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iSCSI boot from iPXE without WinPE - cmorris14 - 2014-09-17 18:02
I am currently setting up diskless clients that will need to boot Windows 7 through iPXE. I would like to use Windows Server 2008 and iSCSI volumes to do this, but I am having trouble setting up images within WDS that aren't WinPE .wim images.
Is there any way to setup these images so that they are not WinPE images? I need a full-version of Windows.
If this is not possible through WDS, are there any options for running iSCSI diskless clients booting via iPXE? Compatibility with Server 2008 or RHEL 6.5 preferred, but Server 2012 could be a possibility as well.
RE: iSCSI boot from iPXE without WinPE - robinsmidsrod - 2014-09-21 12:25
wimboot can only boot WinPE images. If you need full Windows then you need to boot that from an iSCSI or AoE volume. You might have luck using some form of cloning of your iSCSI volumes to achieve this together with sysprep or something like that.
To install a full windows version to an iSCSI volume you usually just sanhook the iSCSI volume, start the WinPE installer using wimboot and install to the iSCSI volume. This has been mentioned a lot of times here on the forum and you can find details about it at http://ipxe.org/wimboot and http://ipxe.org/howto/winpe that should get you going.
Your network might need the "set netX/gateway 0.0.0.0" hack for your Windows installer to see the iSCSI volume. YMMV.
Using Windows Server 2008 for all this should work, AFAIK.