RIS Net Boot Disk

This is a toughy, I dont see a topic this fits in soooo.

Basically I installed a RIS server on my Server 03 Machine
and created a boot disk so I dont have to deal with my
hardware being flaky and having to update BIOSs all over
the office. I figured it would be easier to deal with the
boot disk and just add NIC drivers to it...

UNFORTUNATELY, the RBFG.exe that creates the boot disk
gives you 1 option; Create Boot Disk... Well, not very
helpful! And on top of that there is one file on the disk
and no way to do something really crazy and out there like
maybe ADD a driver for my NICs.

Sorry if I sound rather critical but I REALLY need this
to work with MS stuff because it fits right into AD and
everything, so so so cool... I could setup my
own 'version' I am sure, through
unattended.sourceforge.net but the problem is theres no AD
integration and quick setup stuff, I would have to
basially script through all that AD stuff.

Any ideas? Links? Should I do it via unattended or is
RIS going to work?

FYI: I am not doing ghost images, it SHOULD be doing a
vanilla install based on the answer file of WinXP to the
client that boots and starts talking to the server.

Joe

You can't modify rbfg the way you can provide NIC drivers for the image
itself. As far as I know rbfg.exe in Windows Server 2003 acts the same as
Win2k. Either your NIC is supported or it isn't - and there's no way to add
drivers. The rbfg utility should allow you to display the supported adapter
list. See:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...oot_Floppy.asp

Doug Sherman
MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

"Joe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:02ce01c3d3c7$0be1b5c0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> This is a toughy, I dont see a topic this fits in soooo.
>
> Basically I installed a RIS server on my Server 03 Machine
> and created a boot disk so I dont have to deal with my
> hardware being flaky and having to update BIOSs all over
> the office. I figured it would be easier to deal with the
> boot disk and just add NIC drivers to it...
>
> UNFORTUNATELY, the RBFG.exe that creates the boot disk
> gives you 1 option; Create Boot Disk... Well, not very
> helpful! And on top of that there is one file on the disk
> and no way to do something really crazy and out there like
> maybe ADD a driver for my NICs.
>
> Sorry if I sound rather critical but I REALLY need this
> to work with MS stuff because it fits right into AD and
> everything, so so so cool... I could setup my
> own 'version' I am sure, through
> unattended.sourceforge.net but the problem is theres no AD
> integration and quick setup stuff, I would have to
> basially script through all that AD stuff.
>
> Any ideas? Links? Should I do it via unattended or is
> RIS going to work?
>
> FYI: I am not doing ghost images, it SHOULD be doing a
> vanilla install based on the answer file of WinXP to the
> client that boots and starts talking to the server.
>
> Joe

There are two versions of RBFG.

Windows 2000 Server (v1 build 27, supporting 25 adapters)

Windows Server 2003 (v2 build 19. supporting these additional 7
adapters)

3Com MiniPCI
Realtek RTL8029
Realtek RTL8139
SMC 1211TX
Accton MPX5030
Allied Telesyn 2500TX
SMC EN1209D-TX5


Argon Technology has an update to RBFG available, which supports these
additional 8 adapters.
Argon also builds custom rbfg for virtually any NIC...

National 83815 compatible
NETGEAR FA311/FA312
Accton MPX5030
Allied Telesyn 2500
Accton EN1209D-TX5
Allied Telesyn 2450
Allied Telesyn 2700
Allied Telesyn 2745


For more info...

http://www.argontechnology.com/rbfg/index.shtml

They also have a nice PXE software called Virtual PXE on Disk with
support for VMware and Virtual PC



regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net


On Mon, 5 Jan 2004 16:42:24 -0500, "Doug Sherman [MVP]"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>You can't modify rbfg the way you can provide NIC drivers for the image
>itself. As far as I know rbfg.exe in Windows Server 2003 acts the same as
>Win2k. Either your NIC is supported or it isn't - and there's no way to add
>drivers. The rbfg utility should allow you to display the supported adapter
>list. See:
>
>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...oot_Floppy.asp
>
>Doug Sherman
>MCSE Win2k/NT4.0, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP
>
>"Joe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:02ce01c3d3c7$0be1b5c0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> This is a toughy, I dont see a topic this fits in soooo.
>>
>> Basically I installed a RIS server on my Server 03 Machine
>> and created a boot disk so I dont have to deal with my
>> hardware being flaky and having to update BIOSs all over
>> the office. I figured it would be easier to deal with the
>> boot disk and just add NIC drivers to it...
>>
>> UNFORTUNATELY, the RBFG.exe that creates the boot disk
>> gives you 1 option; Create Boot Disk... Well, not very
>> helpful! And on top of that there is one file on the disk
>> and no way to do something really crazy and out there like
>> maybe ADD a driver for my NICs.
>>
>> Sorry if I sound rather critical but I REALLY need this
>> to work with MS stuff because it fits right into AD and
>> everything, so so so cool... I could setup my
>> own 'version' I am sure, through
>> unattended.sourceforge.net but the problem is theres no AD
>> integration and quick setup stuff, I would have to
>> basially script through all that AD stuff.
>>
>> Any ideas? Links? Should I do it via unattended or is
>> RIS going to work?
>>
>> FYI: I am not doing ghost images, it SHOULD be doing a
>> vanilla install based on the answer file of WinXP to the
>> client that boots and starts talking to the server.
>>
>> Joe
>

PERFECT! Just what I was looking for, will check out!

Thanks guys for the help!

Joe

>Argon Technology has an update to RBFG available, which
supports these
>additional 8 adapters.
>Argon also builds custom rbfg for virtually any NIC...
>

"Joe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<02ce01c3d3c7$0be1b5c0$(E-Mail Removed)>...

> Sorry if I sound rather critical but I REALLY need this
> to work with MS stuff because it fits right into AD and
> everything, so so so cool... I could setup my
> own 'version' I am sure, through
> unattended.sourceforge.net but the problem is theres no AD
> integration and quick setup stuff, I would have to
> basially script through all that AD stuff.

Just out of curiousity, which "AD stuff" do you mean, exactly?

I assume you also need to install your applications. How are you
planning to handle that with RIS?

As the creator of unattended.sourceforge.net, I want to understand
exactly why we lost a "customer" and what we can do to improve the
"product" (even if it is free).

- Pat
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/