Remote install for twelve machines

[Guest]

I have a training room with twelve PCs. I don't have RIS (higher ups won't
let me), but I do have sysprep and Ghost. Here's what I want to do. After a
class finishes its run, I want to re-image all the machines overnight without
having to be there. The main problem I'm having is that these twelve
machines are on the network and served by DHCP, and I'm not allowed to assign
a IP range so each machine can have a static. How do I ensure that each
machine gets reimaged, keeps its current name, and is completed through a
prearranged schedule?

 

[Guest]

I would be inclinded to think that, lacking a fixed IP, a bootable DVD might
be the best route.

There are several ways you can use this, if you have Ghost then the DOS
version should be suitable.

 

[Guest]

That would work, except that the training room is a fair walk and the
administrator is thinking of refreshing the machines on a weekly basis. I'm
of a thought to split the training room off to a separate subnet, controlled
by an on site server, with DHCP scope for that subnet only, which would allow
PXE boot. That should do very nicely.

 

[Guest]

Other option which occurred to me just after previous post was:
Partition the disk into two, P1 NTFS System, and P2 FAT32 Disk Image.

Remove the driveletter from P2 in Disk Admin, so students don't see it.

Sys P2 with DOS, and put a suitable autoexec.bat plus Ghost/dos and the
system-image on it.

Now, when the machine needs to be re-imaged, run a script under XP which
modifies C:\boot.ini so the next boot will be from Partition 2, and issue a
reboot system-call. The script could even be run by an AT command so it
happens at a set time regardless. (provided the machine's on, of course)

On rebooting the machine will boot from dos on P2, and replace P1
automatically. It will then reboot into clean XP since the reload will itself
have replaced boot.ini.

This would be by far the fastest method, re-imaging from HD beats LAN or DVD
hands-down.

Might be of help, anyway!