Re: Remote Boot Windows XPE?

I can only report on what problems I've had, how they were fixed, and how
deployed systems are working. I know the article refers to RIS but the
startrom.com and startrom.n12 are apparently the same as used by RBS,
however this hotfix seems to contain newer versions of those files than the
ones that come with RBS. We use Compact PCI blade computers. We recently
evaluated two different new dual-core cPCI machines from Diversified
Technologies and Kontron. After building XPe images for these machines we
found that RBS downloads were taking about 20 minutes for a single 150MByte
target and the downloads often aborted prematurely. We kicked this problem
back to the board vendors and one of them came up with this KB article. I
was also very skeptical at first but when we replaced the startrom.* files
with the ones from the hotfix, the problem was resolved. Perhaps the
problem is only manifested in a very specific class of machines -- it did
not occur in cPCI machines that we bought about 3 years ago.

The issue involving configuration of port 60 only applies if RBS and DHCP
reside on the same machine. I have never preferred such a configuration
because of robustness concerns and I have always been able to use virtually
any DHCP server including the ones resident in $19 cable routers. In the
cPCI environment there are good reasons to use the DHCP available in PICMG
2.16 switches that are resident in the cPCI chassis. One reason is that
these switches can do slot-specific address assignment. For example, I can
configure DHCP so that the blade computer in slot N always gets the
xxx.xxx.xxx.N IP address. This makes it simple for applications and
operators to correlate error messages to hardware chassis slots. Another
reason is I want a headless, diskless DHCP server for my enterprise-critical
application, not an over-weight Win2003 server. If MS claims that RBS is
only compatible with their DHCP server resident on disk-based machines then
they eliminate a huge class of real-world applications (not that I believe
that MS is concerned about MY real world).

Luke

"Sean Liming (MVP)" <sean_liming@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uztQ0CqNIHA.4272@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The article you are refering is RIS not RBS. There is a difference. RIS
installs the OS to the hard drive. RBS downloads the XPe image to RAM and
it runs from a RAM disk. I have never seen a delay in downloading a XPE
image to run on a thin client.

Other DHCP servers on the network are not support in the RBS model. DHCP
has to come from Windows Server since a modification to port 60 is
required during the RBS setup. There are some free DHCP server add ons to
XP Pro, but these don't allow for changes to port 60.

--
Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit
"Luke Alcatel" <luke@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OkDrXppNIHA.4476@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Correct. Neither version of the RBS cares or knows anything about the
DHCP server except for needing to know whether it is on the same machine
or a different machine. In my system DHCP is not even a computer -- it
is provided by a board level switch/router. I am not aware that there
are two RBS systems on the CD -- if so maybe that occurred in a recent
SP. I have always used the RBS on the CD with XP Pro and my board-level
DHCP but this RBS has not worked with Win 2003 Server. When I first
tried to use RBS on Win 2003 I found that I needed to download from the
link further down in this thread.

One more thing about RBS performance. On newer "legacy free" hardware
both of the RBS servers for XPe fail. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906425
for the fix required. Although this KB makes no direct mention of XPe
the fix does work for both XPe RBS systems. I lost a lot of time before
finding this solution and I am disappointed that the XPe team has not
identified this issue.

Luke

"KM" <konstmor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:upBa0ueNIHA.6108@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IIRC, you can use RBS on an XP Pro machine as long as you have access to
a DHCP server (DHCP server could be running on WS2003 or even linux
box). Basically you only need to set up DHCP options to direct the
clients to the right TFTP server on the network.

--
=========
Regards,
KM


"Sean Liming (MVP)" <sean_liming@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eMtqxdeNIHA.2308@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There are two versions that come with the XPe CD - one for W2K server
and the other for Win2003 Server. XP Pro is not supported because you
need a DHCP server

--
Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit
"Luke Alcatel" <luke@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23U0hs6dNIHA.5264@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At the risk of correcting Sean I believe that the RBS that comes "in
the box" is compatible with W2K and XP Pro but not W2003 Server.
There is an update that you can download for W2003.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=32379B6F-1F3A-4194-8E26-A4C9653ADBC5&displaylang=en

Luke

"Sean Liming (MVP)" <sean_liming@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OKOVPRVNIHA.4656@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes, XPe can boot from an network and load the image to run in RAM.
The
tools come with a Remote Boot Service object ot install on Windows
2003
server with DHCP enabled.

The image will have to run on a hard drive first to get past FBA, and
then
you can create the final downloadable carrier file. The amount of RAM
in the
target must be twice the image size.

--
Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit
"Benjamintohc" <Benjamintohc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:C765DB2E-47CE-4A75-90A6-EDB24CFD3712@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I need to boot 32 diskless clients on my test setup into Windows XP/E
through
network boot. Is this possible?

I cannot install Windows into any of the 32 x86 clients due to space
contraints but I can have a PXE server available.

Is this possible? What charges ($$$) am I looking at?

Thanks in advance folks











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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Remote Boot Windows XPE?
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