Boot Over Ehternet- Linux Server to Raspberry Pis- Using U-boot

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

On 9/1/20 2:49 PM, Ahsan Zia (TAU) wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I need some ideas regarding Boot Over Ehternet. I have been following the u boot document as well.
>
> I am attempting BoE from a Linux Server to a cluster of Raspberry Pis.
>
> i.e we have a Ubuntu (linux) Server with Raspbian image, the desired result is to somehow ''Mount'' the image, so that the Cluster of RPis can be booted-up using Ethernet? The image can be booted-up automatically when a new RPI is introduced into the system?
>
> The RPIs are Power over Ethernet, PoE hats and have Raspbian lite pre-installed. The image can be booted-up automatically when a new RPI is introduced into the system?
>
> Please post some ideas.
>
> Best Regards,
> Ahsan Zia
> Project Researcher,
> Computing Sciences, Information Technology and Communication Sciences,
> Tampere University.
>
>

U-Boot supports booting via BOOTP and NFS:
https://www.denx.de/wiki/publish/DULG/to-delete/LinuxNfsRoot.html

Or you can use iSCSI using U-Boot and iPXE:
https://u-boot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/uefi/iscsi.html

But why do you need network boot if you already have Rasbian lite
pre-installed on the Raspberries?

What I would typically do in a cluster is to mount the working directory
via iSCSI and keep the operating system on the SD card. This
configuration is much more stable during OS updates then a network
drive. And using an iSCSI server (e.g. on one of the RPis) I only need
one SSD drive for the cluster.

Best regards

Heinrich