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We are looking to migrate off our existing server 2003 sp2 machine, running RIS (which I know is WDS as of Server 2003 Sp2, but to be clear..) with a bunch of legacy RiSETUP images to a Server 2008 r2 box.

Because the change in architecture (x86 to x64), and a limitation of the Server 2008 upgrade path that won't allow mixed-mode WDS services to be upgraded, I am forced to look at running Server 2003 for RIS and Server 2008 R2 for WDS for Windows 7 on the same network.

The problem I'm facing is how to deal with both PXE services at the same time? I'd still like the existing RIS server to be available for production use, but start working on WDS for deploying Windows 7.

Is there a way to have a sort of PXE "chooser" ? Or some other mechanism to be able to select which server the client should download the boot image from?

Thanks!

3 Answers 3

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DHCP is quite a bit more powerful than many realize. If you do not have managed switches, then VLANs are out.

Clonezilla / DRBL offers at least three ways to handle this without using VLANs.
One way is to make use of dhcp client info to determine which service is used.
The second way is for the initial tftp download to ask for dhcp client info on a different port. The third way is for the client pxe image to make sure it only accepts dhcp info from a particular dhcp server.

The DHCP protocol allows one to utilize the dhcp client info sent such as the MAC address, MSFT, or some other tag to then determine which ip info and tftp file is sent back.

For example, look at the (option vendor-class-identifier) settings in this dhcpd.conf file. This is dhcp protocol stuff, not some *nix magic.
http://drbl.sourceforge.net/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/37_coexist_with_existing_dhcp.faq#37_coexist_with_existing_dhcp.faq

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Take a look at iPXE. We chainload iPXE over the normal PXE bootrom to allow for HTTP downloading of images etc.

I think you should be able to build a menu system which then points to different scripts with boot info for RIS and WDS.

iPXE is a fork of gPXE which is based on EtherBoot :-)

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You cannot have both , as the PXE boot image is an option of a DHCP scope.

I suggest you make 2 vlans with different DHCP scopes. One will offer the PXE boot image of WDS, and the other will offer the RIS boot.

So, depending on which network cable you connect a computer, you will get a different PXE boot.

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