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

[Dennis Gilmore]

u-boot also supports pxe booting using a syslinux config file
https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/master/doc/README.pxe

Dennis

On Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 5:43 PM Heinrich Schuchardt <xypron.glpk at gmx.de> wrote:
>
> 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