Image Deployment using PXE - Step by Step Assitance

[Joshua Thompson]

Good Evening,

Our currently deployment solution uses booting to HP Rapid Deployment Server (Altiris) via PXE boot for image deployment.

For each of our new Proliant Servers we have to load the appropriate DOS driver to allow network connectivity.

With our new HP Proliant DL585 G2s the embedded NIC (NC371i) and PCI NIC (360T) do not have DOS drivers available. (per HP)

We are looking to swtiching to some type of PE environment to boot to the Alitris server for image deployment.

I am looking for guidance / assistance in where to start.

Could somebody provide a walkthrough on how to accomplish this using BartPE (or WinPE).
I am very knew to this PE environment so any help is greatly appreciated

Thank you

[Ole Thomsen_1]

If you upgrade to latest version of Rapid Deployment WinPE will be default environment.

Ole Thomsen

[blockhead]

However, you will still have a driver issue with the NC371i when booting WinPE. Hp claims that the same driver (RIS driver) for the NC373i will also work for the NC371i, but so far it has failed in my testing. The DL380 G5 has a NC373i and boots successfuly to the network using the Vista WinPE client with the HP suggested drivers. I take the same Vista WinPE client to the 585 G2 and it fails. No answers from HP yet, but I have a case opened with them. Anyone else experience the same problem with WinPE and the NC371i drivers?

[JoshT976]

I enabled the PE boot enviroment option on our rapid Deployement server, and everything works fine now.

No more DOS, yeah!

[blockhead]

But some people are not using RDP/Altiris...too expensive when MS tools such as ADS and WDS are free.

It still stands to say that the Vista WinPE client (boot.wim) won't work with the currently provided HP drivers for the NC371i. It does however work with the NC373i in the 380 G5.

Anyone?

[mdcarson]

I'm having the same problem. We're using a WinPE 2 boot disk with a VB/HTA front end to customize unattended installs for WS2K3 and WS2K3x64. Today I tried the install on a DL585 G2 for the first time. The monolithic Broadcom drivers (32-bit and x64) that work for the other models don't work with the NC371i. My script includes an option to install from source disks, but source disks are never as up to date as the network shares.

We need a functional PE/RIS driver for the NC371i!

[JoshT976]

Thats the advantage of WinPE. You should be able to add the 371i windows driver directly to your PE boot image.

[blockhead]

Not entirely true. The boot.wim on Vista DVD (AKA longhorn winpe client) does not work with the 371i. However, the same driver will work within a WinPE2005 client.

[JoshT976]

Thanks for the clarification. We use the PE 2005 client. (I guess thats why it works)

[Hans.Muller]

Found on other forums:
WinPE20 with NC373i drivers.
Using the RIS drivers Broadcomp suplies made it working for me.

http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtremeii.php

[blockhead]

Once again, the issue is not with the 373i. It is with the 371i and the Vista WinPE client. The RIS drivers provided for the 371i work in WinPE 2005 cient, but not with the new Vista WinPE client. Guess we have to wait until Longhorn drivers are released from HP. I have everything working with WinPE 2005 and ADS 1.1, but I'd like to use the new Vista client so that I can take full advantage of new driver and hot fix injection features using peimg command and also move to WDS (windows deployment services).

[Jack Shugart]

Just wanted to add, that we are also seeing the problem with booting DL585G2 and WinPE v2.0.

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that there is a missing driver in 2.0, and that the NC371i sits behind this device.

And I have tried loading all the PSP Longhorn Beta drivers into PE2, without fixing the problem.

[Dave Behler]

I'm seeing the same problem with the NC371i in the 585G2's with WinPEv2.1. I've even integrated the latest SSSTK (version 1.9) that supposedly provides support for WinPEv2.1 and the NC371i.

Has anyone gotten this to work on a 585G2?

[Dave Behler]

Problem resolved by HP Support.

It seems that this issue has been reported already and a BIOS version was release to fix it. According to my peers, they had already replicated the problem and then updated the BIOS and it resolved the issue.

I would like you to please try updating the BIOS to the newest version available. It can be downloaded by using this link:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3219717&prodNameId=3288124&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-d0953690551541efbcf1e58067

Upgrade DL585G2 system bios to 3.28.2008 and add the NIC drivers from the HP SSSTKv1.9 to WinPEv2.1.

Thanks to all who assisted with this problem.