Network booting Solaris 10 from a Linux machine using DHCP

Posted 2018-12-18

Looking at the documentation for the network installation of Solaris 10, you’d be fooled into thinking that you need a Solaris install server, however that simply isn’t the case!

After a bit of messing, it turns out that it’s reasonably straightforward to boot a SPARC-based machine over the network using just DHCP and an NFS server.

Note that these steps were performed on a Raspberry Pi running Debian, which is located at 10.0.0.1 and being configured as a DHCP server for the 10.0.0.1/24 subnet on eth0.

Install Dnsmasq and the NFS server.

apt install -y dnsmasq nfs-kernel-server

Create an NFS share which exposes the Solaris 10 installation disk.

# Mount the ISO, copy it's contents to the share and unmount it
mount -o loop /path/to/your/solaris.iso /mnt
mkdir -p /share/nfs
cp -Rv /mnt /share/nfs/solaris
umount /mnt

Next up, the installation media needs to be exposed via an NFS share, making it read-only in this case as the installation does not need write access to the share.

# Append "/share/nfs *(ro)" to the end of /etc/exports and re-export all shares
echo -e "\n/share/nfs 10.0.0.1/24(ro)" >> /etc/exports
exportfs -ra

This command exposes /share/nfs as a read-only share to devices on the 10.0.0.1/24 subnet, which can be tested using showmount;

$ showmount -e localhost
Export list for localhost:
/share/nfs 10.0.0.1/24

Copy the boot file into the TFTP server’s path.
Make sure to pick the right architecture from the platform directory for the machines that are being installed - in this case it’s sun4v.
```
mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot
cp /share/nfs/solaris/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot/platform/sun4v/inetboot /var/lib/tftpboot
```

Configure the DHCP server to provide install information.

Dnsmasq’s configuration is located at /etc/dnsmasq.conf by default.

Oracle recommends using the ISC DHCP server, providing these vendor options in an article regarding configuring a DHCP server for JumpStart;

option SUNW.root-mount-options code 1 = text;
option SUNW.root-server-ip-address code 2 = ip-address;
option SUNW.root-server-hostname code 3 = text;
option SUNW.root-path-name code 4 = text;
option SUNW.swap-server-ip-address code 5 = ip-address;
option SUNW.swap-file-path code 6 = text;
option SUNW.boot-file-path code 7 = text;
option SUNW.posix-timezone-string code 8 = text;
option SUNW.boot-read-size code 9 = unsigned integer 16;
option SUNW.install-server-ip-address code 10 = ip-address;
option SUNW.install-server-hostname code 11 = text;
option SUNW.install-path code 12 = text;
option SUNW.sysid-config-file-server code 13 = text;
option SUNW.JumpStart-server code 14 = text;
option SUNW.terminal-name code 15 = text;
option SUNW.SbootURI code 16 = text;

To use any of these options in Dnsmasq, simply copy the option ID and use it with Dnsmasq’s dhcp-option;

# Equivalent to setting SUNW.root-server-ip-address to 10.0.0.1.
dhcp-option=vendor:SUNW,2,10.0.0.1

Here is a minimal configuration for providing DHCP on 10.0.0.1/24 and booting from the install server at 10.0.0.1;

# Never forward plain names (without a dot or domain part).
domain-needed

# Never forward addresses in the non-routed address spaces.
bogus-priv

# Use Google's DNS server.
server=8.8.8.8

# Only serve DHCP on eth0.
interface=eth0

# Serve DHCP for 10.0.0.10 - 10.0.0.250 with a 12 hour lease.
dhcp-range=10.0.0.10,10.0.0.250,12h

# Enable dnsmasq's built-in TFTP server.
enable-tftp

# Set the root directory for files available via FTP.
tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot

# Boot using inetboot.
dhcp-boot=inetboot

# Set the IP of the NFS server to use.
dhcp-option=vendor:SUNW,2,10.0.0.1

# Set the path on the NFS server to the install media's Boot directory.
dhcp-option=vendor:SUNW,4,"/share/nfs/solaris/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot"

Boot from the network!

Everything should now be set up, and all that needs doing is booting the machine from the network.

sc> poweron
sc> console
{0} ok boot net:dhcp
Boot device: /pci@7c0/pci@0/network@4:dhcp  File and args:
1000 Mbps full duplex  Link up

SunOS Release 5.10 Version Generic_147147-26 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Configuring devices.
Using DHCP for network configuration information.
DHCP: using local media
Serial console, reverting to text install
Beginning system identification...
Searching for configuration file(s)...
Search complete.
Discovering additional network configuration...

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