Remote Boot Install

[Andreas Gessner]

Hi,

I want to start a remote boot install from the MS Remote Boot Service. For
this, I need to start a Windows PE from a ramdisk, wich then installs the
XPe on the local harddisk.
The remote boot service offers the possibility to boot a PE image by copying
the ntldr and ntdetect.com from PE to the download directory of RBS. The
image to be loaded is named in winnt.sif.
My problem is: how can I deploy different images to different clients?
"Boot.ini" is not used by ntldr of PE.
"Boot Image" in the remote boot manager is ignored by ntldr of PE.
In winnt.sif I only can give one image and there is no way to choose the
image by a mac-address or a keystroke.

What is going wrong? Should I use something different than PE?

Thanks in advance.
Andy

 

[KM]

Andy,

Remote Boot Manager GUI gives you a way to specify the image per device based on the device MAC address.

Check out this page. You will find there how to configure the RBS/RBM: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms852126.aspx (pay
attention to the Client MAC Address field).

 

[Andreas Gessner]

Hi KM,

thanks for your answer, but that does not solve my problem.
The image defined in the GUI using a MAC address is only working for booting
XP embedded not for Windows PE!
To boot Windows PE, it is nessesary to use the ntldr and ntdetect.com from
PE. These are ignoring the image given in the GUI and are using the
information in winnt.sif instead.

Andy.

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Andy,

Sorry to hop in mid stream. In your original post you stated "Should I use
something different than PE?". I think that in your situation the answer
might be yes. You could create an XPe image that would become the deployment
mechanism that is downloaded from RBS. This would give you the flexibility
to have several different SDI images and then specify which image goes to
which device in the RBS manager as KM suggested. Does that help? I use
several different deployment images here that have simple base support for
the target hardware, the command shell, and a script launched at bootup that
preps the disk and copies the runtime to the device.

HTH,
Brad

 

[Andreas Gessner]

Hi Brad,

yes, this is my fallback solution.
But I'm not sure about the license for that "deployment XPe". Do we need two
XP embedded licences for each device, because one is for installing XPe an
one for running XPe?

Andy

 

[KM]

Andreas,

First of all, I second Brad's suggestion. XPe is what you may want to look at . It is easier to configure (and more flexibility)
than WinPE for deployment purposes. You want need additional licenses as long as you use that "small" XPe image only for the purpose
of deployment of the main XPe image. In any case, please consult with your XPe distributor.

Second, Remote Boot Manager in XPe is relatively simple solution and works [was designed to work] in conjunction with SDI. It
doesn't really allow you to play much around multiple images for multiple clients. You'd probably need to stick to XPe there or PE
only.
(more flexible and sophisticated software to boot different images on different devices is MS RIS)
More info on the RBS: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx#ram_sdi_topic4

Third, you can theoretically create WinPE image in a SDI file and use the same ntldr and boot.ini as for XPe boot images (referring
to WinPE 1.x here only).

Fourth, you can always create a custom boot program (to replace startrom.n12, for instance) that will use any other loader you'd
need (use BOOT/LOAD blobs). Here you can customize the boot scenario as you like. Here is how you author the boot program:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx

What are the different images you are trying to remote boot? Sounds like you already have a remote boot enabled XPe image anyway?

 

[Martin Grossen, eMVP [AVNET Silica]]

Hi Andreas

No, you don't need 2 licenses.
Because XP-E is en embedded OEM license,
you can use the same license for servicing, maintainance,
recovery and deployment.


--

Martin Grossen, eMVP

AVNET EMG Silica
Franchise Manager Microsoft Embedded Europe

Your competent partner for Microsoft Embedded licencing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Andreas Gessner]

Thanks for all your suggestions.
Yes, I allready have a remote boot image running using PE.
But I see, the shorteset way is, to use XPe for installing.

Andy

Andreas,

First of all, I second Brad's suggestion. XPe is what you may want to look
at . It is easier to configure (and more flexibility) than WinPE for
deployment purposes. You want need additional licenses as long as you use
that "small" XPe image only for the purpose of deployment of the main XPe
image. In any case, please consult with your XPe distributor.

Second, Remote Boot Manager in XPe is relatively simple solution and works
[was designed to work] in conjunction with SDI. It doesn't really allow
you to play much around multiple images for multiple clients. You'd
probably need to stick to XPe there or PE only.
(more flexible and sophisticated software to boot different images on
different devices is MS RIS)
More info on the RBS:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx#ram_sdi_topic4

Third, you can theoretically create WinPE image in a SDI file and use the
same ntldr and boot.ini as for XPe boot images (referring to WinPE 1.x
here only).

Fourth, you can always create a custom boot program (to replace
startrom.n12, for instance) that will use any other loader you'd need (use
BOOT/LOAD blobs). Here you can customize the boot scenario as you like.
Here is how you author the boot program:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx

What are the different images you are trying to remote boot? Sounds like
you already have a remote boot enabled XPe image anyway?

--
=========
Regards,
KM

Hi Brad,

yes, this is my fallback solution.
But I'm not sure about the license for that "deployment XPe". Do we need
two XP embedded licences for each device, because one is for installing
XPe an one for running XPe?

Andy