How to use HP ILO to do NFS diskless installation of RHEL 5.1 remotely

Objective: install RHEL 5.1 OS for one of HP server in datacenter remotely from office with DVD ISO file and NFS method, it won't require you to have any disk from office.


Steps:

  • download RHEL 5.1 DVD ISO file, put it on the one of datacenter NFS server, can be different network segment from the destination server. (In this case, during installation, you might need to set default gateway properly so that the destination sever can talk to this NFS server)
  • configuring NFS server export, in /etc/exports, put this:
/sourcefile/rh51 *(ro)

  • put rhel-5.1-server-i386-dvd.iso to /sourcefile/rh51 folder
  • mount this iso somewhere to copy out boot.iso to your local Windows PC in office which will be used for HP ILO virtual CDROM media image for booting up RHEL installation
  • startup NFS server - service portmap start; service nfs start
  • use IE to access HP ILO address
  • go to virtual media to mount this boot.iso image
  • use virtual power to reset the server
  • press enter to boot up OS installation virtual boot.iso disk
  • untick high performance mouse, and close the virutal media window to make USB mouse to work
  • continue to install until finish
  • that's it, done.