This service handles DHCP, PXE, tftp, and iPXE for provisions in the Tinkerbell project. For more information about the Tinkerbell project, see: tinkerbell.org.
This repository is Experimental meaning that it's based on untested ideas or techniques and not yet established or finalized or involves a radically new and innovative style! This means that support is best effort (at best!) and we strongly encourage you to NOT use this in production.
As boots runs a DHCP server, it's often asked if it is safe to run without any network isolation; the answer is yes. While boots does run a DHCP server, it only allocates an IP address when it recognizes the mac address of the requesting device.
First, you need to make sure you have git-lfs installed:
# install "git-lfs" package for your OS. On Ubuntu, for instance:
# curl https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/github/git-lfs/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
# apt install git-lfs
# then run these two commands:
git lfs install
git lfs pull
Running the Tests
# make the files
make all
# run the tests
go test
Build/Run Boots
# run boots
./boots
You can use NixOS shell, which will have the Git-LFS, Go and others
nix-shell
The quickest way to get started is docker-compose up. This will start boots in
standalone mode using the example JSON in the test/ directory. It also starts
a client container that runs some tests.
docker-compose build # build containers
docker-compose up # start the network & services
# it's fine to hit control-C twice for fast shutdown
docker-compose down # stop the network & clean up Docker processesAlternatively you can run boots standalone manually. It requires a few environment variables for configuration.
test/standalone-hardware.json should be safe enough for most developers to
use on the command line locally without getting a call from your network
administrator. That said, you might want to contact them before running a DHCP
server on their network. Best to isolate it in Docker or a VM if you're not
sure.
export DATA_MODEL_VERSION=standalone
export API_CONSUMER_TOKEN=none
export API_AUTH_TOKEN=none
export BOOTS_STANDALONE_JSON=./test/standalone-hardware.json
# to run on your laptop as a regular user
# DHCP won't work but useful for smoke testing and iterating on http/tftp/syslog
./cmd/boots/boots \
-http-addr 127.0.0.1:9000 \
-syslog-addr 127.0.0.1:9001 \
-tftp-addr 127.0.0.01:9002 \
-dhcp-addr 127.0.0.1:9003
# or run it in a container
# NOTE: not sure the NET_ADMIN cap is necessary
docker run -ti --cap-add=NET_ADMIN --volume $(pwd):/boots alpine:3.14
/boots/cmd/boots -dhcp-addr 0.0.0.0:67