Wow what a…compelling title? Actually it’s about PXE network booting, you’re supposed to (reportedly) pronounce it like “pixie”. I have tried several times over the past several years to figure out how to set that up, always unsuccessfully. Well that friend of mine that got me the volunteer job was on vacation so I had a chance to geek-it-up with the network admin while he was gone. One of the things we did was convert my “VistaPE” so called custom PE to a network bootable image. And lookie there it actually worked. And he made it look so easy!
Actually the Windows-based PXE thing requires it to be a domain controller. Which is why I have resisted going that route. I just don’t need the headache or extra complication. I was sure there was a DOS/windows or-if-I-have-to Linux solution that I could manage to set up. Alas, it has always escaped me. I’m probably going to have to set up a practice domain anyway so I could probably do set this up now. There’s probably some special hardware requirement with the NIC for it to really work but I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
It was really cool and actually a lot faster to boot that little PE over the network. I normally boot it from a USB thumb drive and as fast as USB 2 is it’s not gigabit Ethernet-fast.
We also set up a PXE for the Windows 7 install image. Which worked out incredibly smoothly and quickly. I’m so unaccustomed to having things work exactly the way they’re supposed to on the first try. That hardly ever happens for me.
I’m trying to cook up some ideas to make imaging so much easier at work. Right now we’re using a “CloneZilla” CD to boot the PC than imaging several gigs worth of a CloneZilla image for a 1TB USB drive. A single USB drive. So guess what happens if we lose that drive or it’s otherwise unavailable… Or if you can’t find the stupid CloneZilla CD. Pfff. Minor details. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just PXE boot a PE environment, run a script, select a WIM source to restore and have it just come up? Wouldn’t that be WONDERFUL?? Like..you know…we’re living in a modern, post-2002 era?
So that’s what I’ve decided to work on. I don’t know if I’ll get the whole domain controller PXE thing working but I hope I get at least a small portion of that done. Over the next four days. Ya, that’s right, I’m “working at home” for my non-paying “job”. Should be a lot of fun though. So there’s that.
Okay I think I’m done writing for tonight.