clonezilla live with pxe boot uefi

[Dave Macias]

Hello,
Happy Tuesday!
First time poster here. :)

So here is what we currently have:
USB Stick with clonezilla live which we Kickstart PCs
-> cat USBSTICK/Clonezilla-Live-Version

clonezilla-live-2.6.4-10-amd64
This Clonezilla live iso file was created by this command:
ocs-iso -s --extra-boot-param quiet -y 6.03 -i 2.6.4-10-amd64

Which we boot from, then kickstart the PCs using the following grub.cfg
-> cat USBSTICK/boot/grub/grub.cfg

menuentry "Kickstart"{
search --set -f /live/vmlinuz
linux /live/vmlinuz boot=live union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap edd=on nomodeset enforcing=0 locales=en_US.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=NONE ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_prerun1="dhclient -v eth0" ocs_prerun2="sudo sshpass -p <redacted> scp -r -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no clonezilla-user@mydomain.com:/home/clonezilla-user/2021-07-20-07-img-NEW_HARDWARE-OLD-CENTOS7/ /home/partimag/" ocs_live_run="ocs-sr -g auto -e1 auto -e2 -r -j2 -batch -scr -p poweroff restoredisk 2021-07-20-07-img-NEW_HARDWARE-OLD-CENTOS7 sda" ocs_live_batch="yes" vga=788 ip= net.ifnames=0 splash i915.blacklist=yes radeonhd.blacklist=yes nouveau.blacklist=yes vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=1
initrd /live/initrd.img
}</redacted>

We have no issues with the above.

We want to move to the next step and kickstart with pxe boot. (no usbstick)

I was able to successfully create a pxe boot server using http, which allows me to install a minimal Centos7 image.
Both with legacy and UEFI boot.

I am trying now, to add clonezilla live into this pxe server but struggling....

Here is how i have my pxe server configured:

-> cat /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

not authoritative;
allow booting;
allow bootp;
option option-128 code 128 = string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;
option space pxelinux;
option pxelinux.magic code 208 = string;
option pxelinux.configfile code 209 = text;
option pxelinux.pathprefix code 210 = text;
option pxelinux.reboottime code 211 = unsigned integer 32;
option architecture-type code 93 = unsigned integer 16;
ddns-update-style none;
ignore client-updates;
option domain-name "greenpoints.com";
default-lease-time 600 ;
max-lease-time 7200 ;
subnet 192.168.201.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.201.60 192.168.201.99;
option routers 192.168.201.1;
option domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
class "pxe" {
match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
next-server 192.168.201.1;
if option architecture-type = 00:07 {
# for uefi; which installs a basic centos7 image
filename "/centos7/grubx64.efi";
} else {
# legacy
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
}
}

-> cat /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

default menu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 300
ONTIMEOUT 1

menu title ########## PXE Boot Menu ##########

label 1
menu label ^1) Install CentOS 7
menu default
kernel centos7_x64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
append initrd=centos7_x64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img inst.xdriver=vesa nomodeset method=http://192.168.201.1/centos7_x64 devfs=nomount

#not working
label 2
menu label ^2) Clonzezilla
kernel /clonezilla/vmlinuz
append initrd=/clonezilla/initrd.img boot=live username=user union=overlay components noswap noprompt vga=788 keyboard-layouts=en locales=en_US.UTF-8 fetch=tftp:192.168.201.1/clonezilla/filesystem.squashfs

label 9
menu label ^9) Boot from local drive
localboot 0

-> cat /var/lib/tftpboot/centos7/grub.cfg

set timeout=5
menuentry "Clonezilla - Kickstart"{
linuxefi /clonezilla/vmlinuz boot=live union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap edd=on nomodeset enforcing=0 locales=en_US.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=NONE ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_prerun1="dhclient -v eth0" ocs_prerun2="sudo sshpass -p <redacted> scp -r -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no clonezilla-user@mydomain.com:/home/clonezilla-user/2021-07-20-07-img-NEW_HARDWARE-OLD-CENTOS7/ /home/partimag/" ocs_live_run="ocs-sr -g auto -e1 auto -e2 -r -j2 -c -scr -p choose restoredisk 2021-07-20-07-img-NEW_HARDWARE-OLD-CENTOS7 sda" ocs_live_batch="no" vga=788 ip=dhcp net.ifnames=0 splash i915.blacklist=yes radeonhd.blacklist=yes nouveau.blacklist=yes vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=1
initrdefi /clonezilla/initrd.img
}
menuentry 'Install - CentOS 7' {
linuxefi centos7/vmlinuz ip=dhcp inst.repo=http://192.168.201.1/centos7_x64
initrdefi centos7/initrd.img
}</redacted>

my tftp dir structure

pwd
/var/lib/tftpboot
ls clonezilla
EFI filesystem.squashfs initrd.img vmlinuz
ls centos7/
BOOTIA32.EFI BOOTX64.EFI fonts grub.cfg grubia32.efi grubx64.efi initrd.img mmia32.efi mmx64.efi README.txt TRANS.TBL vmlinuz

The files in tftpboot/clonezilla are taken from clonezilla-live-2.6.4-10-amd64.iso

When I boot using grub.cfg (uefi) and select the clonezilla menuentry, it goes into initramfs ...
I feel like im close!

Any input is much appreciated!!

Thank you,
Dave

[Steven Shiau]

So you use pxelinux for uEFI netboot? If so, I suggest you switch to grub. You can follow this:
https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/11_lite_server
If you start it, it will create a file in /tftpboot/nbi_img/grub/grub.cfg.
You can switch to console 2 by pressing ctrl-alt-F2 to read that file.

Steven

[Dave Macias]

Thank you Steven for the reply.
I was able to achieve my goal!

Installed drbl which does everything I needed.
Mostly followed this link: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000129480/server-side-setup-and-client-setup-for-clonezilla

Then I added my custom menu entry and made it default. Now once I PXE boot a client they simply auto provision and restart.

Thank you!

[Ramchandra Chauhan]

Hi Dave,

Can you please share the dell article https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000129480/server-side-setup-and-client-setup-for-clonezilla if have with you in any form as the link is no more active nor i can find it on the web.

[Steven Shiau]

It's nice to know you have made it.
Great.

Steven

[Viet Than]

Hi guys, another first time poster, Dave Macias left the company but he made us some documentation that led to this forum as we inherit this system.

We are looking to create a second pxe server to boot from and did the steps like Dave did above.

However, when we get a client plugged in and PXE boot, the screen is stuck at:

>>Checking Media Presence......
>>Media Present......
>>Start PXE over IPv4
  Station IP address is 192.168.100.60

Any input is much appreciated!

Edit1: I found that with a booted client, I can't ping 8.8.8.8

Viet

[Viet Than]

Just want to come back and say we got it working, it was a routing/network problem.

[Dave Macias]

Boss!