Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and I'll like to say hi to everyone.

Anyway, I'm currently working on a solution for work and not sure if this is possible at all.

What I need is a PXE server that will allow my staffs to boot into the PXE server when required. However can I setup PXE server in a way where I allow users to choose different types of OS to install? As this would save myself a lot of time to re-image each machine individually.

EG;

Boot into PXE server,
Show a list of OSes to choose from (Windows XP, 2000, Red Hat, Debian, etc),
Install begins.


Thanks in advanced.

You might look at an open source solution I've written called Fastdeploy. Very much in beta but you can see a demo and decide if it's something that will suit your needs.

Thanks boethius.

I see that it supports images. How do I make a pre-setup Windows Environment to create the image?

Actually, it doesn't support images. It may at some point.

Windows installs are actually handled by a small Linux environment which creates FAT32 partitions and copies a Windows install "image" (i.e., the \I386 install media) with whatever slipstreamed service packs, drivers, fixes, etc. you want over rsync. That image, however, is created and maintained by the user not Fastdeploy. You might for example using NLite to manage the install "images."

WinPE etc. is not used right now.

Hmm still good nonetheless! I'll test it out real soon Thanks.


If anyone knows if its possible at all for a linux pxe server to support Windows images restore, please let me know.

I'm looking for something like ghost boot multicast etc.


Cheers.