[syslinux] Recursive pxelinux.0 and pxelinux.cfg directories.

[Ryan McLean]

Tobias Offermann wrote:
> I've got a similar problem here:
>
>  - need to install different linux dists and windows
>  - different teams maintain different dists on different servers
>    (the shared-server approach simply... "failed")
>  - we do not know previously which machine gets which os installed
>
> My (hacky) solution was the following (a note: the solution is
> running for one year now, before the gpxe/pxelinux integration
> but now the networking install of windows is an added requirement
> which does not yet work with the system described below):
>
>   At first a generic pxelinux with a menu where you can chose the
> os to install (or boot a rescue grml or an acronis netboot...) is
> booted via pxe.
>   Depending on the selection in the menu a gpxe is chainloaded.
> There are some (magnitude of dists available) different gpxe binaries
> which are all differently patched - they all send different
> "vendor-class-identifier" when starting up a fresh pxe request.
>   The DHCP server recognizes the different vendor-ids and - depending
> on that - serves the "next-server" and "filename" that directs to
> the appropriate server for that dist to install.
>   The GPXE tries a "fresh" bootstrap and (nearly) transparently
> boots pxelinuxes from the dist-servers where those teams can maintain
> their own "dist-sub-menu".
>
> This has just been an idea, but for all our linux installations this
> is working perfectly! I know this is quite dirty, but a year ago I
> saw no different choice.
>
> Today with the merge of gpxe and pxelinux this seems a little bit
> different as pxelinux can now load (sub)menus and kernels from
> different servers.
> but one question remains: in my hacky solution above the 'next-server'
> is (finally, in the last step) set to the server actually providing
> the installation kernel and loader. if i would do this with a
> centralized menu which includes submenu from different servers, the
> "next-server" would still be set to the "central" server - would it?
> I think this is where the windows installation breaks, since there
> is no way to tell the pxe windows installer where to draw the loader
> from...
>
> any ideas for a cleaner solution with the means of todays pxelinux?
> (i hope i've described the situation, the solution and the problem
> understandingly...)
>
> greetings from cologne,
> tobi
>
>
>   
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>   

Its a bit more hassle for you but one workable solution is to use RIS to 
deploy windows & linux
http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#Deploy_Linux_from_Windows_WDS.2FRIS_server_using_PXELinux

-- 
Regards,


Ryan McLean
Systems Administrator

Email: ryanm at accelrys.com
Tel:   +44 1223 228500

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