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<title>NFS-Root mini-HOWTO
<author><it>not maintained</it>
<date>V9, 20 September 2002
<abstract>
This mini-HOWTO tries explains how to set up a ``diskless'' Linux
workstation, which mounts its root filesystems via NFS.
The newest version of this mini-HOWTO can always be found at
<!-- ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/NFS-Root -->
<url url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/NFS-Root.html" name="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/NFS-Root.html">
or a Linux Documentation Project mirror NEAR YOU.
</abstract>

<toc>

<sect> Copyright

<p>
(c) 1996 Andreas Kostyrka (e9207884@student.tuwien.ac.at or andreas@ag.or.at)

<p>
Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their
respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and distributed 
in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as
this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution 
is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of 
any such distributions. 

All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating 
any Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. 
That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose
additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules
may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO
coordinator at the address given below.

In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as
many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the
HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute
the HOWTOs. 

If you have questions, please contact Andreas Kostyrka
&lt;<tt/mailto:andreas@ag.or.at/&gt;, the author of this mini-HOWTO, or
the Linux HOWTO coordinator, at
&lt;<tt/mailto:linux-howto@sunsite.unc.edu/&gt; via email.

<sect1>Contributors

<p>
<itemize>
<item>
Avery Pennarun <tt/&lt;apenwarr&nbsp;&#64;&nbsp;foxnet.net&gt;/ (how to boot without <bf/LILO/)
<item> 
Ofer Maor <tt/&lt;ofer&nbsp;&#64;&nbsp;hadar.co.il&gt;/ (a better mini-HOWTO about setting up diskless workstations)
<item>
Christian Leutloff <tt/&lt;leutloff&nbsp;&#64;&nbsp;sundancer.tng.oche.de&gt;/ (info about netboot)
<item>
Greg Roelofs <tt/&lt;newt&nbsp;&#64;&nbsp;pobox.com&gt;/ (2.2/2.4 updates, DHCP info, NFS-export info)
</itemize>

<sect>General Overview

<p>
An NFS-mounted root filesystem is typically most useful in two situations:
<itemize>
<item>A system administrator may wish to aggregate storage for multiple
workstations in order to simplify maintenance, improve security and
reliability, and/or make more economical use of limited storage capacity.
In this scenario, a single, large server may host a dozen or more
workstations; all of the systems can be regularly backed up from a
central location, and individual clients are less prone to damage
by unsophisticated users or attack by malicious parties with physical
access.  (Of course, if the server itself is compromised, then so are
all of the clients.)
<item>An embedded system may not have a disk, an IDE interface, or even
a PCI bus.  Even if it does, during development it may be too unstable
to use the disk, and a ramdisk may be too small to include all of the
necessary utilities or too large (as a part of the kernel image) to
allow for rapid turnaround during testing and development.  An NFS root
allows quick kernel downloads, helps ensure filesystem integrity (since
the server is basically impervious to crashes by the client), and provides
virtually infinite storage.
</itemize>
(In this document we'll use the terms <em/client/ and <em/workstation/
interchangeably.)

<p>
However, there are two small problems from the client's perspective:
<itemize>
<item>It must find out its own IP address and possibly also the
rest of the ethernet configuration (gateway, netmask, name servers, etc.).
<item>It must know or discover both the IP address of the NFS server and
the mount path (on the server) to the exported root filesystem.
</itemize>

<p>
The current implementation of <em/NFSROOT/ in the Linux kernel (as of
2.4.x) allows for several approaches, including:
<itemize>
<item>The complete ethernet configuration, including the <em/NFS/-path
to be mounted, may be passed as parameters to the kernel via
<bf/LILO/, <bf/LOADLIN/, or a hard-coded string within
<tt>linux/arch/i386/kernel/setup.c</tt> (or its equivalent for other
architectures).
<item>The IP address may be discovered by <em/RARP/ and the <em/NFS/-path
passed via kernel parameters.
<item>The IP address may be discovered by <em/RARP/, with the <em/NFS/-path
derived from the <em/RARP/ server and the just-granted IP address
(loosely speaking, ``<tt>mount -t nfs
&lt;<em/RARP-server/&gt;:/tftpboot/&lt;<em/IP-address-of-client/&gt
/dev/nfs</tt>'').
<item>The client configuration may be discovered by <em/BOOTP/.
<item>The client configuration may be discovered by <em/DHCP/.
</itemize>

Since the most common dynamic-address protocol these days is DHCP, its
addition as an option in kernels 2.2.19 and 2.4.x (3 &lt; x &lt;= 14)
<!-- GRR:  need info on when "dhcp" keyword first supported -->
is particularly welcome.

