Disclaimer

This (iPXE) is not a supported by Red Hat., Use it at your own please and risk! iPXE installation is only documented for Bare metal installations.

PS: This method works just with BIOS

When DHCP is not a option ? What to do ?

You probably deploy your OCP cluster through with pxe/dhcp or static ips with manual interactions. DHCP is the most convenient way to deploy nodes in an automated Way. But what about having to remotely init a new environement, without DHCP at all ? Suppose that you have a OCP4 cluster that you have to deploy on vSphere, but there is no DHCP environment due to security constraints.

So, I want to show you a simple way to install through ligthweight 1Mb iso image :)

This build option enables support for vSphere GuestInfo settings.

Install Instructions

Create a iPXE template virtual machine

Prerequisite:

• Upload IPXE.iso to Datastore

Create an empty Virtual machine:

1. New Virtual Machine...
2. Create a new Virtual machine
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3. Set Virtual machine name: rhcos-4-ipxe & select a location
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4. Select a compute resource
5. Select storage
6. Select compatibility - ESXi 6.7 and later
7. Select a guest OS - Linux - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (64-bit)
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8. Customize hardware - very important!
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
   • 
9. Ready to complete

Bastion

The easiest way to start experimenting with iPXE is to use the pre-build:

curl https://github.com/ralvares/ipxe/releases/download/v0.1/ipxe.iso -o ipxe.iso

Or you can build your own:

sudo yum install git xz-devel wget -y
sudo yum groupinstall "Development tools" -y

git clone https://github.com/ipxe/ipxe/
cd ipxe/src

sed -i '/VMWARE_SETTINGS/s/\/\///g' config/settings.h

cat > vmware.ipxe << 'EOF'
#!ipxe
ifopen net0
kernel  ${fileserver}/${kernel-installer} ip=${net0/ip}::${net0/gateway}:${net0/netmask}:${hostname}:${net_interface}:none nameserver=${dns} rd.neednet=1 initrd=${fileserver}/${initrd-installer} console=tty0 console=ttyS0 coreos.inst=yes coreos.inst.install_dev=${disk} coreos.inst.image_url=${fileserver}/${rhcos-image} coreos.inst.ignition_url=${fileserver}/${ignition}
initrd ${fileserver}/${initrd-installer}
boot
EOF

make bin/ipxe.iso EMBED=vmware.ipxe

govc Installation

curl -L https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/releases/download/v0.22.1/govc_linux_amd64.gz | gunzip > /usr/local/bin/govc && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/govc

govc basic connectivity

Export a set of environment variables so the CLI knows how to connect to vCenter:

export GOVC_URL='vsphere.server.local
export GOVC_USERNAME='admin@vsphere.local'
export GOVC_PASSWORD='password
export GOVC_INSECURE=1
export GOVC_NETWORK='VM Network'
export GOVC_DATASTORE='datastore1'

Upload the ipxe.iso to datastore

govc datastore.upload bin/ipxe.iso ipxe-rhcos.iso
govc datastore.ls images

The general syntax for a GuestInfo setting is

guestinfo.ipxe[.<network device>].<setting name>[.<setting type>] = "<value>"

Create Demo Virtual Machine using vCenter GUI or use ansible to automate it :)

Set guest.info parameters as follows:

guestinfo.ipxe.hostname = "bootstrap"
guestinfo.ipxe.ignition = "bootstrap.ign"
guestinfo.ipxe.net0.ip = "192.168.122.15"
guestinfo.ipxe.net0.netmask = "255.255.255.0"
guestinfo.ipxe.net0.gateway = "192.168.122.1"
guestinfo.ipxe.fileserver = "http://192.168.122.1:8080"
guestinfo.ipxe.dns = "192.168.122.1"
guestinfo.ipxe.kernel-installer = "rhcos-4.2.0-x86_64-installer-kernel"
guestinfo.ipxe.initrd-installer = "rhcos-4.2.0-x86_64-installer-initramfs.img"
guestinfo.ipxe.rhcos-image = "rhcos-4.2.0-x86_64-metal-bios.raw.gz"
guestinfo.ipxe.disk = sda
guestinfo.ipxe.net_interface = ens192

Using govc

govc vm.change \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.hostname=bootstrap" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.ignition=bootstrap.ign" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.net0.ip=192.168.122.15" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.net0.netmask=255.255.255.0" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.net0.gateway=192.168.122.1" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.fileserver=http://192.168.122.1:8080" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.dns=192.168.122.1" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.kernel-installer=rhcos-4.2.0-x86_64-installer-kernel" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.initrd-installer=rhcos-4.2.0-x86_64-installer-initramfs.img" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.rhcos-image=rhcos-4.2.0-x86_64-metal-bios.raw.gz" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.disk=sda" \
    -e="guestinfo.ipxe.net_interface=ens192" \
    -vm=/${GOVC_DATACENTER}/vm/folder/ipxe-demo

Power UP the VM and have fun :)