Setting up WTware to boot the terminal over the network. Diskless terminals. PXE - loading everything! Mastering multi-boot over a local network Diskless boot of Windows 10 over a network

Today, more and more tasks are being automated, and virtualization is increasingly being used to maximize the efficiency of servers. But you still have to install operating systems. Everyone does it in their own way: some have pockets full of different images for all occasions, others carry a “purse” with discs, or even two, in the old fashioned way. As a rule, administrators do this work with little pleasure. Let's look at how to reduce time for trivial tasks, how to teach computers to install systems on their own, without the participation of an administrator at all, using only a local network.

So, today we will learn: install Windows and Linux over the network, load small ISO images, useful software (all sorts of Kaspersky, Acronis, WinPE, memtests), deploy thin clients and steer them. So that, for example, an accountant working with 1C via RDP doesn’t beat you up because her Windows crashed, and the report needed to be prepared yesterday... Or a stingy boss who doesn’t want to update his computer admired your professionalism when will see how Windows 8 flies on old computers... A server that provides boot over the network (PXE) will help us achieve our insidious goals.

Every system administrator has a universal USB drive in their stash for emergency computer resuscitation. Agree, it would be much better to have the same functionality using just one network card. It should also be noted that it is possible to simultaneously work with several nodes at once. So, based on our needs, we have two solutions: use PXE or LTSP.

LTSP is not very suitable for us: it is designed to load the OS installed on the server itself over the network, which allows the use of LTSP server applications. This is not exactly what we need. PXE is a tool for booting a computer over a network without using local storage media, just like LTSP. PXE allows you to organize a multi-boot boot menu, similar to a universal “USB resuscitator”.

What will we implement?

It all started with the need to have at hand a tool for remote installation of Ubuntu/Debian Server over the network, with the ability to boot a Live CD of a small system, like SliTaz or Kolibri OS.
As they say, appetite comes with eating: we didn’t have time to implement what we planned, and a number of “wants” were added to the plan. As a result, the list turned out to be quite impressive.

Thinstation Linux-based thin clients.
Linux section.
1. Installing Ubuntu 14.04 x86.
2. Installing Ubuntu 14.04 x64.
3. Installing Ubuntu 12.04 x86.
4. Installing Ubuntu 12.04 x64.
Windows partition.
1. Windows installation 2012.
2. Installing Windows 7.
Acronis.
1. Windows PE with a package of useful software.
2. Acronis True Image.
  1. Legacy BIOS.
  2. UEFI.
3. Acronis Disk Director.
  1. Legacy BIOS.
  2. UEFI.
Kaspersky Rescue v 10.
ERD Commander from 5 to 8 via ISO image.
Memtest.

We put everything together and take off

As the distribution for the server, the choice fell on Ubuntu Server 14.04.2 LTS. You can choose any other OS, the only difference will be in the syntax. So let's get started. We will need TFTP, DHCP (not necessarily installed on the same server; a router can act as a DHCP server), a service for organizing a network file system NFS. We will consider only those settings that interest us within the topic. First of all, let's install everything you need, after making all the updates:

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Using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE), you can place boot files in a folder on another computer on the network, and then boot the PC using those files. It will take some work, but it's easier than booting from disk.

First you need a working computer with Internet access. Install the Package automatic installation Windows (Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK)), which can be downloaded for free from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136976. From the Start menu, open Command Utilities Windows strings PE (Windows PE Tools Command Prompt) and, if you are installing 32-bit Windows version 7, dial

copype.cmd x8b C:\output

or, for the 64-bit (x64) version,

copype.cmd amd64 C:\output

and press Enter. Batch file will automatically create the C:\output footer. After copying the files, type the following command to mount the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) image:

imagex /mountrw C:\output\winpe.wiro 1 C:\output\mount

Next, open Windows Explorer and create a folder inside c:\output, calling it boot Copy all files from C:\output\mount\Windows\Boot\PXE to new folder C:\output\boot. After this, detach the Windows PE image:

imagex /unmount C:\output\mount

Copy the boot.sdi file from the WAIK installation folder to the C:\output\boot folder. If you are installing a 32-bit version of Windows 7, take boot.sdi from C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\boot, and if you are installing a 64-bit (x64) version, then take it from C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\amd64\boot.

