RIS via Linux

[deepc]

HI, I just thought about an RIS installation from a Linux Server.

Isn't ms ris server nearly the same as tftp?

Therefore, if i create an image according to RogueSpear howto, the pxe should be able to load it over network, shouldn't it?

Some questions:

• What Filesystem can be used for install (NTFS) ?
  
• Is it possible to load a PXE able environment from CD, that can install on NTFS?
  

Thanks for your answers!

[Fencer128]

Hi,

I believe there are already linux implementations of RIS. Please google "Linux RIS" for more info.

Andy

[RogueSpear]

Only the very beginning of the text mode portion of setup involves tftp. It's the part where you see all of the mass storage drivers loading up. Shortly thereafter, you see a message "Starting Windows" or something similar and the three lights on your keyboard will blink. This is when some kind of hand off is done and the setup takes over.

I'm sure that you probably can accomplish a RIS install using Linux and, I'm guessing here, some sort of Samba implementation. But considering that you are likely to use RIS in an environment where the target computers would be domain members, it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to suppose you're in an environment where Microsoft has at least a prominent role in your network. So the question would be - why?

If you're not utilizing Active Directory for workstation management and/or application deployment you may be better off using some kind of unattended CD/DVD install method. It's probably obvious from my posts here that I'm a fan of RIS, there's no doubt about that, but I have some smaller clients (around 20 workstations) where I don't use RIS. There's a couple of reasons for that. I suppose if you have time to kill or just want to see that it can indeed be done, go for it. But before I get myself vested into anything I always ask myself "why?"

[Bilou_Gateux]

PXE Network - Linux Based - Boot winpe from the net

[InTheWayBoy]

This one looks pretty nice too...and it will work on Win32 or *nix:

http://unattended.sourceforge.net/