capturing and deploying windows images via pxe

Question

Are there any good tutorials on how to capture and deploy (via PXE) Windows XP images?

I'm studying on this subject and I'd like to know what is needed and how to do it.

Answer 1

You can use the legacy RIS or the current WDS combined with DISM and sysprep to make XP images. Searching on technet for these terms should turn up a plethora of documentation and guides.

Answer 2

Clonezilla does a pretty nice job of this. There are tools from Microsoft to do this kind of thing as well, but I've found them to be difficult to set up.

Answer 3

There is a project called FOG, it stands for Free Open Source Ghost. It is meant for this exact purpose. It support both Ubuntu/Debian and Fedora as servers, and it supports Windows XP/7/Vista for images...

FOG is a Linux-based, free and open source computer imaging solution for Windows XP, Vista and 7 that ties together a few open-source tools with a php-based web interface. FOG doesn't use any boot disks, or CDs; everything is done via TFTP and PXE. Also with fog many drivers are built into the kernel, so you don't really need to worry about drivers (unless there isn't a linux kernel driver for it). FOG also supports putting an image that came from a computer with a 80GB partition onto a machine with a 40GB hard drive as long as the data is less than 40GB.

Fog also includes a graphical Windows service that is used to change the hostname of the PC, restart the computer if a task is created for it, and auto import hosts into the FOG database. The service also installs printers, and does simple snap-ins.

It is meant for a school environment, but it is very good for business use as well...

http://www.fogproject.org/

PS. I have personally used it in a business environment, and it works VERY well...