Return to the command prompt window and copy the winpe.wim file to the boot folder, renaming it boot.wim:

litter C:\output\winpe.wim c:\output\boot\boot.wim

After that, all that remains is to enter a few more commands to create a Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file using bcdedit.exe, the same utility that is used to create dual boot. Just download makebcd.bat from http://files.creativelement.com/annoyances/makebcd.bat and run it on your PC. To copy and paste a GUID, right-click anywhere in the Command Prompt window, select Mark, select the text in curly braces located above the command, then press Enter to copy the text. Right-click again, select Paste to paste the text, and press Enter to continue. If everything is OK, the message The operation completed successfully will appear.

The last step is to install a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server program, such as Tftp32, so that the computer can connect to the work PC to retrieve the download files. Install Tftp32 and run tftpd32.exe. Click Browse, select the C:/output folder and click OK to set the Current Directory. Next, select the DHCP server tab, click Help and fill out the fields following the prompts. In the Boot file field, type boot. sdi. After that, click Save.

After setting up the PXE server, you need to enable PXE network boot in BIOS setup your PC. You will need the hostname and IP address of the computer acting as the PXE server.

Technology PXE relies on standard protocols, including TCP/IP and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

Many years ago, in order to configure a user’s computer or troubleshoot a problem on it, one of the IT service specialists or corporate service HelpDesk had to be taken installation disks for software products, as well as disks with diagnostic tools and drivers, and go to this problematic PC.

With creation corporate networks a solution to this problem was also found. In the mid-1990s, Intel, along with many other hardware and software manufacturers, began supporting specifications based on open standards called Wired for Management (WfM).

These specifications, aimed at reducing total cost of ownership, allowed system administrators access a PC over the network for monitoring, updating and configuration using a standardized communication software and applications remote control. It required standardization of hardware (including chips, BIOS, memory, power supplies and network cards) in consumer PCs. The WfM specification supports a wide range of network technologies for PC, including Desktop Management Interface, remote launch (also called launch by local network or service download) and Preboot Execution Environment(PXE).

PXE takes us back to a time when not all computers had internal hard disks. Typically, PXE involves booting the computer from firmware, that is, from read-only memory or from a ROM chip, rather than from magnetic media. Booting from firmware eliminates the hassles associated with using an electromechanical device ( physical disk), which increases reliability, eliminates disk read errors and speeds up the boot process. Additionally, PXE can be used to boot a computer over a network.

Although WfM has been supplanted by newer management standards such as Intel Active Management Technology, network administrators still find the capabilities that PXE supported very useful.

PXE technology is designed for automated remote control user PCs and workstations. It relies on industry standard Internet protocols, including TCP/IP and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Computers that support PXE typically have a network card that remains active and connected to the local network even when the power to the PC itself is turned off. This board scans local network traffic for a special data sequence - a media access control address unique to the PC, repeated six times. When the network card receives this "magic packet", it turns on the PC. For this to happen, LAN support must be enabled in the BIOS of the PC. Running over LAN may not be supported on some very old PCs because it requires an electrical connection between the network and system boards is a mandatory hardware requirement that cannot be satisfied by updating the BIOS alone. However, most enterprise PCs meet this hardware requirement.

As soon as the local PC is turned on, the network card is activated and configuration is performed. In order to use PXE, an appropriate server infrastructure is required. When the PXE client boots, the following occurs. First, the client obtains an IP address from the DHCP server. Unfortunately, PXE requires some functionality that may not work on all DHCP servers, so most software that supports PXE also includes a DHCP proxy service. This proxy service does not provide IP addresses directly, but allows DHCP to work.

After connecting to the DHCP server, the system locates the PXE boot server, which sends it necessary files. The DHCP server provides the name boot file, and the PC then downloads it from the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server.

Once PXE is activated (that is, whenever the PC boots), a message appears on the screen prompting the user to choose whether to PXE boot or continue the normal boot sequence from the local hard drive or optical media. PXE offers a list of boot options that can include a variety of support and diagnostic tools that perform tasks such as scanning for viruses, checking the integrity of hard drives, inventorying installed software, updating drivers, or even installing an entirely new operating system on a PC. All this can be done remotely and mostly in automatic mode, practically without requiring any manual actions.

PXE technology allows the computer to boot from firmware, that is, from read-only memory or ROM chip, rather than from magnetic media. This speeds up the download process, increases its reliability and allows it to be done over the network.

