Suggestions for a better kickstart infrastructure

[Bryan J Smith]

On Sat, 2008-10-18 at 13:57 +0530, saagar shrivastava wrote:
> Guys,
> My company wanted me to configure a server which can handle remote OS
> installation. For all the OS's we use.
> I've configured PXE on RHEL 5. And I'm able to Install all the Unix
> based OS's. OS we're using are:
> RHEL 3 AS
> RHEL 4 AS
> RHEL 5
> Fedora
> Suse
> Windows XP
> Windows Server 2003
> But I'm stucked with MicroSoft OS's. Can anybody help me please?

PXELinux can solve any network booting problem, just like
SYSLinux/ISOLinux can solve any disk booting problem, etc...
Unfortunately some OSes are far bigger problems than others.  ;)

Best advice I can give you ...

Don't bother this list, or even Peter Anvin's SYSLinux, etc... list for
that matter, with Windows booting issues.  Anvin is probably one of the
biggest examples of "no good deed goes unpunished" as he is regularly
bombarded (many times not-so-nicely) because his system is so damn
useful for any and all OSes on the PC.  PXELinux can provide the
infrastructure.  The problem are the OS boot limitations, something that
no Linux or even ISO/PXE/SYSLinux list can address.

Hit a Microsoft News group for more assistance, or various, independent
resources.  I will give you a few concepts to start, but please do _not_
follow-up on this list.  ;)

- You can use a PXE/SYSLinux COM32 object to boot a floppy or other disk
option, such as various 3rd party recovery solutions.

- You can use PXE/ISOLinux to boot an ISO image or other ISO9660 option,
such as a WinPE ISO image, which is not easy to create (long story)

Again, although many corporations use a PXELinux infrastructure because
it are more flexible than Remote Installation Services (RIS), you have
to be ready to hack things to get them to work as you want.  Don't
bother Linux lists with these details.  Go consult with other Microsoft
professionals on the appropriate lists.


-- 
Bryan J Smith - Senior Consultant - Red Hat GPS SE US
mailto:bjs at redhat.com      +1 (407) 489-7013 (Mobile) 
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org  (non-RH/ext to Blackberry) 
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