There are several scenarios where conventional hard drives are not really needed. Examples are HPC cluster nodes, virtualization nodes, home theater streaming PCs, silent desktops, internet cafés and embedded systems. Hard drives tend to fail, they are slow, they consume power, they generate heat and noise, and they are quite expensive if you need/want something faster and more reliable than SATA.
This post will show how to run CentOS 6 directly from tmpfs backed by memory, without using the (standard) 512 MB writable overlay. The procedure should be similar for RHEL and Scientific Linux 6.
The resulting boot process will be:
- Boot a node off a PXE enabled DHCP server.
- Chainload into iPXE.
- Download vmlinuz and a rather large initrd containing the entire filesystem over ftp/http(s). Try to avoid tftp when downloading the initrd because of its file size limitation and slow transfer speeds.
- Once downloaded, the kernel will start and the initrd will be mounted.
- The modified dracut scripts in the initrd will create a tmpfs partition in memory with the same size as your filesystem image included in the initrd.
- Your entire filesystem image will be copied to the tmpfs partition and attached to a loop device.
- This loop device will be used as the new root device, and the boot process continues as usual.
This is a screenshot from an ongoing boot process:
Now to the procedure:
First, create a custom kickstart file. I’ve included the specialties below:
bootloader --location=mbr --append="toram"
clearpart --all
firstboot --disabled
install
lang en_US.UTF-8
network --bootproto dhcp --device eth0 --onboot yes
part / --fstype=ext4 --size=2048
reboot
zerombr
%packages
patch
%post
cat > /etc/fstab << END
tmpfs / tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
END
# The patch is base64 encoded to avoid having to escape it manually.
cat > /root/dmsquash-live-root.base64 << EOF_patch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EOF_patch
cat /root/dmsquash-live-root.base64 | base64 -d > /root/dmsquash-live-root.patch
patch /usr/share/dracut/modules.d/90dmsquash-live/dmsquash-live-root /root/dmsquash-live-root.patch
ls /lib/modules | while read kernel; do
echo " > Update initramfs for kernel ${kernel}"
initrdfile="/boot/initramfs-${kernel}.img"
/sbin/dracut -f $initrdfile $kernel
done
%end
%post --nochroot
echo "Copy initramfs outside the chroot:"
ls $INSTALL_ROOT/lib/modules | while read kernel; do
src="$INSTALL_ROOT/boot/initramfs-${kernel}.img"
dst="$LIVE_ROOT/isolinux/initrd0.img"
echo " > $src -> $dst"
cp -f $src $dst
done
%end
Explaination: The post script will apply a patch to /usr/share/dracut/modules.d/90dmsquash-live/dmsquash-live-root before regenerating the initramfs. This patch will add support for the ‘toram’ boot parameter. Then, the initramfs is being copied to the isolinux directory outside the filesystem image.
Second, use livecd-creator and livecd-iso-to-pxeboot from the livecd-tools package to convert the kickstart file into a bootable vmlinuz and initrd:
$ sudo livecd-creator --config=centos6.ks fslabel=centos6 $ sudo livecd-iso-to-pxeboot centos6.iso
The commands above will create tftpboot/vmlinuz0 and tftpboot/initrd0.img. Put these files on your boot server and create a suitable PXE configuration. livecd-iso-to-pxeboot will create tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default which can be used as a template.
Now you are ready to boot one or multiple CentOS 6 in-memory instances over the network!
Another screenshot:
Feature request upstream.
