Is it possible to organize diskless booting of windows 7 (XP, linux?), if so, what is needed for this?

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Komonec2011-09-25 06:08:13

PXE

Komonec, 2011-09-25 06:08:13

There are 5 machines ( mining ), each Windows is on a flash drive, recently one flash drive died, the question was whether it is possible to organize the download of windows 7 over the network, if so, what is needed for this?
Thanks in advance.

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6 answer(s)

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omnimod, 2011-09-25
@omnimod

There are several options for Windows OS:
A simple option - if your computers have iSCSI or FC HBA - you can organize diskless booting without problems.
The option is more complicated - if the network adapters in the computer support iSCSI Boot using iBFT. There are even entry-level server motherboards in many modern server motherboards or server network adapters.
The most difficult option - for network adapters that do not support iSCSI Boot - pre-boot with gPXE, enable iBFT, boot via iSCSI.
A perverted option is to boot into Linux (for example, using the same PXE), and then run Windows as a guest VM hosted on NFS, iSCSI, etc. network storage.
An expensive option is to use commercial solutions, such as Citrix Provisioning Services, which allow you to boot over the network and access virtual disks via CIFS.

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asm0dey, 2011-09-25
@asm0dey

Do you consider the option of citrix or Microsoft terminal server?

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4dmonster, 2011-09-26
@4dmonster

If linux is not afraid then - ltsp.org
Linux Terminal Server Project you can set the program to run on the client computer.

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4dmonster, 2011-09-26
@4dmonster

Windows also has Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), someone said that it allows you to configure network boot / installation, perhaps since you are familiar with scripting, you will be able to configure not installing Windows over the network, but starting mining.

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lexit, 2011-09-25
@lexit

If you load the entire image, it will take too much time ... as an option, you can try a bunch of thinstation to a terminal server with 2008/2003 Windows ... well, or the same rdp to a virtual machine with Windows 7

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appplemac, 2011-09-25
@appplemac

there is another expensive option - IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment
works in much the same way as Citrix