Wednesday 18 August 2010

PXE Boot Thinstation using Windows 2003

At work we run DHCP on windows servers. We wanted to stop using Thinstation CDs for for our PC thin clients so that configuration changes were easier to deploy and to eliminate the need for CD drives on our PC thin clients.

We had already created our Thinstation image so we had all the thinstation files that we required. Instead of going into the ISO folder (for CDs) go into the PXE folder and save all the files in the folder for later. (Let me know if you need more information about this)

Here is how we did it!

1. Install a TFTP server from TFTPD32
Make the settings look as follow
Remember to set the location of TFTP files. Copy the previously saved PXE files into this location on the server.

The folderlocation should look as below.

2. Add the following settings to your DHCP servers

Two extra [server options] need to be added in the DHCP console.066 is the name of the computer where the TFTP Server is installed.
067 is the relative path to the thinstation pxe boot files. (I created a thinstation folder in my TFTP directory but this is optional).

3. Configure the bios on the PC thin clients to boot from the network with PXE.

Hope this helps someone