Ghost Solution Suite

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  • 1.  WinPE - PXE

    Posted May 22, 2009 11:36 PM
    Where can I find information on WinPE and PXE for a newbie.  I'm still using DOS Boot CD's & Floppies with Ghost.


  • 2.  RE: WinPE - PXE

    Posted May 23, 2009 01:04 AM
    There are several how to Kb's that symantec has put out.  If you are going to use the windows PE then it will be the easiest to be using Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 because it builds windows PE packages and you won't need to learn how to do that on top of learning PXE

    Also by default the PXE packets won't pass across subnets.  So if you are a Newbie then set up your PXE server,  your DHCP server, and your PXE client (the machine you are booting) all on the same hub or switch. 

    This isn't feasable for a a production network and so you can set up dhcp helpers on each subnet and configure the switches to pass the PXE packets across the subnets.  So as a new person to PXE set up a small test network you don't need a hard core DHCP server you could use a little router that does DHCP and your PXE server could be your ghost system and your client can just be any client that is PXE compatable.  (make sure the NIC is configured in the BIOS to support PXE. 

    I would also recomend if you are in a test network that you could use 3com PXE that is included in the Ghost Solution Suite and then use TFTPD32 to handle the TFTP and the DHCP.  These all can be installed on the ghost server and it doesn't need to be a huge system for you to learn to use these technoligies on just a better than basic P3 or better yet a P4 machine with a sizeable hard drive and a little bit of ram.   If you already have a DHCP server I would still use TFTPD32 as your tftp server and then use the 3com PXE server.  The reason I wouldn't recomend the 3com TFTP server is that it is old and often crashes when handing out large files like Windows PE.

    Here is the How to on setting up Ghost with windows PE and 3Com PXE and TFTP.   there are some green/blue triangles that you have to click on to expand the article, make sure you do that or you won't see all the steps and it won't work.   If you do read all the steps and set up a simple network with all the machines on the same subnet it should get you up and running in an hour or less depending on how much ghost experience you have.

    http://service1.symantec.com/support/on-technology.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/77debffee794592e8825744100706649?OpenDocument

    here is a KB on setting p the TFTPD32 once 3com PXE is already installed.  It isn't very clear but this is after you have 3 com up and running and working and you realise that 3com's TFTP is weak then you can use this.   I use the TFTPD32 and it works quite nicely and it is open source.

    http://service1.symantec.com/support/on-technology.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/556b99d04e2569b9882574ce005e2d93?OpenDocument

    Good luck let me know how you go with this.