pxe-on-disk user guide · pxe-on-disk user guide page 5 pxe-on-disk guide this document is intended...

VSP-B/03-006

PXE-on-Disk User Guide

July 2001

PXE-on-Disk User Guide page 1

Table of Contents

� Disclaimer and confidentiality ..............................................................................................................2

� About this Guide...................................................................................................................................3

� Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................4

PXE-ON-DISK GUIDE.............................................................................................................................................5

� About PXE............................................................................................................................................5

� Installing PXE-on-Disk .........................................................................................................................7

� Operating PXE-on-Disk......................................................................................................................13


DISCLAIMER AND CONFIDENTIALITY

The information in this document is provided in connection with PreWorX (Pty) Ltd products only. All information in this document and its attachments relating to the official business of PreWorX (Pty) Ltd is proprietary to the company.

It is confidential, legally privileged and protected by law.

This document is the intellectual property of PreWorX (Pty) Ltd and may not, in whole or in part, be reproduced by any means without the prior written consent of PreWorX (Pty) Ltd. No license, express or implied, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document.

Note:

Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, PreWorX (Pty) Ltd cannot assure that the integrity of this communication has been maintained nor that it is free of errors, virus, interception or interference. PreWorX (Pty) Ltd assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. Nor does it make any commitment to update the information contained herein.

Limitation of Liability

To the full extent allowed by law, PreWorX (Pty) Ltd also excludes for itself and its suppliers any liability, whether based in contract or tort (including negligence), for incidental, consequential, indirect, special, or punitive damages of any kind, or for loss of revenue or profits, loss of business, loss of information or data, or other financial loss arising out of or in connection with the sale, installation, maintenance, use, performance, failure, or interruption of its products, even if PreWorX (Pty) Ltd or its authorized reseller has been advised of the possibility of such damages, and limits its liability to repair, replacement, or refund of the purchase price paid, at PreWorX (Pty) Ltd’s option. This disclaimer of liability for damages will not be affected if any remedy provided herein shall fail of its essential purpose.

Third-party brands and names are the property of their respective owners.


ABOUT THIS GUIDE

Purpose This guide provides quick start information on how to install the PXE-on-Disk application.

Presentation The information presented in this guide is organized as follows:

The guide is divided into sections dealing with related information.

Warnings and cautions are boxed and its title is written in uppercase and the text presented in bold red text.

WARNING

When performing maintenance tasks, for example, replacing a network card, ensure that the power is disconnected. Failure to do so can lead to component damage.

Notes and important messages are boxed and presented in normal blue text.

Note:

The device is removed from the Group, but not deleted from the database.

Each section has a primary heading and comprises a number of topics.

Each topic is labelled, includes sub-topics, and is terminated by a solid line.

Procedures are presented in tables for ease of reference.

All field names from forms are presented in Courier New, bold, 12pt, for example, Start Date. The following icons are used as typographic aids:

Read this!

User input required

Information


ABBREVIATIONS

The following abbreviations are used in this guide:

ABBREVIATION DESCRIPTION

API Application Program Interface(s)

BIOS Basic Input/Output Operating System

DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Di-NIC Diamond Network Interface Card

IP Internet Protocol

LAN Local Area Network

MTFTP Multicast Trivial File Transfer Protocol

NBP Network Bootstrap Program

NDS Novell Directory Service

NFS Network File System

NTFS New Technology File System

PXE Preboot Execution Environment

TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol

VSP Virtual Service Provider (system)

WAN Wide Area Network

WfM Wired for Management


PXE-ON-DISK GUIDE

This document is intended for use by a qualified Administrator. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information is presented in a clear and understandable way, the user must have a basic understanding of computer terminology and concepts.

ABOUT PXE

What is PXE? The Preboot Execution Environment (PXE), pronounced “pixie”, is a client/server interface that allows networked computers to be configured and booted remotely by an Administrator. This interface enables the Administrator to manage client PCs on a Local Area Network (LAN) from a remote location.

This technology makes it possible to configure or reconfigure a system remotely, even with a blank hard disk drive. The computer system has a universal service agent loaded locally in the BIOS and/or LAN adapter. (PXE-on-Disk allows this service to be loaded as part of the boot sector.) The agent allows the system to interact with a remote server to dynamically retrieve the requested boot image across the network, making it possible to install the operating system and user configuration of a new system without a technician present. As a result, an organization's IT department can save on human labor, the most expensive element of support costs, and get new or transferred employees set up and productive more quickly.

What does PXE-on-Disk

do?

PXE allows you to control and fix a PC before the operating system starts. The PXE code is typically delivered with a new computer (PC-99 compliant or later) on a network interface card (NIC) or boot disk that allows the computer to communicate with the network server so that it can be remotely configured and its operating system can be remotely booted.

PXE provides three features:

1. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which allows the client to receive an IP address to gain access to the network servers.

2. A set of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) that are used by the client's Basic Input/Output Operating System (BIOS) or a downloaded Network Bootstrap Program (NBP) that automates the booting of the operating system and other configuration steps.

3. A standard method of initializing the PXE code in the PXE ROM chip or boot disk.

PXE supports the WfM protocol

The Wired for Management (WfM) Initiative is an industry-supported effort to make Intel Architecture-based systems universally manageable and universally managed, without


sacrificing agility or performance. Through the WfM Initiative, Intel has worked with others in the industry to develop guidelines for a new generation of platforms that can be centrally managed over networks thereby reducing the cost of ownership.

How does PXE work?

