Remote PXE Installation from a Command Line

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

You need a way to remotely install PXE Server with a command through an agent.

Use case:

The customer upgraded from GSS 3.3 RU8 to RU9 and now has 400+ remote PXE servers he needs to upgrade PXE on.  The customer needs a way on how this be done in an automated fashion, and not by using the installation options for pushing the install out using optional components.

 

 

Environment

GSS 3.3 RU8 or later

Component: PXE

Cause

Using axinstall.exe or setup.exe to install remote pxe servers is too time-consuming when needing to install on many servers.

Resolution

With the GSS RU8 release and later, you can try the following:

setup.iss contains unique client IP, so a script could be used to automate it.

Currently, 'pxe.exe' needs to be executed with 2 parameter - '-s' and 'full path to .iss' (e.g. PXE.exe -s "C:\Windows\Temp\setup.iss").

These 2 parameters are passed to Pxe.vbs, so Pxe.vbs can be also executed like 'cscript //nologo PXE.vbs -s "C:\Windows\Temp\setup.iss"'.

When the iss file is passed to Pxe.msi without a full path, it sets Property(S): TARGETDIR = \

Steps:

1) cd to DSSetup folder on the root of the drive

2) run: pxe.exe -s "c:\windows\temp\setup.iss"

Note:
Make sure the setup.iss file contains the IP address of the GSS server

or you can use a script with the following: cscript //nologo PXE.vbs -s "C:\Windows\Temp\setup.iss"'