Netinstall from a ROS device?

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Hi,

I’ve been wondering and searching the net and this forum about this. Maybe I am too blind to find information on this, but maybe there is no info.

Is it possible to run the netinstall server component on a ROS device? As in, use an MT router to reinstall a broken AP? All I can find is a Windows and, as I have found out very recently to my great relief, a Linux version of netinstall, but is there a way to do that from ROS?

Cheers,
Toby.

2

No, there’s no netinstall tool for ROS.

3

It should be possible with a remote-netinstall over a EoIP/VPLS tunnel, with a Linux/Windows host on the other side?

4

Given fragility of netinstall process which is likely to fail even with direct UTP connection between netinstall server and routerboard device … it would surprise me if this would work. I’m not saying it’s not possible though …

5

Bummer. That would be a really nice feature to have.

Thanks for your quick reply!

Cheers,
Toby.

6

Hm… :slight_smile: Interesting idea. If I find the time, I’ll look into that.

THX!

Cheers,
Toby.

7

+1 for that
It would be great feature…sometimes life saving :slight_smile:

8

Yes, that works. I’ve done it many times. It’s not 100% stable on high latency / jittery links, but it’s better than nothing in case of an emergency.

9

Just wanted to confirm, Netinstall over EoIP tunnel ist possible, if another (remote) Mikrotik device is connected to the BOOT port of the device that needs to be recovered. Steps:

  • On local Mikrotik device, create SSTP (or other VPN) client to dial into remote site


  • On local Mikrotik device, confirm reachability via ping tool, create EoIP tunnel interface, create a bridge, and bridge EoIP tunnel interface and a dedicated LAN port together


  • On remote Mikrotik device, create EoIP tunnel interface, create a bridge, and bridge EoIP tunnel interface and the LAN port connected to the device that needs recovery together


  • On local Mikrotik device, connect your laptop via LAN to the dedicated port, configure local IP address as per Netinstall manual and run recovery process

In theory, the EoIP tunnel behaves like a physical cable between the two sites. I configured the port that was connected to the device that needs recovery as 10Mbit/s as a precaution to avoid packets getting dropped on the WAN link.
In my experience, if Netinstall has trouble detecting the device to be recovered, it’s because of spurious network interfaces on the Windows computer. Disabling all network interfaces but the LAN interface you want to do the recovery on usually helps. Firewall can also interfere. And as people have pointed out numerous times, slow interface up detection on Windows when the device reboots can also cause problems. Putting a switch between laptop and recovery device might help, especially if configured as a dedicated bridge only between the two ports.

10

As another option, on ARM devices with container, you can run the linux netinstall in a container:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/guide-running-netinstall-server-on-a-tik/161056/1

I’ve tried this a couple times, and seems to work.

11

Probably…
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/v7-8-stable-is-released/164757/1