Linux Installation from NFS Share

Ensure that the /export/directory directory is exported via NFS via an entry in /etc/exports.

To export to a specific system:

/export/directory client.ip.address(ro,no_root_squash)

To export to all systems use an entry such as:

/export/directory *(ro,no_root_squash)

Start the NFS daemon (on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, use /sbin/service nfs start). If NFS is already running, reload the configuration file (on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system use /sbin/service nfs reload).

Be sure to test the NFS share following the directions in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide.

i had added showmount -e output which showing that nfs is already there

[root@workshop mnt]# showmount -e
Export list for workshop.example.local:
/home    *
/var/mnt *

also /etc/exports

/home          *(rw,sync)
/var/mnt       *(rw,sync)    - this one for installaiton

what else do you want me to check ??

but have you reloaded the service after you set up the shares?

yes, i did, i hvae reload nfs

problem is its asking

installation tree not found,
from log file of nfs server i can see that

nfs request is comming from client

Jan 27 10:41:13 workshop mountd[10903]: authenticated mount request from 192.168.1.5:861 for /var/mnt (/var/mnt)


but .. its unable to find the installation tree

by just copying iso ( 123456) to nfs server will it work or do i have to put installation files in other format ??
i dont know...

No, you have to put ISOs in the exported folder and should go... are there any permissions problems?

you maybe forgot the option no_root_squash (Allows root users on client computers to have root access on the server. Mount requests for root are not be mounted to the anonomous user)

Ok i did that

[root@workshop etc]# vi exports
/home          *(rw,sync)
/var/mnt       *(ro,no_root_squash)


[root@workshop etc]# showmount -e
Export list for workshop.example.local:
/home    *
/var/mnt *
[root@workshop etc]#


i have restarted the service for nfs

its not saying that problem that installation not found
instead of that, i am just seeing blue screen of installation , its like its trying but its hang in one place

at least we are one step forward... so, now we let it mount the share, but it cannot access it; check files and directory permissions.. maybe it can't read 'em

Have you mounted the ISO images in loopback mode and copied the contents to your NFS mount?

eg.  mount -o loop /nameofmyiso.iso /media/loop
cp /media/loop /nameofmyNFSshare.

give me 1 hr, i wil check more. Wil come bk soon

@ jrunixadmin

why do i need to mount ??

I put the ISO image in NFS server ( Server A)
in /var/mnt Directory

Now I am tryign to install Centos in  Clinet pc by using that NFs Share,

where do i have to mount that share ??

@ai_ja_nai

omm what permission you are asking ??

any clue

@fosiul01: I'm talking about the filesystem permissions for owner, group and other. Issue a ls -l inside the isos folder and past here the output. It may be that you set the permission to read those files just for the owner and not the others.
In any case, issue a chmod 777 -R /var/mnt to ensure we can do everything to that folder and contents.

@jrunixadmin: this is not a FTP/HTTP install, you mustn't extract/mount the images

Ok
I have manually tryed to mount that directory to the clinet pc  to check if it has full access or not

with this configuration at /etc/exports
/var/mnt       *(rw,sync)   : i can read write everything

but with
var/mnt       *(ro,no_root_squash)  : i cant write to the folder

so i changed it to /var/mnt       *(rw,sync)
then trying to install centos
but still same ..
but if you press F4 to see extra log, its saying
<5>nfs : server 192.168.1.2 not responding , still trying...

dont understand, NFs mount is fine as i said, i tryed to mount that directory, but from installation it cant access

can you post

ls -l /var/mnt

here, please?
Otherwise, are you firewalled in some way?

no firewall
[root@workshop var]# ls -l | grep mnt
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root   4096 Jan 27 13:40 mnt

I had selinux enabled
so i disabled that one

but samething. ...
i am realy stuck now, dont know what to check ..

get rid of that grep mnt, I'd want to see the exact output of

ls -l /var/mnt

[root@workshop ~]# ls -l /var/mnt
total 3913628
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 654061568 Jan 26 20:18 CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-1of6.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 666683392 Jan 26 20:30 CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-2of6.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 665231360 Jan 26 20:33 CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-3of6.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 666519552 Jan 26 20:29 CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-4of6.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 667863040 Jan 26 20:32 CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-5of6.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 683225088 Jan 26 20:36 CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-6of6.iso

Uhm, I really don't know what to do :)

We havo to look at this
<5>nfs : server 192.168.1.2 not responding , still trying...
and think why you can't reach it.. do you have in you /var/log/messages.log any connection attempt coming from the server which is trying to install?

