Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

Morta · 2021-08-08 13:06:31

I have a Server behind a NAT-Router without PXE in the Internet and want to start and shutdown the server over internet

So the facts of the server are

-OS Arch Linux Headless
-Sysloader as bootloader
-Fully encrypted with dm-crypt
-Raid with mdadm
-Intel 10-T Base Network card with pxe
-Asus Motherboard with 4x1 Gbit/s i don‘t know with pxe
- Intel Xeon Processor

So what are the possibilties?

- PXE Server with Linux on a Rasperry Pi?
- A PCIe Card witch have a terminal? Is this possible?
- Heard from a Service over Webserver is this possible with sysloader and dm-cryt?
- Wakeonlan?
- Other possibilities?

Thanks for help!

Last edited by Morta (2021-08-08 13:33:05)

seth · 2021-08-08 13:26:46

You can shut it down via ssh, but the starting thing will be a problem - depending on starting from what. Cold? Like, push the power button over the internet?
"Watching" the boot process can be achieved via https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … netconsole , https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Netconsole

Cold boots will require some sort of "physical" access (obviously a virtual machine can be cold booted from the host and that doesn't require physical access)
In doubt some internet enabled power switch (and the ACPI booting on power supply)

Morta · 2021-08-08 13:38:28

seth wrote:

You can shut it down via ssh, but the starting thing will be a problem - depending on starting from what. Cold? Like, push the power button over the internet?
"Watching" the boot process can be achieved via https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … netconsole , https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Netconsole
Cold boots will require some sort of "physical" access (obviously a virtual machine can be cold booted from the host and that doesn't require physical access)
In doubt some internet enabled power switch (and the ACPI booting on power supply)

Thanks for answer!

The Server is running 24/7, but i had to reboot over internet when i‘m outside of the server location.

So it have a possiblity to skip the dm-crypt password check over ssh?

Or when i wake up over wake on lan to access the boot process? aspecially the dm-crypt prompt!

seth · 2021-08-08 14:01:33

Depends on what's encrypted.
If your /boot partition isn't, you could use https://archlinux.org/packages/communit … -dropbear/ to gain ssh access to the initramfs and decrypt the root partition from there.

Morta · 2021-08-08 14:14:09

seth wrote:

Depends on what's encrypted.
If your /boot partition isn't, you could use https://archlinux.org/packages/communit … -dropbear/ to gain ssh access to the initramfs and decrypt the root partition from there.

Thanks is watching nice!

Dorpbear is a simple ssh server like on the flashed fritzbox?

And how i do it exactly? Do i have to turn over chroot?

I hava a APC 550 Pro UPS so the better solution for me than a Network Power Switch is to buy

https://it-market.com/de/komponenten/ad … hsQAvD_BwE

and activate acpi in the bios

Its that correct?

Last edited by Morta (2021-08-08 14:23:33)

seth · 2021-08-08 14:24:04

ACPI is enabled, you need to (be able to) configure the BIOS to boot on power supply (or reboot on power loss, the labels can vary)
Whether the thing is better, idk, but if it's compatible w/ your existing UPS it'S certainly an option ;-)

(But I'd manually try whether you can get the system to auto-boot when switching on/off the UPS)

Edit: The dropbear is a vicious carnivore from australia and also the name of this simple ssh server.
No idea what a Dorpbear is

I'm not sure what you mean by "turn over chroot", but the package provides a mkinitcpio hook, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mkinitcpio#HOOKS that will add it to the initramfs.

Last edited by seth (2021-08-08 14:27:18)

ewaller · 2021-08-08 14:41:48

You could MacGyver something with a serial console: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/workin … al_console

I am thinking perhaps a supervisory computer, perhaps a Raspberry Pi, connected over a serial port to your server. You connect to the Raspi on another port and then be able to communicate from the Pi and monitor the serial port during boot. For extra credit points, you could perhaps use the GPIO outputs on the Pi to reset the host, provide switch inputs to an AT power supply, or use a solid state relay to actually remove and apply power to the server.

seth wrote:

The dropbear is a vicious carnivore from australia and also the name of this simple ssh server.

I saw one after a night of Victoria Bitters

Last edited by ewaller (2021-08-08 19:39:41)

Slithery · 2021-08-08 17:20:31

You could use a KVM over IP device, something like...
https://tinypilotkvm.com/product/tinypilot-voyager

Morta · 2021-08-08 23:36:01

Slithery wrote:

You could use a KVM over IP device, something like...
https://tinypilotkvm.com/product/tinypilot-voyager

Thanks for the hardware input

What do you think from

https://www.apc.com/shop/au/en/products … /P-KVM-USB

and what is the diffrence between virutal or not?

Edit: I will do my own kvm with raspberry pi 4 2GB and pi-kvm will me coast under 100 Dollar and is free from paid software and seems to based on arch linux

Last edited by Morta (2021-08-09 00:49:06)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-08-08 13:06:31

Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#2 2021-08-08 13:26:46

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#3 2021-08-08 13:38:28

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#4 2021-08-08 14:01:33

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#5 2021-08-08 14:14:09

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#6 2021-08-08 14:24:04

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#7 2021-08-08 14:41:48

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#8 2021-08-08 17:20:31

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

#9 2021-08-08 23:36:01

Re: Startup & watch bootprocess over Internet

Board footer