Overview
It is not always necessary to boot from a CD-ROM or floppy drive to install a WolfPrep image.
Machines that can "boot off the network" using PXE (the Preboot eXecution Environment) can perform a network-only installation.
Security Concerns
Administrators are strongly cautioned not to leave "public" workstations with PXE booting enabled.
This has the same major security issues as allowing a public workstation to boot from the CD-ROM or floppy drive.
It is trivial to download boot media that can reset the administrator password on a Windows XP workstation, or otherwise completely bypass any XP security settings.
ITD is researching methods to change the boot options on a workstation securely and remotely, but do not any any solution in place currently besides manually setting and confirming that public workstations do not PXE boot and setting a secure BIOS password.
Preparation
In order to use PXE, you must select PXE-All as your DHCP template when you register your host in QIP.
It is this selection that tells the workstation from which network server it should boot.
The same configuration is used for both WolfPrep and Realm Linux installations.
Network Booting the workstation
Specifics will vary according to the workstation vendor. Most have options in the system BIOS to select PXE or "Network" in the boot order.
There is a forum topic on the Microsys web site for gathering up specific instructions on how to enable various hardware that may be helpful in locating information regarding a specific model of machine.
For most machines, PXE is enabled in the system BIOS, either via a special keypress during bootup (often F12 or ESC) or in the regular boot order (eg floppy first, then hard drive, then PXE/Network).
Some older network adapters may support a boot from a network protocol known as "RIS" (Remote Installation Service). It is not possible to use RIS to install a WolfPrep image. PXE is required.
Selecting WolfPrep Options
When booting from the network using the "PXE-All" setup, you will be greeted with a screen similar to the following:
There is no default action from this screen. If you do not make a selection, it will wait here forever. This is differnet from the CD-ROM installs which select the default image after three minutes.
You type in your selection at the boot: prompt . There are a number of options available, but for WolfPrep the two most common would be
To run WolfPrep with all the defaults, including the default image of "appsxp":
wolfprep
To select the "winxp" image (the one with no applications pre-installed)
wolfprep IMAGE=winxp
A short reminder screen can be called up with the function key [f3], and the full list of wolfprep pre-boot commands, which are applicable to both PXE and CD booting, is also available. [ Download it now in PDF format ]
Other installations available
From the same boot: prompt, you can install Realm Linux . Function key [f2] briefly describes the available options, or you can refer to the main Campus Linux Services Web-Kickstart documentation.
There are also some utilities/tools available that do not install a new operating system. Function key [f10] will show you the current list. Some potentially useful tools you can lauch from the boot: prompt include:
To torture test a workstation's memory systems:
memtest86
To run the Dell 32 bit diagnostics
delldiag
Future Plans
Microsys hopes that the value-add we bring to PXE is to simplify the initial setup required in QIP so that we can extend the ability to PXE boot to anyone on campus who needs this capability.
The PXE-All configuration should support any Intel based workstation performing a PXE boot on campus. With two load balanced higly available servers in two hardened machine rooms, we hope to serve as a solid basis for other groups' installation and disaster recovery plans for workstations.
Having a single setup support the installation of both WolfPrep and Realm Linux is only the first step of what we hope will become a comprehensive installation service for all groups on campus involved with deploying workstations on campus.
Our next step is to extend the installation scenerios we support to include Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to support groups like WolfTech.
We also expect to be able to install Intel based Macintosh workstations in the near term.
In the longer term, we will upgrade our PXE services to the newer EFI technology, and be able to support platforms other than Intel.
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