[GUIDE] Installing a PXE Server on unRAID


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will be better to "install" without setup.exe. have imagex in ur winpe and apply images will b better approach imo.

 

You experience / knowledge / ideas that you have suggested throughout this thread are all very good. However, you talk over most people's heads and do not provide a lot of details / information. It would be helpful if you provided additional information, explanations, details or simple a link so people can see / learn / educate themselves on what it is / how to implement what it is you are suggesting.

 

As to this particular suggestion... I wouldn't necessarily say its "better".

 

For many of the people here, it's easier / less complicated to go through a 10 minute install of Windows than going through the process of prepping an Image / Capturing / Configuring / Installing it. If I was deploying / managing 25 or more PCs, ImageX, Windows DS or Windows SMS is a great / powerful tool that can save a lot of time but for 3 or 4 in my house that I rarely reload... Even the nerd in me won't go through the upfront work / trouble for BTP (build-to-plan).

 

For those of you who are interested, want to learn more see and example of what we are discussing...

 

Using ImageX to Capture and Deploy an Image: A Basic Example

 

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if u hav to boot into pe directly like me. its better to hav webserver up, using ipxe + wimboot. from my experience, ipxe used tftp(which is slower compare to http) handling out my pe.wim which is 200mb.

 

in ur ipxe boot file, u might need to add

(i had trouble getting menu thru ipxe without these lines)

i added few more dnsmasq options, some might interested with it. 1 subnetmask,3 router,6 dns server,28 broadcast,54 dhcp server.

 

u can use tinypxe.exe (which is portable) comes with proxydhcp, binl/wds, etc etc.

 

I take it English isn't your native language.

 

Also, you should create a new thread about using http, ipxe, tinypxe, etc. It's going to confuse people and they might cut and paste what you wrote above into dnsmasq thinking they need it.

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im not linux, network, english guy like you. i speak, read and listen to 5 different languages in my daily life.

removed all my posts here because they sounds inappropriate and misleading.

sorry for trying to help, suggest and hinted.

 

I hope I didn't run you off or make dissuade you from creating your thread. If I did, I assure you that was not my intent.

 

Like I said you have a lot of experience / knowledge / skills that most of us don't have. The information / suggestions / ideas you presented were all very good. Since this guide is around pxelinux on Linux... I didn't want people to "cut and paste" your "configs" and "settings" for completely different apps than this guide is intended. It could lead to confusion and people thinking they need to apply them to pxelinux instead of the apps / utilities that you were suggesting.

 

Hopefully you create a thread because I do think there are plenty of people here who would like to know / implement the things you and I were discussing earlier in thread (ipxe, tinypxe, imagex, Microsoft DS and SMS, etc.). Like you, I have a lot of experience with all of those tools and there are some big pluses with those rather than doing it pxelinux.

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@grumpybutfun: suggestion for your next guide (that could complement this one): how to setup an iscsi server on unraid (stock slack based one :) ) and be able to boot a full windows install from pxe and running from a remote iscsi drive (stored on unraid server as an hdd image file). I have some pages bookmarked about doing it but had no time to fully go though them yet :(

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@grumpybutfun: suggestion for your next guide (that could complement this one): how to setup an iscsi server on unraid (stock slack based one :) ) and be able to boot a full windows install from pxe and running from a remote iscsi drive (stored on unraid server as an hdd image file). I have some pages bookmarked about doing it but had no time to fully go though them yet :(

 

+1

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Got everything working, almost :P

 

PXE-Menu pops up and things look good, but when I try to boot openELEC nothing happens, files are in the correct location. I've double checked the configfiles also.

I use this; OpenELEC Stable - Generic x86_64 Version:3.2.4, from http://openelec.tv/get-openelec/download/viewcategory/8-generic-builds

 

Extracted the SYSTEM and KERNEL files and put them in \mnt\user\tftp\images

 

Any ideas?

 

I'm on unRAID 6b3 by the way.

 

Got it working, still got some issues.

 

All I did was start over from scratch, and I updated the paths in the config files according to my setup.

 

The problem now it seems, even though I've created a tftp-share (/mnt/user/tftp) with public security and export, it isn't writeable from the machine booting the openelec image.

 

After booting, selecting openElec, then after the boot-splash I get -> "mkdir: can't create directory '/storage/mac-adress-of-my-tespc' : Read-only file system"

I tried creating the folder manually, didn't do much, same problem.

I also tried creating a separate storage share with public security set, exactly the same thing happened.

 

I tried mounting it via another linux test box I've got, still read only, so any good ideas how to forcefully make these shares NOT read-only ?

 

cat /etc/exports;

 

"/mnt/user/storage" -async,no_subtree_check,fsid=115 *(rw,insecure,anongid=100,anonuid=99,all_squash)
"/mnt/user/tftp" -async,no_subtree_check,fsid=114 *(rw,insecure,anongid=100,anonuid=99,all_squash)

 

is says RW does it not ? maybe I'm retarded though.

 

(yes I've changed owner on the folders to "nobody:users" as instructed and chmod-ed them with 777 even)

 

------------------------------

 

So, here's the solution;

 

On unRAID b3 which I'm currently using there is a bug in NFS

 

1. Set the NFS share you're using to Security - Private. Then click "apply" in unRAID webconsole

2. Add the following rule to your share: *(sec=sys,rw,insecure,anongid=100,anonuid=99,all_squash)

3. Click "Apply"

 

Hopefully someone else doesn't need to waste a lot of hours on troubleshooting this.

 

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  • 2 years later...
  • 3 months later...

Hello,

 

I was using that guide to PXE boot a lot of computer with my old V5 Unraid Server.

 

Now I have build a brand new V6 Unraid Server. Is it still possible to use that guide ? I don't want to mess with my new server directly.

 

Thanks !

 

Note : Perhaps there is a simpliest way to do that with docker but I'm just starting to read how that stuff works.

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Hello,

 

I was using that guide to PXE boot a lot of computer with my old V5 Unraid Server.

 

Now I have build a brand new V6 Unraid Server. Is it still possible to use that guide ? I don't want to mess with my new server directly.

 

Thanks !

 

Note : Perhaps there is a simpliest way to do that with docker but I'm just starting to read how that stuff works.

 

I guess the guide should work if you can find a 64bit version of dnsmasq on http://packages.slackware.com

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Hello,

 

I was using that guide to PXE boot a lot of computer with my old V5 Unraid Server.

 

Now I have build a brand new V6 Unraid Server. Is it still possible to use that guide ? I don't want to mess with my new server directly.

 

Thanks !

 

Note : Perhaps there is a simpliest way to do that with docker but I'm just starting to read how that stuff works.

 

I guess the guide should work if you can find a 64bit version of dnsmasq on http://packages.slackware.com

 

It's here.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Can we get the customizeable pxe menu re uploaded?

 

This please :)

 

or a link to a updated guide on how to do this

 

The original author hasn't been active on the forums for quite some time.  So an updated guide from him or him reuploading stuff is very unlikely.

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I don't really care who reuploads the files.  People who did this in the past could have kept and/or still have the original file. One of those people could upload it.

 

They could, just pointing out it might not happen.  The thread hasn't exactly been a hot bed of activity.

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  • 3 months later...

bumping an old thread, i am having a go at getting this running as i can't seem to find a docker to do it unfortunately :/

 

but in the instructions at step 8, 

8. Download and copy the following file into the root of your cache drive (/mnt/cache)

 

Customizable PXE Server Menu <--- Download Link

 

the file is no longer there, would anyone have this file on hand and be able to host it somewhere for me to grab please?

 

Cheers,

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