PXE Ghost

[DMcCoy]

Is anyone interested in a guide on how to send the ghost disk image out with PXE without installing RIS and only needing two files on your dhcp server?

 

I've worked out how to do this with minimal effort, there are two drawbacks: You need to install RIS somewhere to make your ghost boot disk (I guess you could make an image of a floppy with PXE driver on though) - I would do this in a temp VM. You also can't use RIS/WDS (I did it on a 2003 SP2 server, no need for legacy mode rubbish).

 

David

[wesleyw]

I would as I've recently bought some toshiba A120 Pros and when I try and connect it just tries to get a DHCP address fails and boots from the HDD any ideas?

 

 

Wes

[DMcCoy]

Do other machines work ok?

[plexer]

DMcCoy: Absolutely.

 

Ben

[wesleyw]

Yeah they seem to?

 

 

Wes

[mrforgetful]

I would as although at the moment we use Ghost 7.5 in conjunction with RIS, we need a newer version and the Ghost Solultion Suite 2.0 I bought has an error in it that I'm in the process of sorting when I get a support contract through but finance won't order anything yet, haven't for a about a term, ridiculous!

[DMcCoy]

I'll see if I can build a PXE disk without using the ris option and then pull all the details together.

[andyrite]

Have a look at this.

 

May be some use.

 

http://www.lhsc.vic.edu.au/Downloads/pxeghost/PXEGhost.zip

 

Andy

[Ch3rub]

DMcCoy: Definitely interested.

[DMcCoy]

Sorry for the *huge* delay. I got distracted by trying to create the RIS boot disk without installing RIS. I might have found a way, I can make it appear in the boot wizard but can't test as solution suite 2.0 has a broken RIS option. More info soon!

[mrforgetful]

You can fix the broken RIS optio nby running LiveUpdate and....updating. They fixed it in that version, even though the problem was never really acknowleged

[DMcCoy]

Symantec are just sending me the link, no liveupdate without console installed

 

I should be able to complete the guide now. You won't need to install RIS, or the ghost console if you don't want it. I have the temporary reg keys and file names needed for the boot wizard to think you have RIS installed, works on XP so you can make the image on a seperate box if you want.

[mrforgetful]

I dont' have the console installed but used the LiveUpdate to do it. Just run LUALL.EXE from C:\Program Files\Symantec\LiveUpdate

[DMcCoy]

Just FYI, 2.0.1 release notes contain

 

2. Defect fixes and enhancements

===============================================================

 

The following defect fixes and enhancements have been made:

 

- Fixed support for RIS in Ghost Boot Wizard

 

 

Edit: Yes, I found that liveupdate thing too

[mrforgetful]

Thing that annoyed me most about the problem was that it wasn't mentioned at all on the website under common problems, faqs or anything. Even though they knew it was a problem, and quitre a major one at that.

[Netware]

@DMcCoy Definitely interested as well.

[DMcCoy]

This is the first draft from notepad for those insterested. I'll tidy it up later and check the steps again.

 

Ghost PXE boot without a full RIS server

 

Most of this is from http://unattended.sourceforge.net/pxe-win2k.html

 

There are a couple of minor but important changes required to get ghost to work.

 

You need Ghost Solution Suite, a Windows 2003 dhcp server. I assume this can be done on multiple dhcp servers if you have them, and also details modified for subnets but I've not tried it yet.

 

This section prepares DHCP

 

Open DHCP management

 

1) Right click on DHCP server and select "Set Predefined Options"

2) Click "Add". Use the following details.

 

Name: ClassID

Datatype: String

Code: 60

Description: ClassID

 

Click "ok" and "ok" again.

 

4) Right Click "server Options". Select "Configure Options"

 

Tick option 013 and enter 0x19

 

Tick option 043 and enter 01 04 00 00 00 00 ff (you might have to delete the first 00 characters)

 

Tick option 060 and enter PXEClient for its string value

 

Tick option 066 and enter the name of the server, for example "server.domain.local"

 

Tick option 067 and enter the name of the bootfile, in ghosts case, its "boot\ghost.ldr". More on this later.