Before starting to set up a diskless environment, you should decide if
you will be booting via <bf/LILO/, <bf/LOADLIN/, or a custom, embedded
bootloader. The advantage of using something like <bf/LILO/ is flexibility;
the disadvantage is speed--booting a Linux kernel without <bf/LILO/ is
faster.  <!-- GRR:  still true? -->
This may or may not be a consideration.

<sect>
Setup on the server
<sect1>Compiling the kernels

<p>
On the server side, if you don't plan to use the old, user-mode NFS daemon,
you'll need to compile NFS server support into the kernel (``NFS server
support,'' a.k.a. <em/knfsd/ or <tt>CONFIG_NFSD</tt>).
If you plan to use the older <em/RARP/ protocol to assign the client an
IP address, <em/RARP/ support in the kernel of the server is probably a good
idea. (You must have it if you will boot via RARP without kernel parameters.)
On the other hand, it doesn't help you if the client isn't on the same
subnet as the server.

<p>
The kernel for the workstation needs the following settings, as a minimum:
<itemize>
<item> <em/NFS filesystem support/ (<tt>CONFIG_NFS_FS</tt>).  Note that
there is no need for <em/ext2/ support.
<item> <em/Root file system on NFS/ (<tt>CONFIG_ROOT_NFS</tt>).
<item> <em/Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)/ (<tt>CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET</tt>).
<item> The ethernet driver for the workstation's network card (or onboard
ethernet chip, if it's built into the motherboard or chipset).
</itemize>
Where there is an option to compile something in as a module, do <em/not/
do so; modules only work <em/after/ the kernel is booted, and these things
are needed <em/during/ boot.

<p>
For dynamically assigned IP numbers, you'll also need to select one or more
of these kernel options:
<itemize>
<item> <em/IP: kernel level autoconfiguration/ (<tt>CONFIG_IP_PNP</tt>)
<item> <em/RARP support/ (<tt>CONFIG_IP_PNP_RARP</tt>)
<item> <em/BOOTP support/ (<tt>CONFIG_IP_PNP_BOOTP</tt>)
<item> <em/DHCP support/ (<tt>CONFIG_IP_PNP_DHCP</tt>)
</itemize>

<p>
<!-- GRR:  This paragraph *may* apply only to older kernels; not tested. -->
If the workstation will be booted without kernel parameters, you need
also to set the root device to 0:255. Do this by creating a dummy
device file with <tt>mknod /dev/nfsroot b 0 255</tt>. After having
created such a device file, you can set root device of the kernel
image with <tt>rdev &lt;<em/kernel-image/&gt; /dev/nfsroot</tt>.
[<em>NOTE:  Modern kernels recognize <tt>root=/dev/nfs</tt> as a command-line
 argument; for consistency and/or compatibility, it may be better to use
 <tt>/dev/nfs</tt> as the device name instead of <tt>/dev/nfsroot</tt>.</em>]

<sect1>
Creation of the root filesystem
<sect2>
Copying the filesystem

<p>
<em> Warning: while these instruction might work for you, they are by
no means sensefull in a production environment. For a better way to
set up a root filesystem for the clients, see the NFS-Root-Client
mini-HOWTO by Ofer Maor <tt/&lt;ofer@hadar.co.il&gt;/.
</em>

<p>
After having decided where to place the root tree, create it with
(e.g.) <tt>mkdir -p &lt;<em/directory/&gt;</tt> and 
<tt>tar cClf / - | tar xpCf &lt;<em/directory/&gt; -</tt>.

<p>
If you boot your kernel without LILO, then the rootdir has to be
<tt>/tftpboot/&lt;<em/IP-address/&gt;</tt>. If you don't like it, you
can change it in the top Makefile in the kernel sources, look for a line like:
<tt>NFS_ROOT = -DNFS_ROOT="\"/tftpboot/%s\""</tt>
      If you change this, you have to recompile the kernel.

<p>
<sect2>
Changes to the root filesystem

<p>
Now trim the unneeded files, and check the /etc/rc.d scripts. Some
important points:
<itemize>

<item> One important thing is eth0 setup. The workstation comes up
with eth0 set up, at least partially. Setting the
IP address of the workstation to the IP address of the server
is not considered a clever thing to do. (As it happened to the original author
on one of his early attempts.)

