Proxmox 8.2 Automatic Install with iPXE/PXE

[dseira]

I've installed manually Proxmox 8.2 using the Proxmox Automatic Install guide (https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Automated_Installation) with success.

Now I want to install the generated ISO "proxmox-ve_8.2-1-auto-from-iso.iso" through iPXE to be able to deploy it massively; the steps followed are:

- Uncompress the iso into the ipxe folder "/var/www/proxmox-8.2"
- Configure the ipxe:

echo 'Loading Proxmox VE Automatic Installer ...'
kernel /var/www/proxmox-8.2/boot/linux26 ro initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=16777216 rw splash=verbose proxmox-start-auto-installer
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /var/www/proxmox-8.2/boot/initrd.img

It starts booting the initramfs but it stucks at "Searching for block device containing the ISO proxmox-ve-8.2.1":



Are there any way to deal with it?

Thanks.

 

[proxman4]

hey.

"ipxe" configuration you quoted is in fact a grub menu . You may need to use this : https://github.com/morph027/pve-iso-2-pxe as stated here : https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/auto-install-through-pxe.146270/

 

[tru]

did you have it working with "proxmox-ve_8.2-2.iso" converted to "proxmox-ve_8.2-2-auto-from-iso-00.iso" from ipxe booted? or only with 8.2-1 ?

 

[dseira]

Finally I gave up using the proxmox iso because the autoinstall settings are very limited (you cannot create a raid for ex); I've done installing a debian base and setting up the proxmox repo itself so I can customize as I like.

 

[cheiss]

Hi,

the autoinstall settings are very limited (you cannot create a raid for ex)

would you mind elaborating what you'd like to do exactly?
It is very much possible to create RAID setups, using ZFS or even Btrfs. See also Disk Setup Section in the documentation for it.

 

[dseira]

I mean for install the proxmox itself. In the iso installation process you cannot (or at least you couldn't) create a software raid and install the proxmox OS in that raid or you cannot setup a custom partition layout (for the proxmox OS).

This is related to the proxmox OS installation process only.

 

[cheiss]

software raid and install the proxmox OS in that raid

Again, you can, with ZFS or Btrfs. Or do you mean using mdraid? For the latter, please see our Wiki on why mdraid is unsupported.

you cannot setup a custom partition layout (for the proxmox OS)

Yeah, that's true, but that's something entirely different than RAID setups. For that, installing Debian first and then Proxmox VE is indeed the route to go (albeit somewhat unsupported, since it may break things).

 

[tru]

Naive question from a proxmox beginner: I have several small system with 2 3 TB HDDs each, and I would like to experiment with proxmox on raidz1 f for some parts (1TB raidz1 rpool) and use the 2TB remaining space as ceph OSD. Is this kind to automation possible?
sda1/sdb1: 1 TB for rpool
sda2/sdb2: 2 TB for OSD
- rpool on raidz1 with only sda1 and sdb1
- sda2 and sdb2 as devices for ceph

[disk-setup]
filesystem = "zfs"
zfs.raid = "raid1"
zfs.hdsize = 1024
disk_list = ["sda", "sdb"]

 

[dseira]

Again, you can, with ZFS or Btrfs. Or do you mean using mdraid? For the latter, please see our Wiki on why mdraid is unsupported.

I didn't know about mdraid and proxmox; I will check it. Thanks.

Yeah, that's true, but that's something entirely different than RAID setups. For that, installing Debian first and then Proxmox VE is indeed the route to go (albeit somewhat unsupported, since it may break things).

Which things may break?