The network card listens to local network traffic for certain data patterns
The network card captures the “magic packet” in the transmitted data and supplies power to the PC through the power connector on the motherboard
PXE client requests an IP address from DHCP or proxy server
DHCP passes the boot file name
PXE requests file from download server
The PXE client downloads the file from the TFTP server. The PXE client boots from the received file

Hello, dear readers of the site! My name is Roman Nakhvat and I present to your attention an article on a very interesting topic, namely about diskless booting of operating systems Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10. Why might a user need diskless booting of Windows? This can be either simple savings on components (in particular on hard drives), or the desire to protect yourself from loss of information due to various factors affecting the computer, such as virus activity, power failures, natural wear and tear hard drive during operation and so on.In this article we will look at diskless booting of a machine using the Windows XP operating system as an example using the CCBoot 2017 program. CCBoot allows you to perform diskless booting of the Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 operating systems using the iSCSI protocol.

Diskless boot allows computers to run without local disk. A "diskless" computer connects to a hard drive over the network and loads the operating system from a remote computer."

To organize diskless booting, I will use my home network from two machines on which the Windows XP and Windows 8.1 operating systems were pre-installed. Since the CCBoot program works on the client-server principle, in our case a machine with Windows XP will act as a client, and a machine with Windows 8.1 will act as a server.

On a machine with Windows 8.1, we have partitions D and E on our hard drive, which we will further use in the process of setting up the server part of the CCBoot program.

On a machine with Windows XP, two hard drives are installed, namely: with a capacity of 80 GB (one partition was created on this hard drive and Windows XP was installed on it, the second HDD 1000 GB capacity is used as file storage.

Let's go to the address http://www.ccboot.com/download.htm and download installation file CCBoot programs.

Downloaded CCBoot installation file. Let's launch this file on a machine with Windows 8.1 and perform the installation.

As mentioned above, CCBoot works on a client-server principle. In our case, the role of the server will be performed by a machine with Windows 8.1, so we select CCBoot Server Installation.

Installation

The installation of the CCBoot server on a Windows 8.1 machine is complete.

CCBoot program shortcut.

Let's determine the IP address of a machine with Windows 8.1 by running command line ipconfig command. As you can see, the IP address is 192.168.100.14

We launch the CCBoot program and on the “Disk Manager” tab we see the partitions available for use hard drives, their volume and free space on them.

Let's configure the server part of the CCBoot program.

Select partition D and open its settings window by selecting “Edit disk”.

We define the type of partition D on the hard drive as “Image”; in the “RAM Cache” drop-down list, select the value 2048.

We get the following.

On partition D we will store a virtual hard disk file with the .vhd extension on which the Windows XP operating system is installed.

In the same way, open the settings window for section E, define the Type as “Writeback”, and in the “RAM Cache” drop-down list set the value, for example, 1024.

Section E will be used to store information received from client machines.

It should look like this.

After editing the settings of sections D and E, click the "Options" button.

On the "Main" tab in the "Administrator Password" window, specify the password that we will need to connect to the CCBoot server.

On the "DHCP Settings" tab, set the switch to "CCBoot DHCP is used", specify the IP address of the CCBoot server (in our case it is 192.168.100.14).

We also indicate the range of IP addresses that will be assigned to client machines for diskless booting (for example, from 192.168.100.43 to 192.168.100.76).

Let's go to the "Client Manager" tab. This tab will display a list of client machines on which the CCBoot client was installed.

Since we have not yet installed the CCBoot client on a machine with Windows XP, this tab will be empty.

We go to a machine with Windows XP and install it on it client part CCBoot programs. Further.

Install.

The installation of the CCBoot client on a machine running Windows XP is complete.

Let's determine the IP address of a machine running Windows XP by running the ipconfig command. As we can see, it is 192.168.100.85.

Go to the Start menu and launch CCBootClient.

This window will open in front of us.

Click on the "Install client" button.

Confirm the installation of the CCBoot client.

Click OK.

Reboot the machine with Windows XP.

After rebooting the machine with Windows XP, in the CCBootClient window, indicate the IP address of the CCBoot server (192.168.100.14), the size of the image that will contain the loading operating system Windows system XP, as well as the image name (WinXP).

Click "Upload image".

Enter the password to connect to the CCBoot server.

We switch to a machine with Windows 8.1 and in the CCBoot program, on the “Image Manager” tab, we see that we have a virtual hard disk file called WinXP.vhd with a capacity of 75 GB.

Also, if we go to the “Client Manager” tab, then we have a machine with the IP address 192.168.100.85, that is, a machine with Windows XP.

