PXE vs PXE

[Paul Mooring]

Another setup I think works pretty well is thinstation
http://www.thinstation.org/
It's used to boot into a really minimal version of linux that connects
directly to a remote server through rdp, vnc. ssh, ect

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 8:33 AM, Lisa Kachold <lisakachold at obnosis.com> wrote:
> This has been a standard technique in Unix [BSD, AIX, Solaris and
> HP-UX] for diskless servers since the early days (pre-Linus).
>
> In linux PXE booting from servers is best supported via LTSP project:
>
> http://www.ltsp.org/
> http://www.kegel.com/linux/pxe.html
> http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/1639.html
>
> It is very fun, especially with older hardware and nice fast networking.
>
> Additional fiber channel RAID for shared disk I/O on a switched
> backplane makes these systems nice and swift.
>
> On 2/12/10, Dazed_75 <lthielster at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Turns out the two PXE servers I built do totally different things and really
>> should be called PXE based Install Servers AND I can imagine a third which
>> might more properly be described as a PXE Boot Server.  BTW, for those who
>> do not know, PXE stands for Pre-eXecution Environment and really does let
>> you boot a machine from the network.  Anyway, here are the three types I
>> mentioned:
>>
>>    1. from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallMultiDistro I built a
>>    server that does PXE boots from files stored entirely on the PXE server.
>>    Those files came from .iso files that had been previously mounted and the
>>    necessary material extracted when the server is set up.  The .iso files
>> need
>>    not be kept since they are not used during a PXE boot.  The booting is
>>    generally into a Live environment with the option of installing.
>>    2. from
>>
>> http://www.howtoforge.com/install-multiple-linux-distributions-via-pxe-the-easy-wayI
>> built a PXE server that does PXE boots using only a few files resident
>> on
>>    the PXE server and retrieves most of the material from the internet EVERY
>>    TIME a client uses the PXE based boot.  These all seem to boot directly
>> to
>>    an installer (no live environment).
>>    3. I have not seen any article for this but I can imagine PXE booting
>>    being used simply to boot a system where the OS and Application files
>> only
>>    live on the PXE server.  Configuration and user files could live locally
>> or
>>    on the server.  I suspect PXE is never used this way but do not know.
>>
>> BTW, the server I built for #2 only works for some of the distributions it
>> purports to.  Both the Fedora and CentOS installs fail because the install
>> procedures ask for information that the client doing the booting cannot
>> provide.  Ubuntu Karmic and Mandriva seem to work fine.  The single entry
>> for Karmic appears able to install all the core distributions (i.e. Ubuntu,
>> Kubuntu, etc).  The Mandriva install lets you choose KDE, GNOME, or CUSTOM
>> (whatever that means).
>>
>> It seems to me that method 1 is superior for speed and bandwidth
>> considerations.  Method 2 seems better for the ability to install variations
>> of configuration or distro builds.  I suspect it would be possible to do
>> both in a single PXE server though it would be more work.
>>
>> What I would like to see for method #1 is that the .iso files were retained
>> for use in burning discs either on the PXE server or a client on the net
>> (not a PXE function) AND might be mounted by the PXE server function rather
>> than having to extract files when building the server.  Since all three uses
>> only require reading the .iso's I would think they could be shared.
>>
>> Opinions?  And is anyone interested in this?
>>
>> --
>> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>>
>> The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions,
>> that I wish it always to be kept alive.
>>  - Thomas Jefferson
>>
>
>
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