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+--- Thread: How to implement PXE boot to multiple Windows PE images (/showthread.php?tid=9960)
How to implement PXE boot to multiple Windows PE images - Lowell.Dennis - 2017-05-26 22:46
The lab environment my team and I have to work in is a bit screwy. The server supports DHCP and TFTP but is running an older version of SLES and the admins are leary of updates or additions because they do not want the server to go down or become unstable.
We tried for weeks to get a single Windows PE image to PXE boot but were not able to make it work until we used a VM and set the lab server's TFTP server to chain to the VM's TFTP server and have the VM provide the Windows PE image to boot.
To get a second Windows PE image to boot, a second VM was needed. Now we need to support a third Windows PE image and are looking at having to implement a third VM. This seems silly to me. we ought to be able to support all three (and possibly more) with a single VM.
The issue is that we realy have no access to a PXE boot expert, and I, and extreme novice in Linux system administration am having to serve as admin for the VMs.
What I am seeking is details advice/instructions on how toget this to work:
- How do I organize and differentiate between the several Windows PE images? All of the documentation I have shows that the Windows PE stuff has to be located in /tftpboot/boot.
- What do I need to install and configure to be able to serve all of the images with one VM?
- I've heard that iPXE is much faster than native TFTP. Is it possible to use iPXE in my situation? If so how do I do it.
BTW, The VMs are all running CentOS/RHEL 7 but can be changed to a different distro if needed.
Please advice ... I have very little hair left to pull :-)
- Lowell Dennis