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How to Boot a Server in Network Mode

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Michael M.
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Your job is not to waste time compiling a kernel for your server and testing it over and over again to make sure it's working properly. Booting your server in Network Mode allows you to start it from a precompiled kernel provided by OVHcloud.

Prerequisites

  • OVHcloud Dedicated Server running a Linux

Topics

Determining the Root Device of Your Server

In order to boot in Network Mode, you will need to tell the OVHcloud Manager the root device of your server. The root device is the root partition of your server. To find this information, SSH into your server and enter the command:

# cat /etc/fstab

Following is a sample output of the command:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type> <options>      <dump>   <pass>
/dev/sda3        /      ext4    errors=remount-ro       0         1
/dev/sda2        /boot  ext4    errors=remount-ro       0         1
/dev/sda4        swap   swap    defaults                0         0
proc             /proc  proc    defaults                0         0
sysfs            /sys   sysfs   defaults                0         0
/dev/sda1        /boot/efi      vfat    defaults        0         0

In this case, /dev/sda3 is the root device since it is the root partition (denoted by /). Now that you have determined the root device of your server, you are ready to boot your server in Network Mode.

Booting in Network Mode

To boot your server in network mode, log in to the OVHcloud Manager. Click Bare Metal Cloud on the top of the page. On the left-hand sidebar, select the server in question. From the "General information" box, click ... next to "Boot" and select Edit from the drop-down menu.

networkmode1.png

On the ensuing page, select the "Boot in network mode" option as well as the kernel you wish to use and the root device of your server. In the below screenshot, we'll configure it using our prior example where /dev/sda3 was our root device.

networkmode2.png

Click the Next button and then click the Confirm button on the following screen to change the boot mode to Network Boot. Keep in mind that you will need to restart your server for the changes to take effect. Once you have restarted your server, it will boot from the OVHcloud kernel and you will be able to access and use it as you normally do.

Conclusion

You should now be able to use OVHcloud's Network Boot option as a tool to administer your server. For more information about other boot options, please check out our How to Use Rescue Mode article.

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