PXE Boot Help

Rawn027 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 286

I am trying to setup a PXE Boot Server for my lab. Every computer has an Intel Pro 10/100 PXE compatible NIC in them. I need to have the EPROM load up a DOS menu which handles all the mapping to the Ghost server. All the work will still be done via ghost. According to the ghost manual it can make a CD that is PXE compatible but when it creates it, it is 3MB which is way to large for the EPROM. Does anyone know how to get this setup up and running? I am open to many suggestions.
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mdeininger · Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:16 pm Post subject:

uh, what exactly are you up to? diskless bootup, automatic repair, automatic synchronisation with an image on some server? you shouldn't need to burn anything (neither cd nor rom) if you simply tell your computers to net-boot...
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Rawn027 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 286

The lab has 84 computers, it is a system admin lab. Students need to use Ghost to save up their images as they progress through the individual labs. They also need to be able to pull down a basic image of an installed OS anywhere from Gentoo to RedHate to Windows NT - XP - 2003 R2...
_________________
AMD Athlon 64 1.8
1GB DDR 400 RAM
Nvidia 6600 GT

MacBook Pro Duo 1.67
1GB DDR2 667 RAM
ATI x1600 Mobility

feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: WI, USA

DRBL+CloneZilla?
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< bmg505> I think the first line in reiserfsck is

if (random(65535)< 65500) { hose(partition); for (i=0;i<100000000;i++) print_crap(); }

Rawn027 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 286

I am not familiar with those tools can you give me links and wikis to read about them?
Right now we are using Norton Ghost 8.2 Corporate with Boot CD's and we are trying to get rid of the boot cd's and move to PXE boot for a image selection system. Any ideas would be awesome. Thanks.
_________________
AMD Athlon 64 1.8
1GB DDR 400 RAM
Nvidia 6600 GT

MacBook Pro Duo 1.67
1GB DDR2 667 RAM
ATI x1600 Mobility

vputz · Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:14 am Post subject:

Juust so I understand:

You have a number of images, and want the PXE boot sequence to show a menu of possible images, and then boot from an arbitrary user choice?

How does the "Students need to use Ghost to save up their images as they progress through the individual labs" part work? Do you want them to be able to add their images to the list? And where does Ghost fit in with all this?

Sorry, just pretty confused about what you want exactly.

feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: WI, USA

Rawn027 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 286

ok so the students login to a main server where all the images are stored. When the student pulls an image down of say Windows 2003 Server and sets up an AD domain, they can save that new image under their user folder. This allows the students to save their progress and come back to work at any time. Right now we use Ghost and Boot cd's to make the images. The boot cd's have a menu in them and the ghost.exe runs remotely from the main server.

if you have any other questions let me know.

I cant use a solution that needs linux because all of our infrastructure servers are running Windows 2003 R2 :-(

_________________
AMD Athlon 64 1.8
1GB DDR 400 RAM
Nvidia 6600 GT

MacBook Pro Duo 1.67
1GB DDR2 667 RAM
ATI x1600 Mobility

feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: WI, USA

sounds like you need VMWare ESX Server.

Get a grant for it. It rocks.
_________________
< bmg505> I think the first line in reiserfsck is

if (random(65535)< 65500) { hose(partition); for (i=0;i<100000000;i++) print_crap(); }