How-To Diskless AoE – 09 Preparing a Real PC Lan Booting

To boot a real PC you should need to Convert a Windows installation to a .vhd, .vmdk or .img file, but in some cases you can use the VirtualBox Windows installtion to boot real machines ! So maybe you dont need to Convert.

The cases are if the NIC Card is recognized by operating system Windows XP/7/8 by default. Verify your onboard NIC and mark if that exists on default Windows drivers list. The CCBoot(r) Client have a PNP tool that list and collect the NIC Drivers from Windows system and put this nic drivers available to diskless boot.

See the CCBootPnP:

Click in the 3 buttons to apply the Drivers…  Now procedd to try boot your .vhd or .vmdk file from Diskless Server.

If Windows loading freeze,

 you need to Convert a real Installation, try this procedure:

• Installing WinAoE Driver on Machine
• Installing CCBoot Client
• Converting the phisicall disk to a Virtual Disk (clone)

Converting the Real PC with Windows installed ( apply to xp, 7, 8, etc…)

On PC Windows Station:

Task 1 – Download HDClone http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html and install.

Task 2 – Download AoE Initiator http://www.starwindsoftware.com/aoe-ataoverethernet-initiator and install.
 
On Diskless Server:

Task 3 – Create a virtual disk with a required Windows size (that can support the actual partition size of your current Windows Station). You can use the graphical VirtualBox Manage to create .VHD 

Files, or use the ‘VBoxManage.exe’ tool.

If you running in a Windows Server with VirtualBox installed, you will have the VBoxManage.exe command:

example creating 25 Gb of disk:

On Windows:

On Linux Distro (version 0.0.15+):

Task 4 – on server export as a AoE target with vblade (Windows Server or Linux Distro method).

On PC Windows Station:

Task 5 - Use AoE Initiator from StartWind to connect to the exported aoe disk by Diskless Server, with  ”Automount the device” option unmarked.

Vblade tool from Windows Diskless Server exporting a disk:

The disk wil be connected:

Task 6 - Use HDClone — Clone hdd physical to virtual attached disk by AoE Initiator.

Task 7 – Validate the Conversion ( cloned ), initialize/activate the disk on ‘Disk Managment’ on ‘Computer Manager’, after Windows recognize the disk, view the disk by Windows Explorer.

Task 8 - Remove the physical HDD from PC Station and try to Boot From Diskless Server;

Posted in: How-To Diskless AoE