Network booting 100 computers

[Rene]

The idea is to have around 100 mini computers all running XP embedded and
all booting from the network. I am currently running experiments booting up
from a wired network but the idea is to go wireless.



So what's the problem you may wonder? Well, it takes quite some time to load
the image from the server to just one computer and I think that loading the
image to 100 computers is going to be slow as hell, specially because the
idea is to turn off all the computers after work and start them up the next
morning every day, this will probably overload the network traffic slowing
everything to a crawl.



So my question is, since the Ethernet signal is broadcasted to all the
clients weather they use the packets of information or not (I think). Is
there a way to have all computers listen to the same signal and all loads
the OS in one shot instead of each individual system having a private
session with the Remote Boot Server? In other words, just like a speaker
talking to a crowd, the speaker only speaks once and everyone listens
instead of the speaker talking and saying the same thing individually to all
the people present.

 

[KM]

Rene,

So my question is, since the Ethernet signal is broadcasted to all the
clients weather they use the packets of information or not (I think). Is
there a way to have all computers listen to the same signal and all loads
the OS in one shot instead of each individual system having a private
session with the Remote Boot Server? In other words, just like a speaker
talking to a crowd, the speaker only speaks once and everyone listens
instead of the speaker talking and saying the same thing individually to all
the people present.

The solution for you is MTFP (Multicast TFTP) or similar protocol. Search Google for MTFTP.

Current RBS is unicast based.

I don't know how you are going to use XPe remote boot in wireless environment. (RB is currently PXE based)

 

[Brad Combs]

Rene,

Check out this product from VenturCom. It's probably what your looking
for....
http://www.vci.com/products/network_centric/BXPInfo.asp

Also, I'm not certain that wireless PXE is available just yet although I
could be wrong about that.

HTH,
--
Brad Combs
Imago Technologies, LLC

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Have an opinion on the effectiveness of Microsoft Embedded newsgroups? Tell
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[Brad Combs]

Hehe, stupid OE.

--
Brad Combs
Imago Technologies, LLC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have an opinion on the effectiveness of Microsoft Embedded newsgroups? Tell
Microsoft!
https://www.windowsembeddedeval.com/community/newsgroups
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rene,


The solution for you is MTFP (Multicast TFTP) or similar protocol. Search Google for MTFTP.

Current RBS is unicast based.

I don't know how you are going to use XPe remote boot in wireless

environment. (RB is currently PXE based)

 

[KM]

"Always rely on manual refresh only"

 

[Rene]

Thanks I will do my research.

I don't know how you are going to use XPe remote boot in wireless

environment. (RB is currently PXE based)

I know that your currently require an OS to support wireless, but with all
this wireless popping up all over the place, I am crossing my fingers so
that the company that makes the motherboards that we use (VIA) will come up
with some integrated wireless support in their new products, just like the
have video, sound, Ethernet etc already integrated in most motherboard. With
a little luck PXE will be updated to support that.

 

[KM]

Rene,

I know that your currently require an OS to support wireless, but with all
this wireless popping up all over the place, I am crossing my fingers so
that the company that makes the motherboards that we use (VIA) will come up
with some integrated wireless support in their new products, just like the
have video, sound, Ethernet etc already integrated in most motherboard. With
a little luck PXE will be updated to support that.

I doubt remote boot (or remote intallation) may be PXE based in wireless
environment.
If you think about wireless, MTFTP is not a good choice there since it is
not realible protocol for all the machines being booted (expect the one that
initiated the download). Wireless has not been known as a stable
environment.
I might be wrong (haven't thought about remote boot in wireless environment)
but I am pretty sure PXE/MTFTP is not the choice there.

KM

 

[Guest]

Have you checked out BXP:

www.vci.com