The sequence of booting installer and installing an OS with netinstall:
Linetboot is ...
- PXE Boot and OS Installation Orchestration central
- DHCP and TFTP Server management system (Linetboot can provide configurations and setup for these)
- Hi-Performance HTTP Based OS Install media server
- Host Asset Inventory system - View hosts Network,Hardware and OS/version info and keep track of packages installed on OS
- Host Asset statistics reporting system
- Small scale real-time (snapshot based) host monitoring system (shows network reachability, DNS status, SSH-reachability)
- IPMI, iDRAC and RedFish Remote management system
- SSH Host keys Inventory - enabling archiving and restoration of SSH hostkeys when hosts get re-imaged
- a bunch of documentation and hints to help you in any (non-Linetboot) DIY PXE related project
- Ansible accelerator (thanks to facts caching by Linetboot)
Any of these features can be disabled to use only subset of features. There is a special synergy between Ansible and Linetboot on multiple fronts (explained better in the documentation, see below).
Linetboot can be made to perform/organize/manage:
- Home/Office: Office Workstations, Diskless Workstations, Home network computers
- DB Servers, Web servers
- Compute Clusters, Build Farms
- Mix of the previous
- Distro Hopping (e.g. by live booting to "OS-of-the-day")
- Run memtest x86 via PXE on any (x86) computer on network
- Operate (boot) Clonezilla client via PXE (and connect to clonezilla image server, making live CD:s obsolete)
- Maintan any network PC:s with Gparted live booted via PXE (partition, change partition layout, resize, fix filesystems)
- Bottom line: apply above on any computers accessible with Ansible (for ansible "facts" gathering)
Linetboot is written in Javascript and Node.js, which is one of the best languages / runtimes to create high-performing network based concurrently tasking aplications.
- Ubuntu / Debian (Tested on x86 and ARM)
- RedHat/Centos (tested on RH 6 and VMWare hosted Centos 7)
- MacOS (effectively BSD UNIX, tested on MacOS "High Sierra")
- Likely in any Linux distro (or UNIX-like OS) that has node.js available
Install and config instructions aim to advise on the minute config differences needed on various platforms (Mainly accounting for package name differences or e.g. loop mounting commands in linux vs. BSD).
Tool CD:s/ISO:s and utilities:
- Gparted
- System Rescue CD
- Clonezilla
- memtest86 (using Gparted bundled binary)
- HDT - Hardware Detection tool
- FreeDOS
Full Operating systems with autoinstall:
- Ubuntu Server (LTS): 14.04, 16.04, 18.04, 20.04
- Debian 10 ("Buster", possibly older Debians)
- Redhat, Centos: 6, 7 (7.6), 8 (8.2)
- OpenSuse 15.2
- Arch Linux (auto-install by Alis-installer)
- Windows 2019
Full Operating systems with Live mode and/or manual install:
- Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 and 20.04 - in (non-automated) Live mode (and optional manual install)
- FreeBSD 12.1 (boots to console for manual install)
- mfsBSD 12.1 (boots to live login, let's install from there)
- OpenBSD 7.0 (boots to installer prompt)
- DHCP Server - PXE Bootload process starts here, DHCP gives instructions to PXE on where to look for bootloader (TFTP server name or IP, filename within the server)
- TFTP Server - Hosts 1st stage bootloaders and bootloader config file(s) (e.g. menu with boot targets, also possible bootloader add-on modules)
- LDAP Directory (Optional) - Used for optional authentication
If you use Linetboot only as Asset Inventory, the DHCP and TFTP would note be needed.
There are also many additional / optional features with associated connectivity options to integrate with neighboring systems:
For further info see Linetboot documentation for: