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Running a diskless client (2k/XP) from a Linux server

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klingens

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2002
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Xanadu
Is there a howto anywhere for booting a PC via network and running windows 2k or XP on a totally diskless, network booting, workstation?

The server providing the windows image/install should be a Linux one
 
klingens said:
Is there a howto anywhere for booting a PC via network and running windows 2k or XP on a totally diskless, network booting, workstation?

The server providing the windows image/install should be a Linux one

The answer I can give you is probably not. You can boot off any network drive if your MoBo supports it. But windows XP was NOT built to run off a network device. It will want to access the drive like any other drive. So unless you can setup the Linux Partition to be NTFS, and your bios simulates the Network Drive as if it was a ATA or SATA or SCSI drive then you wont be able to do it.

It also will be slow, bog down the network, and will be slow... remember there are temp and swappable files that are used regularly. Even with Giga-byte network, you should see a delay do to the nature of Network Devices, Drivers, routers, etc.

Mike
 
You would have to have something like a BOOTABLE iSCSI HBA at a minimum and then you might be able to go diskless using a bit of software that would present a iSCSI target on your Linux server. I've seen it done on the server side and it works very well. But then again those servers were powered by a SAN.

Have fun!!!
 
Past a certain point. MS did not want anyone to use one key for many. So honeslty, Windows + diskless will not be fun, simple or easy.

They enabled remote boot to fix stuff and admin a boxen. Past that, your going to be using a unique or volume license... See the point?

So far the only MS OS I know of that would easily run truely diskless was DOS. 95/98 can run without a head, but it is more for folding and SETI type stuff. Cluster type stuff. It never really goes into the GUI. Since all the GUI calls will be terribly slow. So why even bother. (This type of job is truley for a Unix flavor.)

The closest easist workaround I can think of off the top of my head is. Use a KVM switch and use one box remotely to serve it all. With wireless/wired tech , it shouldn't be creatively to hard.

I thought a year or two back.( I read it on OCF) The magic of the new Conroe Intel tech was that you could virtualize your OS...

For admining a boot:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/proddocs/concept/xcp11.mspx?mfr=true
 
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I was going to say, I know how to do a dickless diskless[1] workstation with a minimal linux environment. I'm not sure how to do it with Windows 2000 or XP and I'm not sure it can be done at all.

It may well be a question of design; that is, can XP be effectively made to be hurtled over a network cable at boot time. (The answer is probably not.)

[1]I couldn't resist...
 
i have never heard of a diskless MS machine. I am pretty sure, as EnablingWolf said, that MS does not want people doing this because they want to sell you a license for every machine.

However, there should be tons of howto's on running a diskless linux box with X.
 
This has nothing to do with licenses imho: since you run a separate Windows on that CPU you need a unique license for it. From where this thing boots is entirely irrelevant. You have to have more than one boot image, one for each diskless client due to CD key issues, but harddisk space is cheap in aggregate on the server: the trouble is that you always need to buy a 40-80GB disk per client, when a 2GB one would suffice for the OS.

What I found so far is people making a big ramdisk on the (diskless) client and run Windows off that "disk". However that only works with cut down versions of Win98, since beyond that, the OS is way to big to fit into a reasonable RAMdisk. No use saving a few $ on a harddisk to avoid hdd breakages and spend it on 1 GB or 2GB of RAM instead. Just not worth it.
 
It may be above my head. Windows NT headless on boot would be a disaster. Think how it works in normal user mode.... It is not just about keys and what-nots. Though the easiest way to say, it is not easy.

Windows is most vulnerable during the first part of booting actual Windows. Driver loading is the iffy part of it. MS shut that out a year or so ago(SP2). It is core stuff, not what we can get around, unless your unpatched. Think SP4 and SP2 stuff..

If you can get around that.. your good.

I am not saying it cannot be done. Just that there is issues that are proven in the core kernel. Then your not going to update it or use your key(s) to its advantage..

If you looked at how some of the older assembly boot worms/trojans do it. Then you could see what to do. :(
 
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