Ghost Solution Suite

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  • 1.  New Ghost server, setting up from scratch...PXE, RIS, etc questions

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 02:45 PM
    Hi,
     
    We currently have an older version of Ghost (7.5) running.  I just bought the upgrade to GSS 2 and have purchased a new server to run it.  The new server is running Windows 2003 R2. 
     
    I've copied all my old images from the old server to the new server.
     
    My initial goal is to image new PC's which come from the factory with Vista with our XP image OR to image PC's with replaced failed hard drives with our XP image(s)
     
    I want to boot from the network.
     
    I have all of the above working on the old server, but it's been a long time since I did it and am a little fuzzy.  In reading through the implemenation documentation, there's lots of discussion about the 3Com PXE server.  I don't remember setting up or using that in the past.  Seems like I set up RIS and it just worked.  What's the relationship between RIS and the 3com PXE server?  Do I need one or both?  Which is better and why?
     
    When I PXE boot a new machine (or old one) how do they know which server is the PXE server that they should boot from?
     
    -Adrian


  • 2.  RE: New Ghost server, setting up from scratch...PXE, RIS, etc questions

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 11:00 PM
    I don't know much about RIS except that it's also a pxe server. Generally ghost should work with any pxe server, but it is definitely supported under 3com pxe server. Advantages of using it with 3com is that ghost boot wizard can create boot images that are readily usable with 3com pxe server, and there are also articles on the forum on how to set up winpe to boot with 3com pxe server or dcl pxe.

    When pxe booting, a machine will use dhcp to discover any available pxe server.

    With 3com pxe, the mac address of the machine is added to a list on the server (I think the bootptab file). This can be done with one of the tools that come with a 3com pxe installation. This is how the server knows which machine to grab. If the machine is set only on that one server then it will be that server that delivers the image.

    the dcl pxe server will just deliver images to any machine that happens to find it first, so if you have 2 of them on the same network, the image will come from the first one the client machine finds. Though i'm not sure how the pxe client discovers the server so I don't know which one will be used.


  • 3.  RE: New Ghost server, setting up from scratch...PXE, RIS, etc questions

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 11:29 PM
    Recently added a guide to ghost network booting and 3com pxe server configuration over here.

    Message Edited by Xan Todd on 07-16-200704:29 PM