help me do pxe...
Goal: To boot my machines via the network and push already created Ghost
images(*.gho) to multiple(multicast) Windows clients on my network. dhcp server working fine passing out ip addresses. Installed the following: tftpd-hpa (server) tftp-hpa (client) Probably didn't need, but installed anyway. syslinux bootloader pxe (Not sure if I should have installed this) Used this site for some help: http://www.debianplanet.com/node.php?id=818 The above site states: Get the following files (bf2.4 kernel-version) from a debian mirror: debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/bf2.4/linux.bin debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/images-1.44/bf2.4/root.bin (different paths!!) I'm running sarge on a laptop with a 2.4 kernel. Was unsure about how to obtain these files. Should this go in my sources.list file? When I installed tftpd-hpa, it created /var/lib/tftpboot. The above 2 files are supposed to go in /var/lib/tftpboot per the instructions. Need to know how to obtain the proper files. I copied the file pxelinux.0 from the /usr/lib/syslinux directory to the /var/lib/tftpboot directory. Created a directory named pxelinux.cfg in the directory tftpboot. I created in the pxelinux.cfg directory a file named: default and inserted the following: PROMPT 1 LABEL pxe KERNEL linux.bin APPEND initrd=root.bin flavor=bf2.4 IPAPPEND 1 This is where I stopped: I'll be imaging Windows clients. How should this default file be edited? Here are my ?'s: 1. I know that my dhcp server is working, but how do I know if my tftp server is working? 2. In what directory do the ghost images that I have created go in, /var/lib/tftpboot? 3. Since I'll be imaging Window's PC's, do I need linux.bin and root.bin? (The Instructions on the above site is designed for installing "Woody" using pxe, but should work similar for Windows clients. right?) 4. Once the machines are booted, the tftp server should then send my image to every machine that was given an IP address, correct? Somebody please show me the way..... :Pengy: |
Having a pxe nic on each client sounds kind of expensive. Also, if I remember correctly, every ghost image to a client is supposed to be paid for.
Would you be interested in using partimage instead of ghost? |
You're going about this all wrong. Wouldn't it be easier to just have a ghostcast server? It's designed to work that way ...
The Windows admins where I work have been trying to figure out how to image windows servers unattended without having to use RIS, but have thusfar come up short. The setup you are working on is dandy for installing (or even running diskless) linux machines, but Windows doesn't work that way... |
The NIC's all have pxe capability. Partimage sounds great.
1. Can I convert my *.gho images to partimage, or do I have to reimage using partimage from scratch. I don't have to use ghost. In fact I would love to learn how to use the utilities provided by the open source community. We are slowly making the switch from Microsoft based solutions to Open Source. I need to image lots of PC's (Multicast) just like ghost does. I have a laptop that I want to put these images on. The laptop will be a pxe server that will push the images to the the Windows clients via their NIC cards. 1. I already have a dhcp server working great on the laptop. 2. I pretty much need help from there on. Here is where I could use some help: 3. Where should the images be stored on my debian laptop? What directory? 4. tftp is used to send the image to the clients, right? How exactly does this work? All I want to do is put an image on my laptop, and then send that image to multiple Windows clients. I think I'm close because dhcp is working. I need help the rest of the way. I'll start reading up on this "partimage". homey and sigsegv, thanks for taking the time to help me. I am greatly appreciative. |
I don't know how to setup ghost using tftp but I do know how to setup Partimage server and then upload / download images to client machines. Partimage is completely different than Ghost so the images are not exchangeable.
Here are my notes and two scripts, Netsave and Netrestore. The service sshd is used to upload / download the MBR file. That file includes the boot loader and partition table. Code:
Install partimaged at the server Code:
#!/bin/bash Code:
#!/bin/bash |
thanks homey.... very nice.... I'll give this a shot... By the way, can you image multiple machines at once with this... sort of like ghost's Multicast... ?
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Yes, the partimaged ( server ) has a gui which shows connections to various clients. Might want to crank up the memory if you plan to do multiple connections.
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SWEEEEEEEEET...
Say I'm doing 50 machines: 1. What amount of RAM would you suggest? |
Quote:
You might want to put the imaging setup on it's own network segment so it doesn't bog down all other machines. Also, maybe look at gigabit switch and nics if you have them. |
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