NetBSD-SoC: PXE Bulk Install

What is it?

The PXE Bulk Install system will allow a relatively inexperienced user of NetBSD to set up a mass install of NetBSD onto many machines over a network. The system will be highly configurable with respect to distribution, packages installed, and configuration files modified during the installation. The user will be able to group machines into configuration "classes" that will install different configurations onto different computers during one mass install.

For the complete proposal, please visit http://maxhart.thruhere.net/pxebulk/proposal.html

Status

The blog for the progress of this project is updated semidaily. It is located here.

April 21, 2009: Community Bonding Period -- Students get to know mentors, read documentation, get up to speed to begin working on their projects.
May 23, 2009: Students begin coding for their GSoC projects; Google begins issuing initial student payments
July 6, 2009: Mentors and students can begin submitting mid-term evaluations.
July 13, 2009: Mid-term evaluation deadline; Google begins issuing mid-term student payments provided passing student survey is on file.
August 10, 2009: Suggested 'pencils down' date. Take a week to scrub code, write tests, improve documentation, etc.
August 17, 2009: Firm 'pencils down' date. Mentors, students and organization administrators can begin submitting final evaluations to Google.
August 24, 2009: Final evaluation deadline; Google begins issuing student and mentoring organization payments provided forms and evaluations are on file.

Deliverables

Mandatory components:

Scripts and programs directory tree used in the installation framework.
Installation framework preparation scripts and program - the pre-built package for the system.
Documentation and a System Administration Guide detailing step-by-step instructions for the installation preparation and use of the system.

Optional components:

Pkgsrc build support for the preparation scripts and program.

Documentation

The documentation of this system has yet to be written. Very little documentation exists as of this date.

Technical Details

This system will use DHCP (NetBSD Howto | Specification), TFTP (NetBSD Howto | Specification), and NFS (NetBSD Howto | Specification) interfaces to accomplish its goals.

Maxwell Winderbaum <realize@mail.com>

$Id: index.html,v 1.2 2009/04/28 21:25:18 winderbaum Exp $