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9.2. Booting a Guest Using PXE

This section demonstrates how to boot a guest virtual machine with PXE.

9.2.1. Using bridged networking

Procedure 9.2. Booting a guest using PXE and bridged networking

  1. Ensure bridging is enabled such that the PXE boot server is available on the network.
  2. Boot a guest virtual machine with PXE booting enabled. You can use the virt-install command to create a new virtual machine with PXE booting enabled, as shown in the following example command: 
    virt-install --pxe --network bridge=breth0 --prompt
    Alternatively, ensure that the guest network is configured to use your bridged network, and that the XML guest configuration file has a <boot dev='network'/> element inside the <os> element, as shown in the following example: 
    <os>
   <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-rhel7.0.0'>hvm</type>
   <boot dev='network'/>
   <boot dev='hd'/>
</os>
<interface type='bridge'>
   <mac address='52:54:00:5a:ad:cb'/>
   <source bridge='breth0'/>
   <target dev='vnet0'/>
   <alias name='net0'/>
   <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
</interface>

9.2.2. Using a Private libvirt Network

Procedure 9.3. Using a private libvirt network

  1. Configure PXE booting on libvirt as shown in Section 9.1.1, “Setting up a PXE Boot Server on a Private libvirt Network”.
  2. Boot a guest virtual machine using libvirt with PXE booting enabled. You can use the virt-install command to create/install a new virtual machine using PXE: 
    virt-install --pxe --network network=default --prompt
Alternatively, ensure that the guest network is configured to use your private libvirt network, and that the XML guest configuration file has a <boot dev='network'/> element inside the <os> element, as shown in the following example: 
<os>
   <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-rhel7.0.0'>hvm</type>
   <boot dev='network'/>
   <boot dev='hd'/>
</os>
Also ensure that the guest virtual machine is connected to the private network: 
<interface type='network'>
   <mac address='52:54:00:66:79:14'/>
   <source network='default'/>
   <target dev='vnet0'/>
   <alias name='net0'/>
   <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
</interface>