Subject: iPXE Netboot entirely to RAM

From: EfraimVagner <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2020 07:17:16 +0000

Hi,
So I'm looking for a certain something that Alpine Linux seems like exactly what I'm looking for but I just want to make sure that it actually works the way I want it to.

Basically what I want is to have a server that will distribute Alpine Linux images, but I don't want there to be constant communication between the clients and the server. What I mean by this is that I want to have this workflow:

1. I attach a diskless computer to my server.
2. I boot the computer, via iPXE it boots into an Alpine Linux from server.
3. Now it doesn't preform any kind communication with the server anymore, as it has all it needs in its RAM.
4. Essentially I can disconnect my computer from the server and it should keep working.

Will this be the default behavior? If not how easy will it be to configure it to work this way?
Thanks in advance!

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From: Vittorio Mori <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2020 13:46:22 +0200

It's definitely possible.

Some resources about it:

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/PXE_boot

https://blog.skunkw0rks.io/blog/2018/09/03/pxe-boot-alpine-linux-pt.-1/

https://blog.haschek.at/2019/build-your-own-datacenter-with-pxe-and-alpine.html

Il giorno sab 25 lug 2020 alle ore 09:17 EfraimVagner <
[email-masked]> ha scritto:

> Hi,
> So I'm looking for a certain something that Alpine Linux seems like
> exactly what I'm looking for but I just want to make sure that it actually
> works the way I want it to.
>
> Basically what I want is to have a server that will distribute Alpine
> Linux images, but I don't want there to be constant communication between
> the clients and the server. What I mean by this is that I want to have this
> workflow:
>
>     3. Now it doesn't preform any kind communication with the server
> anymore, as it has all it needs in its RAM.

---

From: Vittorio Mori <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2020 18:57:53 +0200

I am trying to do the same thing as per your question. My method for doing
this is :

boot from PXE -> chainload iPXE -> boot a (initram-lts modified, with AoE
support) alpine linux ISO that loads an AoE disk with an appropriate
apkovl file, so the "lbu commit" command works.

 Maybe a modified "lbu" script that :

mounts the AoE disk -> commits the diffs -> umounts AoE disk

I am working on this right now. Shouldn't be too hard.