CPressland Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Hey Guys, We're going to do a major re-deployment of our Call Centre on Sunday, we have 200+ PCs to re-image. I've created an ISO that we're going to burn onto CDs (which then connects to a SFTP Server and deploys the image onto the PC) but I'd like to know if theres anyway that can be modified to run over PXE just to save us burning a few hundred CD-Rs. I've no experience with PXE at all, so any help would be fantastic guys, will provide any information you require. Thanks Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted January 27, 2011 MVC Share Posted January 27, 2011 sure you can.. Here is instructions from the image software PING (partimage is not ghost) on running it with pxe.. I have used this in the past. http://ping.windowsdream.com/ping/doc-2.01/pxe.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPressland Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 sure you can.. Here is instructions from the image software PING (partimage is not ghost) on running it with pxe.. I have used this in the past. http://ping.windowsdream.com/ping/doc-2.01/pxe.html Thanks Budman, this should work with Acronis Products also right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1WayJonny Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 In my house I used a quick way to do this. Not saying its better but it worked. I installed the Windows deployment kit, this gave me two default builds for PXE booting (32bit and 64 bit), they have this terminal type program that looks just like dos. After a simple install I opened the terminal program and pressed the commands to make a default Windows 7 (They can do R2 as well) PXE's form Microsoft. I then just booted the PXE from another computer running TFTPD, which loads the default Windows PXE. Then I just typed NET USE to mount the ISO on a virtual drive on the server. Once I mounted to root of the CD I just typed set up. After you make the images takes 1-2 minutes you will never have to do it again and booting to them is fairly quick, when eve I set up a PC I just boot to pxe type 1 command and I'm good. You can also modify the PXE to have a *.bat file for the netuse command which you need a PXE editor. This was very simple to set up and worked the first time. They may be more professional ways but my "SERVER" is just another Windows 7 Ultimate machine I just call it a server so TFTPD works well for me. Tutorial to create official MS boot PXE instead of downloading some bloatware crap on the internet (found so many Win 7 64 PXE's with HP stuff on the root of the PXE, who knows what else it has?) http://shakti.solitudo.net/solitudo/blah/posts/Create_Windows_PE_rescue_and_installation_images_using_WAIK_for_Windows_7_and_configure_Linux_boot_server_for_PXE_booting_the_images/ Set up TFTPD (Use the posted zip or just download FTPD fresh install and modify yourself) http://www.overclock.net/networking-security/345500-how-install-windows-over-network.html Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted January 27, 2011 Veteran Share Posted January 27, 2011 The latest version of acronis should support a pxe image, acronis snap depoy takes it quite a bit further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPressland Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 The latest version of acronis should support a pxe image, acronis snap depoy takes it quite a bit further. Thats what I figured, but my boss doesn't want the Acronis Server software installed on that Server due to Licensing. He just wants a PXE Solution for booting an ISO Disk Image while the version of Acronis Backup and Restore resides on another system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted January 27, 2011 Veteran Share Posted January 27, 2011 Thats what I figured, but my boss doesn't want the Acronis Server software installed on that Server due to Licensing. He just wants a PXE Solution for booting an ISO Disk Image while the version of Acronis Backup and Restore resides on another system. pxe boot cd images. you can follow this, but replace the windows disk with the acronis iso/boot disk. http://www.lockstockmods.net/2008/04/25/install-windows-over-network-with-pxe/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPressland Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 Thanks guys, but in the end my boss just ordered the licensing for Snap Deploy from Acronis. Should be interesting to see this in action shortly. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted January 27, 2011 MVC Share Posted January 27, 2011 Does snap deploy do multicast deployment of images? I thought I had responded to this - but must of got side tracked before hitting post. I doubt your server is going to be able to handle anything close to 200 machines at one time.. if looking to deploy images on a bunch of machines quickly you would want to use multicast.. Clonezilla supports pxe out of the box - just boot the CD, etc. And can use multicast to push the image to all 200 machines at the same time ;) http://clonezilla.org/ Multicast is supported in Clonezilla SE, which is suitable for massively clone. You can also remotely use it to save or restore a bunch of computers if PXE and Wake-on-LAN are supported in your clients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted January 27, 2011 Veteran Share Posted January 27, 2011 Yes snap deploy does support multicast if I remember right (it has been a while since I used snap deploy. Advantages of snap deploy One image to multiple hardware platforms Can name the pcs (individually or from a pool, or numerically) Can generate a new sid Can join pcs to domain There are a few other things it can do, this is just from memory (pftc btw) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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