11.0 Building Your Own Preboot Execution Environment

The first step in creating your own AutoYaST preboot execution environment is to decide whether you will use a ZCM Primary server or your AutoYaST server as TFTP server.

You then need to configure the chosen server as explained in “Network Boot Environment.

PXE Boot Using a ZCM Primary Server

If you want to use a ZCM Primary server you first need to copy the kernel and initrd of the installation systems that CIF shall support to the directory /srv/tftp/kernel. Basically this directory is an exact copy of the directory /data/boot_cd_build/kernel on your AutoYaST Server (see Table 3-1, Directory Structure of AutoYaST Boot Medium).

If you also want to support PXE for UEFI systems some additional preparation is required (see PXE Boot for UEFI Systems Using a ZCM Primary Server).

Once all files are copied and linked copy the archive PXE_ZCM-cif_yyyymmdd.tgz to /srv on the selected ZCM Primary server and extract it.

If you have not been using PXE on this server simply rename /srv/tftp/CIF-pxemenu.txt and /srv/tftp/efi/x86_64/CIF_pxemenu.txt to pxemenu.txt. This will just integrate the CIF PXE configuration into the default configuration.

If you have customized the PXE configuration on the selected server you will need to extract the relevant sections of the two files and integrate them into your PXE configuration (see Network Boot Environment for details).

In all configuration files (/srv/tftp/CIF*.cfg, /srv/tftp/efi/CIF*.cfg) you need to replace “<IP of your AutoYaST server>", "<IP of your ISO server>", and “<IP of your gateway>” with the IP addresses of your systems.

Verify that the ownership of all files that you have copied or modified is set to zenworks:zenworks.

PXE Boot for Using the AutoYaST Server

To use your AutoYaST server for PXE you first have to install the required packages and to copy the required files to /srv/tftp as described in PXE Boot for BIOS Systems Using the AutoYaST Server.

Supporting PXE for UEFI systems with your AutoYaST server requires some additional preparation (see PXE Boot for UEFI Systems Using the AutoYaST Server.

Once these preparatory steps are completed you need to copy the archive PXE_AutoYaST-cif_yyyymmdd.tgz to /srv on the AutoYaST server and extract it.

Finally you need to replace “<IP of your AutoYaST server>”, “<IP of your ISO server>”, and “<IP of your gateway>” with the IP addresses of your systems in all configuration files (/srv/tftpboot/EFI/CIF*.cfg, /srv/tftpboot/net/pxelinux.cfg/CIF*.cfg).