Boot to Lan Question

[Anaxagoras1986]

I am trying to set a computer to boot to lan. I want to try to boot into Win 2k, over a network from a server. What OS does the server have to have and how would I go about setting this up? Does anyone know how to set this up or is it even possible? Thanks for your time!

 

[I.M.O.G.]

It sounds like what you want to do is set up a dumb terminal... I don't know if your familiar with that term, but you might try googling it to find more information. I haven't ever done this though and I couldn't find much that is useful on google. You might have more luck as you probably better understand what you are looking for.

Is that what your trying to do though?

 

[su root]

As far as I know, booting windows over the network is impossible. The only exception is using RIS to boot a windows Install over the network (to install windows).

Closest thing to what you are looking for is to set up the server as a terminal server, and set up the clients with Win95/98 and a terminal services client to connect to the server.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Hmm thats not what I was looking for. What I want to do is to have all of the images of the terminals loaded remotely from a server. As in all of the windows installs are on a single machine. Am I explaining myself correctly? Again, thanks for the info guys!

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Do you want the image to be reloaded on the workstations every boot? Or no?

Ghost will let you pull an image down from a server - one image which you can bring down to each remote machine. We do this when we reimage machines here when I work, but we don't pull down a whole image everytime... That would be painfully slow.

Upon boot, the boot disc prompts for connection, NIC, and server selection, then a server login, and then ghost runs. Through ghost you select where the image resides (the drive on the server will be mapped) and you just select it and install.

Dunno if you are explaining what you want correctly or not, but I'm not sure I'm seeing what you are looking for.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

I use ghost at work alot too. Basically, I want to have a setup of a bunch of comps that are diskless and instead it is as if thier disks are all on a different machine. That way everytime they start up they startup from the files stored remotely on a server.
If this cannot be done in Windows, can DOS do this?

 

[RED Hot Machine]

I've seen thin clients with windows, but never ones run just from the server.

There have been a few shared hardware type programs that may work for you.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

I have seen some thin client hardware around here. They have a ROM chip that they load from right? That sounds like the best idea.

 

[su root]

You can get embeded computers, but those are completely different, they are diskless and have Windows CE installed (with no central server).

As far as I know, you cannot boot or load windows off a network drive at boot. Same with DOS. Linux/Unix can do it, and have done it for a long time.

The windows solution to this is to install a basic operating system on them, and run terminal services client to connect to the server.

What exactly is your problem? Are you looking to lock down client computers? If so, there are other options, like DeepFreeze

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

No, looking for a new topology with increased reliability. Hard drive failures is one of our biggest problems with our systems. I dont know if it is the IBM systems or just the abuse the terminals take on the site, but a PC would be much more reliable, especially with a RAID 1 setup. I am trying to figure out a way to make a system that does not have have drives in the terminals but just on one central reliable computer that has all of the information on it.

Do you know if there are any Linux versions that can run DOS/Windows apps or would the whole program have to be re-written in Linux format? Again, thanks alot for all of the help guys!

 

[su root]

Look into WINE, it's available on all linux / unix platforms. It's a pain to set up, but it works with most things.

Lindows was made to work with win32 programs and applications.

If it's re-written in linux, it will work a lot faster.

Data loss, on a workstation, should never matter. All of the users should be storing all files on the network servers, which are backed up. Losing a workstation's harddrive should not lose any work data, and should be easily replaceable.

Depending on the size of the business, and the budget, you could also look into a terminal services solution, as I have been mentioning.
Basically, all of the workstations have the exact same image, which is a locked-down copy of 95, 98, or linux, with terminal services client software. Then instead of doing anything locally, they use the software to connect through terminal services to the server and do all of their work on the main servers. You would need some large servers, depending on the number of users, but this is a very centrallized solution.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

These are point of sale systems. They are used in restaurants. They therefore dont have any network servers to back files up to unfortunately.

I'll have to check out Lindows and alike. Thanks.

 

[su root]

If I was in your position, I would set up a central server (doesn't need to be high tech), just add a small RAID, and a backup system. Then store all the data on there.

I would then create a ghost (or other image) image of the client harddrives, and should any system's harddrive die, then you can ghost it back on.

 

[rogerdugans]

If you need to be running Windows than a central data server may be the best way to go.
I had though that Windows Terminal Server had the ability to boot thin clients over a network, but I have never messed with it or really looked into it.

The Linux Terminal Server Project does exactly what you are looking for though, if you can use Linux.
LTSP website

There is also a complete, ready to run LTSP distro available: K12LTSP.
K12LTSP site

I have used earlier versions and will attest to the ease of installation and setup.

IF you can use the apps you need in Linux using wine or similar emulation software, or find linux replacements, it may be just what you need.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

We have ghost images of everything that we ship out so we can replace hard drives in a matter of minutes but we would like to elminate that problem all together if possible.

The new IBM 533 model terminals that we are going to be using soon can have Windows CE imbedded I believe and in that case the terminals could just load our software over the network which should only take a matter of seconds.

This is all just brain storming and I dont know if the idea will ever be approved because things are working out alright as it is and they might not want to change things. They did say, however, that they would like to see a demo of an idea like this if I can get the time to try to make it.