Calling all gods of Linux / networking (PXE setup)

ally_uk

Howdy guys please bear with me I am calling on the guild of Linux gods to help me achieve a PXE setup.

The end goal one computer with one network card connected directly into a switch I want any computers connected to this switch to be able to touch base with the computer and start pxe when I network boot.

No routers no wizardry is the above even possible?

I would initially have to have the computer connected on the .21 network this is the main network to obviously use the internet to install required packages required for PXE.

Once setup I would then pull the plug assign it a .22 network address and connect it directly to the switch.

My DHCP config would in theory be handing out a .22 range although this part confuses me as the config would be quite minimal ( no dns , no routers )

So yeah that is my plan. Am I a idiot? 😂😂😂 going about this the wrong way? I appreciate the guidance. Somebody elsewhere mentioned dnsmasq I have no idea what the he'll this is but hey I'm keen to learn.

As always appreciate the guidance folks.

networker050184

It's definitely possible. You need to ensure you have a PXE server (dnsmasq can be used for this), the hosts are set to PXE boot from their NIC and put them all in the same VLAN.

This all works at layer 2 so there is no need for a router in this part. You'll likely want to have one as the default gateway to hand out if you want these reachable from another network though.