<item>
Another point is the /etc/fstab of the workstation. It should
be set up for NFS filesystems.
&lt;<em>NOTE:  this is not true in 2.4 kernels; the NFS mount is implicit and
 may actually cause mount(1) error messages if it's explicitly listed in
 /etc/fstab.  It is not clear when this changed.</em>&gt;

<item> <bf/WARNING/: Don't confuse the server root filesystem and the
        workstation root filesystem. (I've already patched up a
        rc.inet1 on the server, and wondered why the workstation still
        didn't work.)
</itemize>

<sect2>
Exporting the filesystem

<p>
Export the root dir to the workstation.
The basic idea is to edit <tt>/etc/exports</tt> to include
a line similar to one of the following:

<p>
<itemize>
<item> <tt>/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       &lt;<em/client-IP-number/&gt;(rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash)
       &lt;<em/2nd-client-IP-number/&gt;(rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash)</tt>
<item> <tt>/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       &lt;<em/client-IP-network/&gt;/&lt;<em/client-IP-netmask/&gt;(rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash)</tt>
</itemize>

<p>
For example, a DHCP client receiving an IP address on a class C subnet would 
need an exports entry similar to this:

<p>
<itemize>
<item> <tt>/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       192.168.263.0/255.255.255.0(rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash)</tt>
</itemize>

<p>
The <tt/no_root_squash/ parameter allows the superuser (root) to be treated
as such by the NFS server; otherwise <em/root/ will be remapped to <em/nobody/
and will generally be unable to do anything useful with the filesystem.  The
<tt/no_all_squash/ parameter is similar but applies to non-root users.
See the <tt/exports(5)/ man page for details.

<p>
You will have to notify the NFS server after making any changes to the
exports file.  Under Red Hat this can easily be done by typing
<tt>/etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs stop; /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs start</tt>.
On other systems, a simple
<tt>/etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs restart</tt> or even <tt>exportfs -a</tt> may
suffice, while on older machines running the user-mode NFS daemon you may
actually need to <tt>killall -HUP rpc.mountd; killall -HUP rpc.nfsd</tt>.
(Do <em/not/ <tt>killall -HUP rpc.portmap</tt>, however!)

<p>
You may also need to edit <tt>/etc/hosts.allow</tt> and/or
<tt>/etc/hosts.deny</tt> if tcp_wrappers are installed.  In particular,
if the remote system (client) gets <em/RPC: connection refused/ errors,
<tt>/etc/hosts.deny</tt> probably contains <tt/portmap: ALL/ or <tt/ALL: ALL/.
To enable the client to use the server's portmapper, add a corresponding
line to <tt>/etc/hosts.allow</tt>:
<tscreen><verb>
portmap: &lt;client-IP-number&gt;
portmap: &lt;2nd-client-IP-number&gt;
portmap: &lt;client-IP-network&gt;/&lt;client-IP-netmask&gt;
</verb></tscreen>

<p>
There is no need to restart anything in this case.  You can check by
running <tt/rpcinfo -p/ on the NFS server and
<tt>rpcinfo -p <em/NFS-server/</tt> on a Linux client within the allowed
range; the RPC services listed by both should match.
<!-- GRR:  I added this based on notes in my own (older) exports file at work,
     but it's not working on my home system, and I'm not sure what's wrong. -->

<p>
In case of problems, check <tt>/var/log/messages</tt> and
<tt>/var/log/syslog</tt> for errors (for example, run <tt>tail -f
/var/log/messages /var/log/syslog</tt> and then try booting the client),
and check your man pages (exports, exportfs, portmap, etc.).  As a last
resort, a reboot of the NFS server may help, but that's a borderline
Microsoftism...


<sect2>
RARP setup

<p>
Set up the <em/RARP/ somewhere on the net. If you boot without a
      nfsroot parameter, the <em/RARP/ server has to be the <em/NFS/
      server. Usually this will be the <em/NFS/ server. To do this, you
      will need to run a kernel with <em/RARP/ support.

