Email: MailTo(m AT SPAMFREE FreeBSD DOT org)

Project: Bundled PXE Installer

Synopsis: The goal is to have a fully functional automatic and bundeled installation system for FreeBSD using PXE. You will be able to install e.g. cluster nodes with only booting over network and with no further interaction needed. It may be similar to RedHat Kickstart or Sun JumpStart. As the scond step I will try to setup the complete PXE Boot Server environment on a FreeSBIE live CDROM.

Project Details: Serverside requirements: - DHCP-Server - TFTP-Server - Config-File for installation settings

The Configfile could “feel” like /etc/rc.conf and hold settings for slices and partitions, network settings, language settings, packages to install, pre- and postinstall scripts, … Maybe it's possible to use this config-file to generate a configuration template for sysinstall. Deeper research is needed to find out if this makes sense. Otherwise I will need a script for parsing this file and execute fdisk and disklabel with correct parameters directly.

Clientside requirements: - Generate sysconfig-file from the server-config-file or - parse config-file and execute all steps like fdisk, disklabel, … manually

FreeSBIE integration: Inlcude all serverside scripts, configs and programs to a FreeSBIE live CDROM, configuration might be stored on a USB Stick or on a network share (nfs, …)

Timeline: 1. Jun - 12. Jun: Complete PXE Boot environment to boot FreeBSD with sysinstall over network, knowledge about how to script sysinstall, list ready what files, packages, etc are needed to finish project and how the project will be realized

12. Jun - 16. Jun: Write documentation; cleanup code, files and scripts directory layout, …

16. Jun - 25. Jun: Scripting sysinstall, have partitioning and network settings working

25. Jun - 21. Jul: Extend config template to have pre- and postinstall scripts, added packages to config template, language and keyboard settings, timezone, root-pw, …

21. Jul - 28. Jul: Write documentation and HowTo

28. Jul - 2. Aug: Integrate server side into FreeSBIE

2. Aug - 21. Aug (End): Bugfixing, testing, documentation, buffer if schedule is not working as expected

Bio: I am a 24 years old student at the University of Cooperative Education in Loerrach, Germany. My course is Information Technology at the engineering department. I am at the 4th semester at the moment and will get my bachelor degree in Sep 2007.