PXE boot linux and windows

bootboot-loaderinstallationpxe-boot

Here is the scenario: I have 3 machines connected to the network thru a switch: one is the server that can act as the tftp server, switch has the DHCP server and other 2 machines needs OS to be installed on. One needs linux and the other one Windows.

Is there any way to configure PXE boot so that I can decide (based on MAC ID or static IP address) whether to provide linux bootstrap program or Windows?

I can write the tftp server myself. But, I see that its already too late by this time.

Best Answer

You should not let the TFTP server decide that as the TFTP server might not have the necessary information any more (the MAC address is unobtainable if the client is behind a router for example).

Instead, configure the DHCP server to provide different next-server and filename options depending on the client's MAC address (usually achieved by creating a reservation with the appropriate option data). If your present DHCP implementation does not allow for it, consider exchanging it for a more capable one. ISC dhcpd and Microsoft DHCP server would both support this kind of configuration.

Related Solutions

Linux – Using Linux PXE to boot to WDS Server

PXE sounds a bit late to me. I'd rather configure the DHCP server to give those windows systems their boot server and not the linux TFTP server: http://tspycher.com/booting-into-wds-windows-deployment-service-from-linux-dhcpd/

Building a PXE/WDS infrastructure with both Windows Server 2008 and Linux PXE Server

Yes
Yes
- For MS DHCP Server, open the DHCP MMC, under the relevant scope create a reservation with the apporpriate IP and MAC address, then assign the options under that reservation.
- For ISC-DHCPd, create a host reservation section under the Scope definitions similar to:
```
subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    range 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.50;
    other options might be here...

    host pxeclient {
        harware ethernet 02:01:03:04:05:06
        next-server pxe.server.example.com
        filename "option 67"
    }
}
```

For the WDS server option 066 (next-server) should be the IP of the WDS server; and option 067 (filename) should be "boot\x86\wdsnbp.com". You'll have to figure out the settings for the PXE server, but it should be pretty similar (and already setup and running as I understand the Question).

If your PXE boot *nix clients have NFS roots the option for that is option root-path "nfsserver.example.com:/path/to/rootfs"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – Using Linux PXE to boot to WDS Server

Building a PXE/WDS infrastructure with both Windows Server 2008 and Linux PXE Server

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