booting from host with multiple network cards

Steffen Grunewald steffen.grunewald at aei.mpg.de
Mon Nov 23 15:30:40 CET 2009


On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 03:22:30PM +0100, Michael Goetze wrote:
> Toomas Tamm wrote:
> > On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 01:38:16PM +0100, Thomas Lange wrote:
> > 
> >> * bootoption ethdevice: use specified network device for network booting
> >> (PXE) instead of default (being eth0). Feature contributed by Helge
> >> Wagner. Usage example: ethdevice=eth1
> > 
> > Does anyone know/remember, why the problem cannot be fixed properly,
> > i.e. make live-initramfs try all interfaces and use the first one
> > where a DHCP reply is obtained?
> > 
> > This used to be possible with fai-kernels under etch, so why is it not
> > possible with live-initramfs?
> 
> Red Hat's Kickstart also does this, I agree it would definitely be much
> nicer.
> 
> However, lacking that, the ethdevice boot option would at least be
> better than what we have now...

I suppose there is no chance to find out which interface had been used for the
actual PXE booting? 
For IPMI reasons, eth0 of multi-homed machines may be a public interface
and eth1 the "private" one which is connected to the installation network.
In such a case, the first DHCP response might be returned from the public
network even if PXE booting took place on eth1. (which has preference in
the BIOS boot order, btw)

I still don't understand why we can't have back ip=::::::eth1

Cheers,
 Steffen


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