So, what's the point? If the goal is to just build a VM template, a tool like Packer is much better suited for the job, in fact, it actually creates a PXE Boot environment on the fly. Overall it's a decent guide on the nuts and bolts of building a TFTP server. 'cover', 'touch on', would be much better adjectives. We will gloss over some of the more basic ones. Xinitd is capable of starting the service, binding to port 69, then dropping permissions down. You absolutely should not do this! Your TFTP server should be run as an unprivileged user. The TFTP server will be run as the root user.

I could be totally wrong, and my own biases probably play into that feeling. but I feel like, with no evidence to back this up, the people who are interested in this would be running a Linux DHCP server. I mean, I get it, it's what you're using. I’m using Windows Server for my DHCP serverĪside: This just seems so out of place to me. While I agree in principle that 'installing packages' is easy, maybe it isn't to everyone and if you get out of the habit then you don't run the risk of calling something hard 'easy'.) it's a good way to lose credibility with your reader. (I.e.: if it's easy, I'll know it's easy by it being easy I don't need you to tell me, if it's not easy then I'll be frustrated by you calling something easy that isn't. it would behoove you to call out in your 'prerequisites' paragraph that 'You should set a DNS entry to 192.168.10.10, or just use the IP address every place you see in this guide' or something similar. If I were a newbie following this guide I might think that by building a PXE server it magically registers this name. You allude to, but don't mention anywhere that you need to set this hostname up in your DNS. So that means that it’s ready for others to use too. I also like your word choice overall, it's not super dry and technical, but you don't go overboard with prose either, you were able to keep it interesting while remaining on-point.Īs for specific feedback.

I wouldn't recommend anyone roll their own TFTP server today, but if you really wanted to understand how to PXE boot an OS, this does a good job of illustrating what goes on to make that happen.

Overall I think you've got a good start here.

Centos 7 tftp server