3

  # Create version info for this image
  echo '#!/bin/sh' > /tmp/lava-master-image-info
  echo "echo $(date +%Y.%m.%d-%H.%M.%S)" > /tmp/lava-master-image-info
  chmod +x /tmp/lava-master-image-info
  copy_exec /tmp/lava-master-image-info /sbin


4. Run update-initramfs, which will produce a new initrd image.

::

  $ sudo update-initramfs -k all -c

For example:

::

  /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-23-highbank


5. Copy initrd and vmlinuz to the tftp server


Debugging with initrd
---------------------

The following are some steps to get a usable machine after pxe booting in
initrd.

Set up networking and mount drives::

  (initrd) . /scripts/functions
  (initrd) DEVICE=eth0 configure_networking
  (initrd) echo nameserver 8.8.8.8 > /etc/resolv.conf
  (initrd) mkdir -p /mnt
  (initrd) mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
  (initrd) mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Note: The boot directory on the root partition may contain files; if you mount
the boot partition at /mnt/boot you will not see the files that are in the same
directory on the root partition.


Getting files to the target::

  (initrd) wget http://server/file


Getting an image to the target\u2019s hard disk::

  (initrd)  wget http://server/lava.img -O - | dd of=/dev/sda

Warning This will destroy any data that is currently on the hard disk!


Chrooting into an installed image (optional) is not really necessary,
however, it may be useful for debugging issues::

  (initrd) chroot /mnt
