Hosting Iventoy at Home or in Your Homelab for PXE Boot Options

When it comes to setting up a versatile and efficient boot environment, hosting Iventoy at home or in your homelab can be a game-changer. By offering PXE boot options, you can streamline the process of booting multiple devices and operating systems, making it easier to manage and maintain your systems. In this article, we will explore the benefits of hosting Iventoy at home and how it can enhance your booting experience.

What is Iventoy?

Iventoy is an open-source tool that allows you to create a bootable PXE Environment multiple ISO images. It simplifies the process of booting different operating systems without the need for multiple physical USB drives. With Iventoy, you can store all your bootable ISOs in a single location and select the desired operating system during the boot process.

Why Host Iventoy at Home or in Your Homelab?

Hosting Iventoy at home or in your homelab brings several advantages:

Centralized Boot Environment:

By hosting Iventoy, you can create a centralized boot environment for all your devices. Instead of relying on individual USB drives for each operating system. This simplifies the process of managing and updating bootable ISOs, saving you time and effort.

PXE Boot Support:

One of the key benefits of hosting Iventoy is the ability to offer PXE boot options. PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) allows you to boot devices over the network, eliminating the need for physical media. By configuring your home network or homelab to support PXE boot, you can easily boot devices such as laptops, desktops, or even virtual machines directly from Iventoy.

Flexibility and Versatility:

With Iventoy, you have the flexibility to choose from a wide range of operating systems and tools. Whether you need to boot into different Linux distributions, Windows installations, or diagnostic tools, Iventoy can handle it all. This versatility makes it ideal for developers, system administrators, or anyone who frequently works with multiple operating systems.

Setting Up Iventoy for PXE Boot

To host Iventoy for PXE boot, you will need a server or a dedicated machine in your homelab. Here are the general steps to follow:

1. Setup a Server environment to run it on, in my example I used Ubuntu Server hosted on proxmox

2. Update the server using the following commands

   sudo apt-get update

   sudo apt-get upgrade

3. Installing CIFS-UTILS for SMB Access (Optional)

   sudo apt-get -y install cifs-utils

4. Mounting the relevant drive and creating a SMB Credentials file (Optional)

   sudo nano ~/.smbcredentials

   username=<YOURUSERNAME>

   password=<YOURPASSWORD>

5. Save and Exit Nano

6. Make SMB Credentials secure to all but root

   sudo chmod 600 ~/.smbcredentials

7. Edit FSTAB

   sudo nano /etc/fstab

   Insert line below

   //<YOUR IP THAT HOSTS>/<Folder> /home/<YOUR USER>/iventoy-1.0.19/iso/ cifs credentials=/home/.smbcredentials 0 0

8. Replacing above <> with your own instance information

9. Installing Iventoy

   wget https://github.com/ventoy/PXE/releases/download/v1.0.19/iventoy-1.0.19-linux-free.tar.gz

10. Remember to change the version number to latest

11. unzip again adapt version to suit

    tar -xzf iventoy-1.0.19-linux-free.tar.gz

12. cd into directory and run

    sudo ./iventoy.sh -R start

13. Navigate to the url of your IP and the port 26000 dont forget to start Iventoy with the play button

Conclusion

Hosting Iventoy at home or in your homelab can significantly enhance your booting experience by providing a centralized and versatile boot environment. With support for PXE boot options, you can easily boot multiple devices and operating systems without the need for physical media. Whether you're a developer, system administrator, or simply a tech enthusiast, Iventoy is a valuable tool that simplifies the management of bootable ISOs and offers greater flexibility in your computing environment.