A while back a buddy and I started down a road to create an Auto-tech PXE server.
We started with the base of FOG (fogproject) Which at it's core is an image and image deployment server. It does have a fairly straight forward setup and it runs easily on fedora or ubuntu.
We then started to try and piece the thing together searching out on the wild interwebs how to do different things via PXE.
We started to run into issues, the PXE server that FOG set's up is not standard, it has it's config files in locations which aren't normal, or they are not named as you would expect. This caused a great many headaches. Our next idea was to scratch FOG and just set up a PXE server using either fedora or preferably Ubuntu. This proved to be rather difficult as well. This time getting a PXE setup was effectively out side our grasp.
We were successful in getting our PXE server to run floppy disk images with little to no issue. This was good for one of the purposes we had in mind; Diagnostics.
Boot a client machine from the network, PXE grabs it gives the menu:
Diagnostics
Virus Removal
Backup
Install OS
The first one being pretty much the only one of the goals ever achieved. The diagnostics we got running were pretty much anything from the UBCD, a few things from Hirens (not the windowsPE more on that in a minute) Eurosoft's PC-Check, ect.
for the AV and Backup we had planed on using a remote FS booted linux with some custom scripts. (which we would figure out after we figured out how to boot into a linux distro)
As for the install OS option, this one ate at us for a good month solid. We tried things like Unattended (which we never go working due to a SAMBA issue{never got SAMBA to work with it}). That and it only worked with XP.
Then we started researching HOW windows installs onto a machine with the hopes we could mimic it in linux as much as possible (given that it seemed more feasible to get linux to boot from PXE) This seemed to show promise in that windows appears to set up partitions, format them, copy the main install files then reboot to the hard drive and finish this way. But our hopes fizzled out after our initial testing didn't yield results. (We did all the steps in windowsPE and linux, rebooting after copying the files resulted in an error/error(s))
So... All that said, I want this to work for me, for you for whoever.
I like things as automated as possible, with my brain being used for the real hard stuff, like shorted USB headers, quirky virus issues, ect.
So the Idea is as follows: create a PXE Server on Ubuntu with a SAMBA share
when booted it gives the menue:
Diagnostics
Backup/Image
Antivirus
Install OS (with options like XPPro, VistaHPx86 ect)
I wrote all of this because I was HOPING someone here has done any of this before, maybe not all of it, just any of it. I would love it if someone could help me even with the initial setup of a standard PXE server with SAMBA that just works. (I didn't have a great experience trying to get samba running before)
That aside, I have directions to go in, in order to achieve the other goals. The OS install is the last step, it is doable, I just haven't figured out exactly how yet. I know I was close before, but then I got so frustrated plus I moved into my new shop so I put it all on the back burner.
We started with the base of FOG (fogproject) Which at it's core is an image and image deployment server. It does have a fairly straight forward setup and it runs easily on fedora or ubuntu.
We then started to try and piece the thing together searching out on the wild interwebs how to do different things via PXE.
We started to run into issues, the PXE server that FOG set's up is not standard, it has it's config files in locations which aren't normal, or they are not named as you would expect. This caused a great many headaches. Our next idea was to scratch FOG and just set up a PXE server using either fedora or preferably Ubuntu. This proved to be rather difficult as well. This time getting a PXE setup was effectively out side our grasp.
We were successful in getting our PXE server to run floppy disk images with little to no issue. This was good for one of the purposes we had in mind; Diagnostics.
Boot a client machine from the network, PXE grabs it gives the menu:
Diagnostics
Virus Removal
Backup
Install OS
The first one being pretty much the only one of the goals ever achieved. The diagnostics we got running were pretty much anything from the UBCD, a few things from Hirens (not the windowsPE more on that in a minute) Eurosoft's PC-Check, ect.
for the AV and Backup we had planed on using a remote FS booted linux with some custom scripts. (which we would figure out after we figured out how to boot into a linux distro)
As for the install OS option, this one ate at us for a good month solid. We tried things like Unattended (which we never go working due to a SAMBA issue{never got SAMBA to work with it}). That and it only worked with XP.
Then we started researching HOW windows installs onto a machine with the hopes we could mimic it in linux as much as possible (given that it seemed more feasible to get linux to boot from PXE) This seemed to show promise in that windows appears to set up partitions, format them, copy the main install files then reboot to the hard drive and finish this way. But our hopes fizzled out after our initial testing didn't yield results. (We did all the steps in windowsPE and linux, rebooting after copying the files resulted in an error/error(s))
So... All that said, I want this to work for me, for you for whoever.
I like things as automated as possible, with my brain being used for the real hard stuff, like shorted USB headers, quirky virus issues, ect.
So the Idea is as follows: create a PXE Server on Ubuntu with a SAMBA share
when booted it gives the menue:
Diagnostics
Backup/Image
Antivirus
Install OS (with options like XPPro, VistaHPx86 ect)
I wrote all of this because I was HOPING someone here has done any of this before, maybe not all of it, just any of it. I would love it if someone could help me even with the initial setup of a standard PXE server with SAMBA that just works. (I didn't have a great experience trying to get samba running before)
That aside, I have directions to go in, in order to achieve the other goals. The OS install is the last step, it is doable, I just haven't figured out exactly how yet. I know I was close before, but then I got so frustrated plus I moved into my new shop so I put it all on the back burner.
