phoenixNAP

Using Pritunl Boot with phoenixNAP Bare Metal

PhoenixNAP Bare Metal uses iPXE chain URLs with HTTPS support. The DHCP support is unreliable so static IP addresses should be used. To begin in phoenixNAP BMC web console open the Servers section and click Deploy New Server. Select a Location, billing model and instance type then select iPXE Boot for the Operating System.

Due to the limited network configuration options available during deployment set the iPXE Script URL to https://boot.pritunl.com as a placeholder to allow rebooting to the iPXE script after deployment.

Select the option to create a new IPv4 allocation and enable Set as the server's native VLAN for boot. For simple bare metal use cases this can be used but it is recommended to configure a full reserved network. More information on doing this is available in the Pritunl Cloud phoenixNAP documentation. Once done click Deploy New Server.

After the server has been deployed and is in the Powered On state complete any network changes from the Networks section of the phoenixNAP BMC console. For this example the public IP allocation created during the deployment will be unassigned and the server will be added to a reserved public and private network.

Once completed open the Network & IP Settings section to get the network information that will be needed for the next step.

From the Pritunl Boot configuration select a Linux Distribution and set the Bare Metal Provider to phoenixNAP. Copy the Assigned IP from the previous step and append the CIDR for that network. For this example it will be 125.253.67.90/29 then use the IP address after the CIDR address shown for the Gateway IPv4. For this example the CIDR address is 125.253.67.88/29 and the gateway address will be 125.253.67.89 then add SSH Keys. Once done click Generate iPXE Install. A root password can also be set to allow debugging the server from the web console.

This will then display a iPXE Chain URL copy this URL for the next step.

After completing the network configuration open the Network & IP Settings from the Server Details. From the Actions menu in the top right select Configure iPXE. Select Set VLAN from Public Network then select the public network and IP address for the server. This should match what was configured for the server from the networking section. Doing this will set a native VLAN for the public network of the server. All future public network configuration including after the iPXE install has completed should exclude setting the VLAN. The private network will continue to use a VLAN. Enter the iPXE Script URL from the previous step and click Update.

This should then reboot the server with the Pritunl Boot iPXE configuration and updated network configuration. If this does not work from the Actions menu in the phoenixNAP BMC console select Reboot. Then select Reboot using iPXE script using the iPXE chain URL from the previous step. Then click Reboot Server.

After a few minutes the server will boot into the iPXE environment and the Pritunl Boot page will automatically update with the available resources. For this configuration a 100GB Root Filesystem Size will be used. This is useful as it leaves the rest of the disk available allowing an encrypted partition to be added from SSH after the install has completed. All bare metal systems on phoenixNAP should have support for bonded networking and this should be configured. To do this select both the network interfaces and enable Bonded Network. Set the Public Network Configuration to static then copy the same Public IPv4 and Gateway IPv4 used in the first step. The Network MTU should be set to 9000 for jumbo frame support this should be set for both the public and private network configuration.

Next in the Private Network tab. Select both network interfaces and enable Bonded Network. Then set Private Network Configuration to static. Copy the Assigned IP from the network details in the phoenixNAP web console and append the CIDR. For this example the Private IPv4 address will be 10.8.0.11/22 then copy the VLAN ID and set the VLAN ID IPv4. The Gateway IPv4 should be left blank. Then set Network MTU to 9000 and click Start Install.

The Pritunl Boot page will then automatically update as each installation stage completes. This will take 5-10 minutes. The page does not need to be refreshed.

Once the installation has completed and the server reboots the Pritunl Boot page will display the SSH command and the server will be ready to use. Pritunl Boot will always use the username cloud for all installations.