PXE without DHCP

[D8TA]

I am not real sure how to go about this scenerio. I currently have a DHCP server that put out IP addresses for our organization but is managed by a different department. I am getting tired of walking around with CD/USB in order to boot up a workstation and Ghost it when the PC gets hosed. My question is does anyone know how I can just setup a PXE server without DHCP, use the primary DHCP in the organzation. We do use Symantec and it looks like it could do it but I need to research more and was wondering if anyone is doing this type of thing and if so what are you using and how difficult was it to setup and maintain.

Thanks!

[ahusking]

Hi, if your using the Symantec Ghost Solution Suite, it has a PXE server that you can optionally install, you should be able to just install it, say "no this server doesn't provide DHCP" and it _should_ work we did it at our office without too much hassle a few weeks ago.

Cheers

[gadget]

Depends on what type of routing you have. The DHCP server requires to forward certain requests to the network and if this is not setup then no amount of pxe installations you do will work.

Easiest is to get your network team to forward bootp and tftp requests and your existing dhcp server should work.

[bj-kaiser]

just get the department thats managing the DHCP services to set option 66 (TFTP-server) and 67 (Bootfile-Name) to the values you need. Looks like what should take the least effort to me.

[ChrisBaksa]

You can also put up your own no-authoriative dhcp server.

In our setup. (no dhcp at all in the datacenters) a linux dhcp server will assign an ip to a mac address (and only that mac address) when told to do so.

We have processes that enable it and disable it.

The routers IP Helpaers are set to point to this host for TFTP.

This way dhcp is avaliable on demand.

Chris

[D8TA]

I have the PXE server up and running and it works well for most of the desktops and laptops except the newer HP nc6910p notebooks. Most of our network drivers are .com extensions for use with our Netware file servers. We have our Ghost images sitting on these servers. Anyways, I have a WinPE iso, about 150MB in size I am trying to get to boot from the PXE server. I have searched high and low on Google trying to figure out how I can PXE boot an iso image and the items I've tried don't seem to work. Has anyone gotten WinPE or an ISO to boot from a PXE server? The closest I have been was getting the booting............................ message but it just sat there forever and I manually killed it.

[mats]

No problem to boot an ISO from ris at least, it's eaven in the docs for PE 1.6

[bj-kaiser]

Anyways, I have a WinPE iso, about 150MB in size I am trying to get to boot from the PXE server. I have searched high and low on Google trying to figure out how I can PXE boot an iso image and the items I've tried don't seem to work. Has anyone gotten WinPE or an ISO to boot from a PXE server? The closest I have been was getting the booting............................ message but it just sat there forever and I manually killed it.

You can boot the .WIM over PXE. You dont even need WDS for that, any combination of TFTP and DHCP server works. It's fairly good documented in the WAIK manual how you setup a TFTP share for booting WinPE over PXE. (Windows PreInstallation phase - phase 4)

BTW: just to be clear, we are talking about Windows PE 2.0, right?

[ChrisBaksa]

Anyways, I have a WinPE iso, about 150MB in size I am trying to get to boot from the PXE server. I have searched high and low on Google trying to figure out how I can PXE boot an iso image and the items I've tried don't seem to work. Has anyone gotten WinPE or an ISO to boot from a PXE server? The closest I have been was getting the booting............................ message but it just sat there forever and I manually killed it.

You can boot the .WIM over PXE. You dont even need WDS for that, any combination of TFTP and DHCP server works. It's fairly good documented in the WAIK manual how you setup a TFTP share for booting WinPE over PXE. (Windows PreInstallation phase - phase 4)

BTW: just to be clear, we are talking about Windows PE 2.0, right?

Good Question.

I'm on WinPE 1.6 (2005)

No plans to go to 2.0. No reason. Too much incompatability with drivers.

[luke.mccormick]

You may want to try 2.0 for that new HP you're talking about that has driver issues. All my machines that wouldn't work with pe 1.x worked great with PE2.0...these machines are less than 1.5 years old.

[mats]

6910P works with 1.6. We just bought a bunch of them and we are on 1.6 for now

[zorphnog]

I have the PXE server up and running and it works well for most of the desktops and laptops except the newer HP nc6910p notebooks. Most of our network drivers are .com extensions for use with our Netware file servers. We have our Ghost images sitting on these servers. Anyways, I have a WinPE iso, about 150MB in size I am trying to get to boot from the PXE server. I have searched high and low on Google trying to figure out how I can PXE boot an iso image and the items I've tried don't seem to work. Has anyone gotten WinPE or an ISO to boot from a PXE server? The closest I have been was getting the booting............................ message but it just sat there forever and I manually killed it.

I have PE 2.0 and 1.6 booting from my pxe server using pxelinux as a boot menu. To get 1.6 to work, you need the following files:

\ <--- root of your pxe boot folder

ntldr

ntdetect.com

startrom.0 (renamed startrom.n12)

winnt.sif

\sources\winpe2005.iso

Your winnt.sif file should look something like this:

[SetupData]
BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
BootPath = "\I386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdexportascd /rdpath=sources\winpe2005.iso"
Architecture = "I386"

Note that you can put the iso wherever you want and name it whatever you like.

Then just point your DHCP server to boot from startrom.0 (option 67). The only thing I don't like is that you have to hit F12 once your startrom.0 kicks off. I never have been able to figure out how to get rid of that prompt, but I rarely use 1.6 for one old prototype server that doesn't meet the requirements for PE2.0.

Edited February 14, 2008 by zorphnog

[ChrisBaksa]

The only thing I don't like is that you have to hit F12 once your startrom.0 kicks off. I never have been able to figure out how to get rid of that prompt, but I rarely use 1.6 for one old prototype server that doesn't meet the requirements for PE2.0.

To get rid of pressing F12 you need to manually copy a new startrm off the windows Media CD and rename it.

The directions are in the WINPE manual.

Chris

[mats]

it's bootrom.n12 you should copy to get rid of the extra F12

[D8TA]

I have the PXE server up and running and it works well for most of the desktops and laptops except the newer HP nc6910p notebooks. Most of our network drivers are .com extensions for use with our Netware file servers. We have our Ghost images sitting on these servers. Anyways, I have a WinPE iso, about 150MB in size I am trying to get to boot from the PXE server. I have searched high and low on Google trying to figure out how I can PXE boot an iso image and the items I've tried don't seem to work. Has anyone gotten WinPE or an ISO to boot from a PXE server? The closest I have been was getting the booting............................ message but it just sat there forever and I manually killed it.

I have PE 2.0 and 1.6 booting from my pxe server using pxelinux as a boot menu. To get 1.6 to work, you need the following files:

\ <--- root of your pxe boot folder

ntldr

ntdetect.com

startrom.0 (renamed startrom.n12)

winnt.sif

\sources\winpe2005.iso

Your winnt.sif file should look something like this:

[SetupData]
BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
BootPath = "\I386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdexportascd /rdpath=sources\winpe2005.iso"
Architecture = "I386"

Note that you can put the iso wherever you want and name it whatever you like.

Then just point your DHCP server to boot from startrom.0 (option 67). The only thing I don't like is that you have to hit F12 once your startrom.0 kicks off. I never have been able to figure out how to get rid of that prompt, but I rarely use 1.6 for one old prototype server that doesn't meet the requirements for PE2.0.

Thanks for this information. When I attempt to boot I am getting an Invalid of corrupt kernel image. What should my pxelinux.cfg file look like? Mine looks like this.

LABEL winpe

KERNEL startrom.n12

APPEND initrd=winpe.iso

I have my winpe.iso in the root of my tftpboot directory.