The PXE process consists of the client notifying the server that it uses PXE. If the server supports PXE, it sends the client a list of boot servers that contain the available operating systems. The client finds the boot server it needs and receives the name of the file to download. The client then downloads the file, using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and executes it, which loads the operating system. If a client is equipped with PXE and the server is not, the server ignores the PXE code, preventing disruption in the DHCP and Bootstrap Protocol operations.

Some advantages of using PXE:

• The client machine does not necessarily need an operating system or even a hard disk.

• The client machine can be rebooted in the event of hardware or software failure. This allows the administrator to diagnose and fix the problem.

• PXE is vendor-independent, allowing new types of computers to be added to the network.

Requirement PXE-on-Disk supports the following:

File Systems

• FAT 12/16/32

• NTFS

Operating Systems

• Win 95/98/ME

• NT Server/ Workstation 4

• NT 2000

Note:

If the client PC has a FAT file system and a hard disk drive > 2 Gigabyte, then a Pentium II processor or better is recommended.

(If a file system is on your boot partition and it is > 2 GB, you will need a BIOS that supports extended interrupt 13. The diagnostic disk is used to perform this test.)


INSTALLING PXE-ON-DISK

Setting up the Environment

The following procedures must be completed before installation:

Note:

As the application uses drive a:\ during the install process you will not be able to install PXE-on-Disk from a 1.44Mb floppy drive. However, the application can run from CD as well.

1. Copy the PXE-on-Disk folder to your hard disk (e.g. c:\PXE\….)

2. Run PXEBuilder.exe

The PXE-on-Disk Setup screen is displayed:

3. Create an MS-DOS boot disk in Windows.

a. Insert media in drive a:\

b. Go to the Windows desktop.

c. Click Start.

d. Select Run.


e. Type sys a: and click Enter.

A message: System transferred indicates that the process was successful.

4. Create a Repair disk:

a. Insert the media in the a:\ drive.

b. Click Repair Disk.

c. Follow the on-screen instructions.

The Repair Disk function is used to restore the PC to its original (pre-PXE) configuration.

5. Create a Diagnostic disk: (for creating a System disk, refer to step 3 “Create an MS Dos boot disk in Windows”).

a. Insert the media in the a:\ drive.

b. Click Diagnostic Disk.

c. Follow the on-screen instructions.

The Diagnostic Disk function is used to test if a client PC supports PXE-on-Disk software (It tests if extended interrupt 13 is supported by your BIOS).

Checking the client PC

1. Reboot the client PC with the Diagnostic disk.

You will be prompted for the boot drive where you want to install PXE-on-Disk.

2. Click Enter. It will detect whether your PC supports PXE-on-Disk.

3.

Note:

If the PC does not support PXE-on-Disk, do NOT proceed with the installation.

If you install PXE-on-Disk on a machine that does not support PXE-on-


Disk, you will have to reboot that machine with the Repair Disk you have made, and uninstall PXE-on-Disk.

Install PXE 1. Remove the Diagnostic disk.

2. Reboot the client PC without a disk.

3. Run PXE-on-Disk from Windows.

The following screen appears:

Note:

The network adapter of your PC is identified in the Information box.


What you will need

4. Select the network adapter (or its nearest equivalent) from the Driver List displayed.

Drivers may be duplicated, e.g. Accton En1207d = SMC 1211TX

5. Select the boot drive where you want to install.

Note:

When install is run, it detects any previous installation of PXE-on-Disk.

6. You can select the system files backup option to create an additional backup.

Note:

Take care to use separate disks for different machines, and label them accordingly.

7. Click Install to proceed.

The following screen is displayed:


8. Click Close if you intend to use PXE-on-Disk later,

or

Click Uninstall to remove PXE-on-Disk from the client,

or

Reboot the PC if you want to execute PXE-on-Disk now.

Options PXE-on-Disk can also be installed from the Windows command line.


You can get the device ID information from the BIOS PCI Device Listing on reboot or from the PXE-on-Disk application:

9. Select the network adapter in the PXE-on-Disk Driver List.

10. Click the right mouse button. A Properties button appears.

11. Click the Properties button.

The following information box is displayed:

The Property column declares the driver name, which can be used when running with command line options.


OPERATING PXE-ON-DISK

Running PXE-On-Disk

1. On the server, schedule the actions to be performed on the new client.

2. Reboot the client machine.

Your machine will

• Detect if PXE-on-Disk is installed

• Establish a connection with a PXE server

• Execute all scheduled actions

• Continue the boot cycle

Troubleshooting The following paragraphs identify some of the known errors that have occurred working with PXE-on-Disk.

1. During installation the following message appears:


It is likely that the boot sector is protected or damaged.

a. Run scandisk to repair the disk.

b. Disable all virus detection software.

2. PXE-on-Disk not operating correctly

Wrong adapter type installed or PXE-on-Disk is not installed on the boot drive.

3. Fail to Uninstall/Reinstall

PXE-on-Disk cannot install on network drives.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The following additional information is provided to ensure that you understand the key issues around installing and using PXE-on-Disk.

• You must be logged on as the Administrator on Windows NT.

Note:

A token ring network can only connect to a VSP server and not to a PXE server.

• Virus Protection Software – PXE-on-Disk is not a virus, but because it operates in the boot sector, it is detected by most virus protection software as alien.

• Do not run PXE-on-Disk from drive a:\, because you may require drive a:\ for making the system disk. Install PXE-on-Disk to your local boot drive (c:\) because it cannot be installed to a remote PC over a network; however, you can run PXE-on-Disk from a remote PC.

pxe-on-disk user guide · pxe-on-disk user guide page 5 pxe-on-disk guide this document is intended...

Documents