<p>
      To do this, execute (and install it somewhere in <tt>/etc/rc.d</tt> of
      the server!):

<p>
<tt>/sbin/rarp -s &lt;<em/ip-addr/&gt; &lt;<em/hardware-addr/&gt;</tt>

<p> where
<descrip>
<tag/ip-addr/ is the IP address of the workstation, and
<tag/hardware-addr/  is the ethernet address of the network card of
                       the workstation.
</descrip>

<p>
      example: <tt>/sbin/rarp -s 131.131.90.200 00:00:c0:47:10:12</tt>

<p>
      You can also use a symbolic name instead of the IP address, as
      long the server is able to find out the IP address. (/etc/hosts
      or <em/DNS/ lookups)

<sect2>
BOOTP setup

<p>
For <em/BOOTP/ setup you need to edit <tt>/etc/bootptab</tt>. Please
consult the <em>bootpd(8)</em> and <em>bootptab(5)</em> man pages.

<sect2>
DHCP setup

<p>
There is no need for the DHCP server to be the same as the NFS server,
and in most cases, a DHCP server will already be set up.  If one is not,
however, consult the DHCP mini-HOWTO for further help.

<sect2>
Finding out hardware addresses

<p>
I don't know the hardware address! How can I find it out?
<itemize>
<item> Boot the kernel disk you made, and watch for the line where
          the network card is recognized. It usually contains 6 hex
          bytes, that should be the address of the card.
<item> Boot the workstation with some OS with TCP/IP networking
          enabled. Then ping the workstation from the server. Look in
          the ARP-cache by executing:
          <tt>/sbin/arp -a</tt>
</itemize>

<sect>
Booting the workstation

<p>
<sect1>
Using a boot ROM

<p>
As I have not used such a beast myself yet, I can give you only the
following tips (courtesy of Christian Leutloff
<tt/&lt;leutloff@sundancer.tng.oche.de&gt;/): 
<itemize>
<item> You can't use ``normal'' boot ROMs.
<item> There is a <tt/netboot/ packet by Gero Kuhlmann, that provides
for boot ROMs for Linux, and further information. <tt/netboot/ is
available from the local Linux mirror, or as a Debian package
(<tt/netboot-0.4/).
<item> Read the documentation coming with your boot ROM carefully.
<item> You probably will have to enable the tftpd on the server, but
       this depends upon your boot ROM's way of loading the kernel.
<item> <it>Any information on boot-ROM vendors of these Linux variety,
mentioned above, as not everybody has access to PROM burner :(
(especially in Europe, as I'm located there.) welcome, I'll include
them then here.</it> 
</itemize>
<sect1>
Using a raw kernel disk

<p>
If you have exported the root filesystem with the correct name for the
default naming and your <em/NFS/ server is also the <em/RARP/ server
(which implies that the boxes are on the same subnet.), than you can
just boot the kernel by <tt/cat/ing it to a disk. (You have to set the
root device in the kernel to 0:255.) This assumes, that the root
directory on the server is <tt>/tftpboot/</tt><it>IP Address</it>
(this value can be changed when compiling the kernel.)
<sect1>
Using a bootloader &amp; <em/RARP/

<p>
     Give the kernel all needed parameters when booting, and add
     <tt>nfsroot=&lt;<em/server-ip-addr/&gt;:&lt;<em>/path/to/mount</em>&gt;</tt>
     where <em/server-ip-addr/ is the IP address of your NFS-server, and
     <em>/path/to/mount</em> is the path to the root directory.

Tips:
<itemize>
<item> When using <bf/LILO/ consider using the ``<tt/lock/'' feature: Simply
            type in once all the correct parameters and add
            ``<tt/lock/''. Next time when booting let LILO timeout.
<item> When generating a workstation specific boot disk, you can
            also use the <tt/append=/ feature in <tt/lilo.conf/.
</itemize>

<sect1>
Using a bootloader without <em/RARP/

<p>
The <tt/ip/ and <tt/nfsroot/ kernel parameters (which can be hardcoded
into the kernel, interactively entered at some bootloader prompts, or
included in <tt/lilo.conf/ via the <tt/append=/ parameter; see the next
subsection) provide all
of the information necessary for the client to set up its ethernet interface
and to contact the NFS server, respectively.  The parameters are fully
documented in <tt>Documentation/nfsroot.txt</tt>, which is included in
the kernel sources (usually found under <tt>/usr/src/linux</tt>).  Here's
the format for a machine with a static (pre-assigned) IP address:

