Imaging a drive via PXE

Metallica · May 1, 2014

I've used Ghost to image drives over a network, but I'm wanting something that doesn't need any boot media to image a drive.

I currently use Serva (PXE Server) to boot to different boot disks. I was hoping there was a way to image a drive using Serva.

My "master" image is stored on the same machine that Serva is running on. I was thinking I could boot Ghost via Serva, but then I wouldn't have access to the image as it is not stored locally.

Sorry if this post is confusing, long day :bang head

Any suggestions?

EDIT: I have a rather large amount of computers that do not have optical drives, hence why I'm trying to do this without needing any boot media.

Automata · May 1, 2014

If your version of Ghost can access network shares, create a share and the image will be accessible that way. If it isn't, then you either won't be able to network boot or you will have to use something other than Ghost.

I used DRBL/Clonezilla to image a bunch of computers for work and it went pretty smooth. I just setup the server portion of it and gave it all the options I wanted for the clients (including the local image). Then I just hooked up computers to the switch I was using, did the network boot option and it started automatically imaging the systems (options I selected, it doesn't have to be automatic) once 7 systems were ready to go.

Metallica · May 2, 2014

thideras said:
If your version of Ghost can access network shares, create a share and the image will be accessible that way. If it isn't, then you either won't be able to network boot or you will have to use something other than Ghost.

I used DRBL/Clonezilla to image a bunch of computers for work and it went pretty smooth. I just setup the server portion of it and gave it all the options I wanted for the clients (including the local image). Then I just hooked up computers to the switch I was using, did the network boot option and it started automatically imaging the systems (options I selected, it doesn't have to be automatic) once 7 systems were ready to go.

I've never heard of DRBL. It seems this is what I was looking for! I'll read up on it tonight.

Thanks thid :clap:

Imaging a drive via PXE

Metallica

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Automata

Destroyer of Empires and Use

Metallica

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