Let's remove the machine with the IP address 192.168.100.85 from the "Client Manager" tab by selecting "Delete Client".

Confirm deletion of the client.

We turn off the machine with Windows XP and disconnect the 80 GB hard drive (on which Windows XP is installed), and leave connected the 1000 GB hard drive used as file storage.

We get the following.

We boot the machine on which Windows XP is installed (but at the same time boot disk disabled with Windows XP) over the network.

We download over the network.

As you can see, the name of our client machine was determined to be PC043, and the CCBoot DHCP server assigned it the IP address 192.168.100.43.

AOMEI PXE Boot is a free software for booting computers from ISO over LAN. Being very easy to use, this program allows you to use boot image disk (ISO) for remote booting of several computers, provided that they are connected to the same local network. This makes AOMEI PXE Boot extremely useful tool for tasks such as remote application deployment and maintenance, especially in enterprises.

Working with AOMEI PXE Boot is quite simple: you install the program on the system that will be used as a server, mount the ISO and wait for the client machines to boot. And the best part is that AOMEI PXE Boot supports synchronous booting of multiple computers at the same time. Let's learn more about this amazing program and find out how you can use it to boot computers from ISO over a wired LAN.

AOMEI PXE Boot: main purpose and a few words about Windows PE

It is important to note that AOMEI PXE Boot is primarily designed to fix problems with computers on the network. You can use the program to boot a non-functioning system in a restricted environment. For this purpose, AOMEI PXE Boot works best with Linux or Windows PE boot disk images. The latter is operating system with limited services, which is used to boot the computer for recovery or installation purposes. Based on the Vista kernel, Windows PE is not a full-fledged operating system. Instead, it provides a safe environment to troubleshoot your computer and get it back to working order.

There is absolutely no reason to believe that AOMEI PXE Boot will not work with any other disk image. During testing, I was able to remotely boot Damn Small Linux (DSL) on a client system using a bootable ISO image.

How to boot computers using ISO over local network

Now that you know a lot about AOMEI PXE Boot, it's time to see how this thing works. The process essentially consists of two stages. The first part involves setting up the client computer to boot over the network, and the second consists of setting up and running the application on the system acting as the server.

Please note that both computers must be connected to the same network. In my case, the server was connected to the network via wireless channel, but the client machine was connected by wire.

Part 1: Configuring Client Computer(s) for Network Booting

As the name suggests, the first thing you need to do is configure the client computer or computers to boot over a wired network. To do this you need to access the menu Computer BIOS. Here's how to do it (the process is more or less the same, regardless of the computer manufacturer):

1. Turn on the client computer and press a key to access BIOS menu(usually Del, Esc, F8 or F12). In the BIOS, go to the “Boot” submenu and in the “Boot Options Priorities” section select “PXE” (on some computers “Legacy LAN”, “Realtek PXE B02 D00”, “Network boot from Intel”, etc.) as first boot device. You may also need to enable the PXE ROM option if it is disabled.

2. AOMEI PXE Boot only supports Legacy boot mode, so you also need to disable the option UEFI Boot, if it is supported motherboard computer. This option can be found in the Boot submenu.

That's all you need to do on the client computer. Don't forget to save the changes you made to the BIOS configuration. Now let's move on to the server.

Part 2: Download the ISO and run the application on the server computer

This part is actually even simpler. To get started, download and install AOMEI PXE Boot (about 5 MB) on the computer that will be used as a server. In addition to this, you must also download a bootable disk image to boot the client computer or computers. The steps below explain what is required of you:

1. Launch AOMEI PXE Boot. On the first screen of the program, select the "Boot from custom image file" option and navigate to your ISO file (you can also use the other option to download a Windows PE or Linux ISO from the AOMEI website if you want). Once the image is selected, click on the “Start Service” button to start the service.

2. The AOMEI PXE Boot window will now display information about the activity occurring on the server and client computers. There is nothing else you need to do on the server. To see the real action, let's move forward. And, of course, the application and, of course, the server must be running.

All you have to do is start the client computer and wait for it to boot over the network using the ISO image that you selected through AOMEI PXE Boot on the server computer. Here is a fully working Damn Small Linux distribution running on a client machine:

Final words

If you are a network administrator and are looking for a simple and effective method(and no frills) for remote OS deployment and management, AOMEI PXE Boot may be just what you need. It's a quality tool that's ridiculously easy to set up and works surprisingly well.

Have a great day!