Installing linux from NFS image

Okey this process is not smooth unlike ftp and http based installation.


Here how I did it.

I have used Scientific Linux (The best distro right now according to me)

I want to deploy CentOS through NFS image in the network,I boot the client PC using boot.iso in the images folder of the Cent OS 5.3 DVD,after booting I set the path to NFS server and the path of the CentOS image.

First I copied the CentOS 5.3 ISO(DVD Image) in my desktop.

Then

I created a folder named souravdvd in my home directory

mount -o loop /home/Desktop?CentOS5.3.ISO /home/sourav/souravdata

Then I created a folder name NFS in the root partition.

mount --bind /home/sourav/souravdata /nfs

Then

nano /etc/exports

/nfs  192.168.163.25(rw,sync,root_squash,anonuid=1001,anongid=1001)

(probably the rw should be ro,because the filesystem is read only rather than read write enabled,but anyway the problem went away) 

 now save the file

exportfs -a 

go to /etc/fstab

nano /etc/fstab

adda a line 

192.168.163.25:/nfs     /nfs         nfs          defaults          0           0 

 save the file

service nfs restart 




test it from another machine


create a folder there named test

mount -t 192.168.163.25:/nfs /test

or 

mount  192.168.163.25:/nfs /test 

may or may not work,I don't know

now boot the client machine using boot.iso,you need to configure dhcp in the nfs server,the client will aquire an IP and in then you need to choose NFS as the install media

The server will be 

192.168.163.25

The Path will be

/nfs