<p>
<itemize>
<item> <tt>nfsroot=&lt;<em/NFS-server-IP-number/&gt;:/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       ip=&lt;<em/client-IP-number/&gt;::&lt;<em/gateway-IP-number/&gt;:&lt;<em/netmask/&gt;:&lt;<em/client-hostname/&gt;:eth0:off</tt>
</itemize>

<p>
DHCP is much simpler:

<p>
<itemize>
<item> <tt>nfsroot=&lt;<em/NFS-server-IP-number/&gt;:/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       ip=dhcp</tt>
</itemize>

<sect1>Sample kernel command lines

<p>
Here's an example of a complete kernel command line such as you might
include in <tt/lilo.conf/ or equivalent; only the IP numbers and NFS
path are bogus:

<p>
<itemize>
<item> <tt>root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=12.345.67.89:/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       ip=dhcp console=ttyS1</tt>
</itemize>

<p>
That uses DHCP to assign an IP address to the machine and puts its boot
messages (console) on the second serial port.  The following is the
corresponding example using a static IP address; it also explicitly
specifies Busybox's (non-standard) location for init:

<p>
<itemize>
<item> <tt>root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=12.345.67.89:/path/on/server/to/nfs_root
       ip=12.345.67.88::12.345.67.1:255.255.255.0:embed-o-matic:eth0:off
       console=ttyS1 init=/bin/init</tt>
</itemize>

<sect>
Known problems

<p>
<sect1>
/sbin/init doesn't start.

<p>
A common problem with /sbin/init is that some distributions (e.g., Red Hat
Linux) come with /sbin/init dynamically linked.  So you have to provide
a correct /lib setup to the client. An easy thing one could try is replacing
/sbin/init (for the client) with a statically linked ``Hello World'' program.
This way you know if it is something more basic, or ``just'' a problem with
dynamic linking.

<p>
Also note that Busybox by default installs its <tt/init/ symlink in
<tt>/bin</tt> rather than <tt>/sbin</tt>.  You may need to move it or
pass an explicit <tt/init=/ parameter on the kernel command line, as
shown in the final example of the previous section.

<sect1>
/dev troubles.

<p>
If you get some garbled messages about ttys when booting, then you
should run a MAKEDEV from the client in the /dev directory. There are
rumors that this doesn't work with certain server OSes that use
64-bit device numbers; should you run into this, please consider updating
this section!  A potential solution would be to create a small /dev
ram disk early in the boot process and reinstall the device nodes each time,
or simply embed directly into the kernel a suitably initialized ramdisk.
<!-- GRR:  mention CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD? -->
<!-- GRR:  mention devfs also?  point to devfs howto or something? -->

<sect>
Other resources

<p>
<itemize>

<item> In the Documentation directory of kernel source there is a file
documenting NFS-Root systems (<tt>Documentation/nfsroot.txt</tt>).
<p>

<item> There are quite a few related HOWTOs:
   <itemize>
   <item>Diskless-HOWTO (specifically, the <em/Network Booting/ section)
   <item>Diskless-root-NFS-HOWTO
   <item>Diskless-root-NFS-other-HOWTO
   <item>Network-boot-HOWTO
   <item>PXE-Server-HOWTO ("Pre-boot eXecution Environment") &lt; coming &gt;
   </itemize>
<p>

<item> There is a BOOTP client:
<tt><url url="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/network/admin/bootpc-0.64.tar.gz" name="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/network/admin/bootpc-0.64.tar.gz"></tt>
<!-- was ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/system/Network/admin/bootpc.v045.tgz -->

<p>
With initrd (which is included in Linux 2.0), it could be made to work
for diskless stations quite nicely. initrd is actually always an
advanced option for more customized setups.

<item> For plain bootpd-based boots this is actually probably not
needed as Linux 2.0 contains also the option to use BOOTP instead of
RARP. (To be more precise, you can compile both in the kernel, and the
faster response wins.)
<p>

<item> There is a patch floating around that allows for swapping over
NFS. It was sent to me (during a private high workload phase), but I
somehow managed to lose the mail. 

<p> You can probably get it from
<url url="http://www.linuxhq.com/" name="http://www.linuxhq.com/"> in the
unofficial-patches section.

<!-- GRR:  no longer true:
<item> My PGP public key can be fetched by fingering andreas@ag.or.at.
The fingerprint is: F1 F7 43 D5 07 C4 6C 87  BF 6B 33 A2 2C EE 5A F9.
 -->

</itemize>
</article>