 

 

 

 

5) Right click on the DHCP server and select "All Tasks -> Restart" (Note on 2003 SP2 I got an error from the MMC console - the service actually restarted sucessfully and reloading the MMC fixed it)

 

 

You should now be able to get a DHCP address from a PXE client machine - if not check the

 

 

This section configures TFTP to server the ghost boot files

 

1) Copy tftpd.exe from c:\Windows\System32\dllcache to c:\Windows\System32 (dll cache is a system folder, use the command prompt to copy or turn on protected operating system files in view options briefly)

 

2) Download the Resource kit tools from here:

You can install these on any machine to keep the server tidy - you only need instsrv.exe

 

3) Copy the srvinst.exe from the resource kit to c:\windows\System32

 

4) Run the cmd prompt

 

Run the command "instsrv TFTPD c:\windows\system32\tftpd.exe

 

It should report that the service was sucessfully added.

 

5) Save the following text as ghost.reg

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TFTPD\Parameters]

"Directory"="C:\\Program Files\\Ghost"

 

 

 

6) Right click the ghost.reg and choose "Merge"

 

7) Open "Services" from Administrative tools and change the TFTPD service to automatic and then start it.

 

 

Now we create the ghost boot image and its loader.

This bit is all trial and error by me

 

1) Install Ghost and its utilities on the Ghost server (can be done on a workstation, but you need the export the TFTP reg keys and merge them on the workstation temporarily).

 

2) Create a C:\Program Files\Ghost folder

 

3) Create The following folder structure (Yes, the Images\Images is correct)

 

c:\Program Files\Ghost

c:\Program Files\Ghost\boot

c:\Program Files\Ghost\OSChooser

c:\Program Files\Ghost\OSChooser\i386

c:\Program Files\Ghost\Setup

c:\Program Files\Ghost\Setup\Images

c:\Program Files\Ghost\Setup\Images\Images

 

4) Create the following files (they are empty, the names a checked by the boot wizard)

c:\Program Files\Ghost\OSChooser\i386\startrom.com

c:\Program Files\Ghost\OSChooser\i386\ntldr

 

5) Now run the "Ghost Boot Wizard", you should have a Microsoft RIS option now.

 

6) Run the RIS option from the boot wizard

 

7) I use the following options:

Universal Packet Driver

DHCP

Ghost for the name (doesn't matter there will be no menu)

 

This should create a Ghost folder in the Images directory created earlier

 

8) Copy the ghost.ldr from C:\Program Files\Ghost\Setup\Images\Images\ghost\i386\templates to c:\Program Files\Ghost\boot\

 

9) Copy the ghost.dsk from C:\Program Files\Ghost\Setup\Images\Images\ghost\i386\templates to c:\Program Files\Ghost\boot\

[plexer]

Fantastic followed this yesterday and now have ghost pxe booting.

 

Many thanks for doing the guide.

 

Ben

[Rozzer]

How would you do the above when ghost runs of a different server and DHCP runs on a different box

 

Ross

[DMcCoy]

I assume its controlled by option 66 which specifys the boot servers name.

[plexer]

Yup that would do it I have 2 dhcp servers and both are set to point to one tftpd server at the moment but I suppose I could duplicate it on each box as well.

 

Ben

[mortstar]

Just to say,

 

Followed these instructions and now have a lovely PXE Boot into ghost. No more faffing!

 

Cheers DMcCoy.

 

Maybe this could be copied and pasted into the wiki.

[Greenbeast]

i followed these instructions

 

The PC gets an IP address and says

 

"Transferring Control to Ghost Boot image...

 

Boot Failure"

 

Any ideas?

[SteveMC]

i followed these instructions

 

The PC gets an IP address and says

 

"Transferring Control to Ghost Boot image...

 

Boot Failure"

 

Any ideas?

 

Are you using the latest version of Ghost? (Solution Suite 2.5). If so, then it doesn't work with the Microsoft TFTP / PXE setup. Symantec have said that they know about it, but haven't said whether they'll fix it. In the meantime, you can install the 3-COM Boot Services stuff from the Ghost CD which, although old, does provide a more flexible solution (once you've battled through the manual!).

 

Steve

[punkstar69]

very helpfun guide. i managed to make this work. but i have a problem..

It says Booting ghost boot image

Downloading image

but then i get

PXE-E89: Could not download boot image.

 

i havent realized yet where i must put the .gho file in order for the PXE to load it.