Right now, i dont know what to do

i have copyed all files from /var/mnt
to /install and gave it full permission to see if this helps

but no luck

Jan 27 15:23:34 workshop mountd[8396]: authenticated mount request from 192.168.1.5:858 for /install (/install)

ommmm something is we are missing but dont know what..

it could be somewhere its locking up, i have restart
nfslock service, but no luck

need to google it more now

As for error: "The directory does not seems to Centos installation tree." - I'm not familiar with CentOS, but I think you should share content of iso image, not image itself.

what you said, i am t hnking that aswell,

you meant, burn that iso  image to a CD then copy the cod to the /install directory ??

is that rgiht ??

look at this one,  [ I accepted the solutionat that time, but i had the same issue]

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/24035253/Centos-Installation-over-NFS.html

You can mount it with -o loop option instead of burning and then copying.
The easiest would be to download dvd iso, which contains everything in one image, then mount it with loop option:
mount -o loop dvd.iso.file /mnt/centos-install/
and then share this directory.

how do you do ??

like

i have 5 Centos Cd

and i have instal directory in NFs server

now i copyed first centos cd to install directory

now when i am copying the 2nd Cd, it will say, : do you want to override [ because it has some same file]

i say yes

i will do the samething for 5th Cd

is that the way  ??


Here funnythign is : till now the client pc is tryign to access my NFS server.
while client pc is trying to access nfs server, if i close that Mount directory in NFS server,
the client pc will say: the mount is not found,

so this mean, client pc go to the mount direcotory but for some reason, after that it cant do anything...

no error nothing...

so someting i am missing .. its lilke its lock some where

all i am doing is for Redhat certificataion exam, now at time of exam, will they give me the DVD ?? or will they give me REDhat cd with 5 disk ??

omm also : dvd iso only be download via torent,

do i have to install somesoftware for this torrent download ??

To check this I should download at least 2 CDs, which I don't want to, but you can try mount your CD's with loop option like this:
mount -o loop first_iso /mnt/CentOS-install/CD1
mount -o loop second_iso /mnt/CentOS-install/CD2
etc.
Then, share /mnt/CentOS-install/ directory.
There is a chance it will work as expected.

As for copying all the cds into one directory - yes, this should work also (there are some files duplicated - you can safely overwrite them).

To downoad torrent, you should have some torrent client (ie. rtorrent).

omm i just copyed, all Centos Cd in 1 directory which is /install

omm but still same issue

its someting else giving this trouble ....

which i dont know .. how to troubleshoot ..

Again, you don't have to extract them
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Installation_Guide/ch02s05s02.html <--nfs
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Installation_Guide/ch02s05s01.html <--ftp/http

thanks to stay with me

but we have tryed that way

I think i got a clue
but i will give it a try tomorrow

one web site was telling that if both transfer rate of eth0  of client and nfs server is not same there could be a problem

my client is 10base

and nfs is 100 base

i am thinking it could be a problem....

i will give it a try tomorrow as my office is finished,

have a look at the out put
please just confer me , if speed is different or not

NFS server :
[root@workshop /]# mii-tool -v eth0
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok
  product info: Intel 82555 rev 4
  basic mode:   autonegotiation enabled
  basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
  capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  advertising:  100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
  link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
[root@workshop /]#



Client pc :

[root@localhost ~]# mii-tool -v eth0
eth0: negotiated 10baseT-FD, link ok
  product info: vendor 00:00:00, model 0 rev 0
  basic mode:   autonegotiation enabled
  basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
  capabilities: 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  advertising:  10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
[root@localhost ~]#


please let me know if you think , th speed is different
because in negotiated section its saying
10base and 100 base

This thing of the different transfer rates that denie a proper install is really demented: even if one was a 56k and the other was 1G it wouldn't be a problem since the connection would flat on the lowest rate value (i.e., you would go @ 56k)... This is a different thing: is that the client can't access the server for some reasons.

can you show us iptables -L output?

i am not infront of pc
but its iptables is flush

i can conferm you that, there is no iptables rules in iptables,
iptables is not blocking

can you post the messages of today in /var/log/messages and in /var/log/auth and in /var/log/nfs (or whichever log has nfs daemon)?

Ok i will do that tomorrow, as i came home

those pc is in my office,

so i will update you on that issue tomorrow morning.

but now, i am tryign to setup samething in VM mechien to see if this works

i will post all those tomorrow ,

yap its must of ethernet card speed issue

Because i just connect another Pc to get install from the Same NFS server
and its working, its installing..

but the this client pc would not work

so i cant blame my nfs server , its fine.

now i will change the ether net card to 100 MB see if this work

anyway thanks to stay with me

Thanks, even if I don't deserve them so much this time