[mdlug] PXE Environment Question

[Jeff Hanson]

On the Linux side there is SYSLINUX/PXELINUX or iPXE (fork of gPXE).  I've
used the former but not the latter.  They both have boot options but I
haven't used them.  Normally the booting server is identified via DHCP when
booting from a BIOS or NIC boot ROM.  The DHCP server could be configured
to send different parameters based on MAC address.

Another option is a custom BIOS (coreboot?), NIC ROM, or netboot file image
which could give you more control.  Normally I would suggest using
Rom-O-Matic for a disk image but that server seems to have disappeared
after iPXE forked from gPXE.

For Ubuntu Linux deployments I use a Kickstart script.  For Windows
deployments I've only used Unattended ( http://unattended.sourceforge.net )
but only once for a Win2K test system.


On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Wojtak, Greg (Superfly) <
GregWojtak at quickenloans.com> wrote:

> I'm in an environment where we do PXE provisioning for Windows, Unix
> (Solaris and Linux), and Mac machines.  Each of these uses different PXE
> environment providers.  I don't know what the Windows and Mac guys are
> using, but a Linux server using the pxelinux package serves up the images
> for Solaris and Linux.  It's really awkward for each of our teams to
> provision servers as we have to provision them in one subnet with a
> temporary IP address and netmask before putting them in the correct VLAN
> and setting the appropriate networking configuration.  This also hampers
> our ability to automate much of the post installation process.
>
> My question is, does anyone know if there is a way to configure pxelinux
> to display an option on the PXE menu that sends the client being
> provisioned to a different pxe server?  A message something like, "Hey, I
> got your PXE request, but try this one instead?"
>
> I might play around with trying to just use a different tftp server, but
> I'm not positive that will work with the product the Windows servers are
> provisioned with (I'm not even sure what they use anymore).
>
>
>
> Greg Wojtak
> Sr. Unix Systems Engineer
> Office: (313) 373-4306
> Cell: (734) 718-8472
>
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