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Copying a PXE image file generated by Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers to the Altiris Boot Disk Creator

Copying a PXE image file generated by Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers to the Altiris Boot Disk Creator
Filed under: Deployment Solution for Dell Servers
Eric Szewczyk's picture
Submitted by Eric Szewczyk on 24 January, 2007 - 07:41

The Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers add-on is designed to work in conjunction with the Altiris PXE Server. The Altiris PXE Server is designed to work in conjunction with a Windows DHCP Server. For security reasons, not all environments will allow these components to exist on their network. For that reason, this tip was created to take full advantage of the Dell Deployment add-on where these components are not permitted.

This tip will explain how to copy a PXE image file generated and optimized by the Altiris Deployment Solution for Dell Servers add-on to the Altiris Boot Disk Creator (BDC) as an independent configuration. This will allow a user to further configure the BDC configuration if desired and more importantly, write the configuration to removable media such as a floppy disk, USB disk, CD/DVD-ROM or use as an Altiris BootWorks Embedded Automation Partition.

Consult the Dell Deployment add-on documentation for instructions on how to properly install, configure, and use the product. Listed below are some links to helpful resources:

*Note - It may be necessary to create another instance of an Altiris Deployment Server with the Altiris PXE Server installed if the current environment does not support it. This 2nd Altiris Server will act as the staging server to copy the following explained configuration to the production server. This 2nd Altiris Server could easily be installed to a virtual machine if hardware is not easily obtainable. It is NOT necessary to install an instance of a Windows DHCP Server.

Once the product has been installed, follow the steps below to copy the desired PXE image file(s) to the Altiris Boot Disk Creator:

*Note - The purpose of this document is to copy an already existing configuration created and optimized by the Dell Deployment add-on. Creating a new configuration from the Boot Disk Creator will not yield the same results and will result in connectivity issues from the Dell PowerEdge target Server to the Altiris Deployment Server

  1. Browse to the .\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\MasterImages directory on the Altiris Deployment Server. See Figure 1.

    Figure 1

    Click to view

  2. Open the folder of the type of PXE image file you want to copy to the Altiris Boot Disk Creator. By default, MenuOption129=DOS, MenuOption130=Linux, and MenuOption131=WinPE. The following example will copy MenuOption131 which equates to the default WinPE configuration. See Figure 2.

    Figure 2

    Click to view

  3. Copy the "BDC" folder to the Windows clipboard. See Figure 3.

    Figure 3

    Click to view

  4. Browse to the .\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\Configs directory and paste the Windows clipboard by pressing Ctrl-V. See Figure 4.

    Figure 4

    Click to view

  5. Rename the "BDC" folder to something more descriptive. (i.e. "WinPE config from Dell Deployment add-on"). See Figure 5.

    Figure 5

    Click to view

  6. Open the newly renamed folder and rename the "*.bdc" file to reflect the same name of the folder created from Step 4. (i.e. "WinPE config from Dell Deployment add-on.bdc"). See Figure 6.

    Figure 6

    Click to view

  7. Launch the Boot Disk Creator either from within the Deployment Solution Console or independently from the Windows Start Menu of the Altiris Deployment Server. See Figure 7.

    Figure 7

    Click to view

  8. The config should now appear in the Boot Disk Creator. You should now be able to further configure, create a desired Automation Boot Disk, or Automation Partition. Refer to the Deployment Solution Product Guide for more information.
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Only useful for Linux or WinPE

eorme's picture
Submitted by eorme on 24 January, 2007 - 09:35.

It should probably be noted that if you are running DS 6.8 (or newer), Deployment Solution for Dell Servers doesn't modify the DOS preboot image at all; in other words the Dell tools will work just fine in any MS-DOS preboot. Therefore, doing this would only be useful for Linux or WinPE where mass storage and nic drivers are embedded within the preboot for better hardware support.

In addition, it should be noted that in the case of DS 6.1 or 6.5, all that Deployment Solution for Dell Servers does to the DOS preboot is increases the environment space from 1024 to 2048. So if you were to do this yourself, you'd effectively have the same thing.

Thanks for this thread Eric

jonny_boy's picture
Submitted by jonny_boy on 19 February, 2007 - 11:01.

Thanks for this thread Eric. It's very easy to follow.

Once the new configuration appears in the Boot Disk Creator, how do I get the PXE boot option (in the case of WinPE) to re-compile using the newly imported BDC configuration ?

Thanks

Jon

RE: Thanks for this thread Eric

Eric Szewczyk's picture
Submitted by Eric Szewczyk on 18 April, 2007 - 18:46.

Sorry for the late reply Jon. I don't usually check on my Juice articles after submission.

In regards to your question, that's the beautiful thing, you don't have to re-compile the newly imported BDC configuration.

If performed correctly, you compile the PXE image file from the PXE Configuration Utility and then copy the already compiled configuration files to the respective folders as explained in the article.

The configuration then appears in the BDC and you can then create Windows packages for automation partitions, create bootable CDs, DVDs, USB Thumb Drives, etc.