Network install RHEL on Power10
I just got 4 Power10 servers (9105-41B) delivered, to be used for Storage Archive with an ESS. These were delivered without any OS installed, and I do all my work from remote, so I had to network install them with only BMC access. The routine for doing that is documented here.
First I found the tftp-server RPM and installed on the EMS. Unfortunately this isn’t available in the OS repositories provided with the ESS code, so I had to find it somewhere else…
# rpm -ivh tftp-server*x86_64.rpm
Also the grub2-ppc64le-modules-*.noarch.rpm and grub2-tools-extra*x86_64.rpm is missing, so again I needed to hunt for these elsewhere and install on the EMS:
# rpm -ivh grub2-ppc64le-modules-2.06-61.el9_2.4.noarch.rpm grub2-tools-extra-2.06-61.el9_2.4.x86_64.rpm
Now we can create the boot directories using grub2-mknetbootdir:
# grub2-mknetdir --net-directory=/var/lib/tftpboot/
Netboot directory for i386-pc created. Configure your DHCP server to point to /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/grub2/i386-pc/core.0
Netboot directory for powerpc-ieee1275 created. Configure your DHCP server to point to /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/grub2/powerpc-ieee1275/core.elf
To avoid issues on upgrades, we immediately remove these packages after the boot directories were created.
# rpm -ev grub2-tools-extra-2.06-61.el9_2.4.x86_64 grub2-ppc64le-modules-2.06-61.el9_2.4.noarch
Then configure the grub2 boot entry by editing /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/grub2/grub.cfg to be the following, pointing at the EMS IP for inst.repo:
set default=0
set timeout=5
echo -e "\nWelcome to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 installer!\n\n"
menuentry 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8' {
linux grub2-ppc64/vmlinuz ro ip=dhcp inst.repo=http://10.11.84.41:8000/
initrd grub2-ppc64/initrd.img
}
Archive only support RHEL8 at the moment, so we copy the initrd.img and vmlinuz from the ESS-provided repos:
# mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/grub2-ppc64
# cp /opt/ibm/ess/mnt/rhels8/ppc64le/ppc/ppc64/{initrd.img,vmlinuz} /var/lib/tftpboot/grub2-ppc64/
From the SMS menu on the Power system, we find the mac address of the relevant interface by going to:
Main menu
2 - Setup Remote IPL (Initial Program Load)
# Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIC Adapters
Device Location Code Hardware
Address
1. PCIe4 2-port 100GbE RoCE U78DB.ND0.WZS068R-P0-C10-T0 58a2e130e6d4
2. PCIe4 2-port 100GbE RoCE U78DB.ND0.WZS068R-P0-C10-T1 58a2e130e6d5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Navigation keys:
M = return to Main Menu
ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key:
I’ve connected the first port, so my MAC address is 58:a2:e1:30:e6:d4. We the use this to configure one entry for each of our systems in /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
subnet 10.11.84.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
allow bootp;
option routers 10.11.84.1;
group {
filename "boot/grub2/powerpc-ieee1275/core.elf";
host arch1-hs {
hardware ethernet 58:a2:e1:30:ed:8c;
fixed-address 10.11.84.51;
}
host arch2-hs {
hardware ethernet 58:a2:e1:30:e6:a4;
fixed-address 10.11.84.52;
}
}
}
Then we start the needed services on the EMS.
A webserver in the root of the RHEL image:
# cd /opt/ibm/ess/mnt/rhels8/ppc64le
# python3 -m http.server
tftp server:
# systemctl start tftp.service
dhcp server:
# systemctl start dhcpd
Go back to the Power10 SMS meny:
Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Menu
1. Select Language
2. Setup Remote IPL (Initial Program Load)
3. I/O Device Information
4. Select Console
5. Select Boot Options <----
Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Multiboot
1. Select Install/Boot Device <----
2. Configure Boot Device Order
3. Multiboot Startup <OFF>
4. SAN Zoning Support
Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select Device Type
1. Tape
2. CD/DVD
3. Hard Drive
4. Network <----
5. List all Devices
Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select Network Service.
1. BOOTP <----
2. ISCSI
Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select Device
Device Current Device
Number Position Name
1. - PCIe4 2-port 100GbE RoCE <---
( loc=U78DB.ND0.WZS068R-P0-C10-T0 )
2. - PCIe4 2-port 100GbE RoCE
( loc=U78DB.ND0.WZS068R-P0-C10-T1 )
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select Task
PCIe4 2-port 100GbE RoCE
( loc=U78DB.ND0.WZS068R-P0-C10-T0 )
1. Information
2. Normal Mode Boot <----
3. Service Mode Boot
Version FW1050.10 (ML1050_059)
SMS (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2024 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you sure you want to exit System Management Services?
1. Yes <---
2. No
Then after a few moments the RHEL text-mode installer should start.
Starting installer, one moment...
anaconda 33.16.8.9-1.el8_8 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 started.
* installation log files are stored in /tmp during the installation
* shell is available on TTY2
* when reporting a bug add logs from /tmp as separate text/plain attachments
X or window manager startup failed, falling back to text mode.
================================================================================
================================================================================
X was unable to start on your machine. Would you like to start VNC to connect to
this computer from another computer and perform a graphical installation or
continue with a text mode installation?
1) Start VNC
2) Use text mode <----
I install to first disk, with LVM. Using package selection “Server”, instead of the default “Server with GUI”.