I do this for a server in my LAN. I use DHCP+TFTP to boot grub over the network via PXE, and then grub boots the Kernel
with the root pointing to a NFS share:
Doing this makes managing that installation much easier. It’s just a directory that lives on the Main Server.
I don’t even need to boot the other Server to update the software in it, chroot is enough. And I don’t even have to worry about doing separate backups,
because I already back up the Main Server’s Storage regularly.
Technically you could just netboot a kernel and initrd, then mount a root filesystem via the network
So you don’t even need a drive in your computer
Not sure why you’d do this outside of very specific appliances but it’s an option
I do this for a server in my LAN. I use DHCP+TFTP to boot grub over the network via PXE, and then grub boots the Kernel with the root pointing to a NFS share:
menuentry 'GNU/Linux NFS' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { load_video set gfxpayload=keep insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod part_gpt insmod fat echo 'Loading kernel ...' linux <TFTP Root>/vmlinuz root=/dev/nfs ip=dhcp nfsroot=<NFS Server IP>:/export/rootfs/<Root Dir> rw loglevel=6 threadirqs }Doing this makes managing that installation much easier. It’s just a directory that lives on the Main Server.
I don’t even need to boot the other Server to update the software in it, chroot is enough. And I don’t even have to worry about doing separate backups, because I already back up the Main Server’s Storage regularly.