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This tip describes setting up a Windows XP box to be used as an imaging server using Novell ZENworks' Imaging solution on a stand-alone Network.

The XP box will host a DHCP server and a shared folder.

Other clients will boot via PXE, the ZENworks SUSE Linux imaging OS, to create or restore images on the mounted shared folder.

Within this guide, I use specific file paths and IP configuration.

Packages you will need:

Philippe Jounin's TFTPD32.EXE from:
http://tftpd32.jounin.net/download/tftpd32.329.zip

SYSLINUX from:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinu...

Other files needed (Note that some files do not have extensions!):

INSTALLATION

I would turn off the Windows Firewall, you don't need it in this configuration.

Create the following four directories:
C:\bins
C:\zmg
C:\tftproot
C:\tftproot\pxelinux.cfg

mkdir c:\bins c:\zmg c:\tftproot\pxelinux.cfg

Extract the contents of 'tftpd32.329.zip' to 'C:\bins'
Extract the contents of 'syslinux-3.73.zip' to a temporary directory

Locate and copy the following FIVE files to 'C:\tftproot\'

pxelinux.0
initrd
linux
root
settings.txt

Edit the file 'C:\bins\tftpd32.ini'
and replace it's contents with the following TWENTY-SIX lines:

[DHCP]
IP_Pool=35525642
PoolSize=250
BootFile=pxelinux.0
DNS=0
Mask=16777215
Gateway=0
DomainName=ZENIMAGING
Lease (minutes)=2880
[TFTPD32]
BaseDirectory=C:\TFTPROOT
TftpPort=69
PXECompatibility=0
Negociate=1
ShowProgressBar=0
Timeout=3
MaxRetransmit=6
SecurityLevel=1
VirtualRoot=1
LocalIP=10.20.30.1
Services=5
DHCP Ping=0
DHCP LocalIP=10.20.30.1
Max Simultaneous Transfers=10
Console Password=tftpd32
PersistantLeases=0

Create a new file in 'C:\tftproot\pxelinux.cfg\' named 'default'
and copy following SIX lines into it.

DEFAULT ZENworks
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 1
LABEL   ZENworks
KERNEL /linux
APPEND initrd=/initrd vga=0x314 install=tftp://10.20.30.1 rootimage=/root PROXYADDR=unconfigured TFTPIP=10.20.30.1 splash=silent PXEBOOT=YES mode=5

Configure the Network Adapter's TCP/IP configuration as follows:

IP Address=10.20.30.1
Subnet Mask=255.255.255.0
Default Gateway=None

netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" source=static addr=10.20.30.1 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway="none"

Share the folder 'C:\zmg'

net SHARE zmg=c:\zmg /unlimited

The TFTPD32.EXE combines the following into one executable:
TFTP Server
TFTP Client
SNTP Server
SYSLOG Server
DHCP Server

The configuration we use here has only the DHCP and TFTP servers enabled.

Start the DHCP server, simply by double clicking the 'C:\bins\tftpd32.exe'

You may wish to create a shortcut to the executable for the desktop or startup group.

BOOTING CLIENTS

Assuming that you've successfully configured your server, connect your server and clients to a network switch.

Switch on the client, and pressing F12 (typically) causes the box to boot over PXE.

On the client box you should see the PXE boot sequence, SUSE splash screen and eventually a console screen.

Create a mount point on the client and mount the Windows share.

mkdir /mnt/zmg && mount -o user=WINXPUSERNAME,pass=WINXPPASSWORD //10.20.30.1/zmg /mnt/zmg

To make this step less painful, you can append to the file 'C:\tftproot\settings.txt' the following ONE line.

alias zmg='mkdir /mnt/zmg && mount -o user=WINXPUSERNAME,pass=WINXPPASSWORD //10.20.30.1/zmg /mnt/zmg'

Then on the console you need only issue the command 'zmg' to perform the mkdir and mount.

When restoring/making images, the source/target will be 'Local Server' and the archive's path is '/mnt/zmg/ARCHIVEFILE.zmg'

TROUBLESHOOTING

If testing this under VMware, remember to stop the VMware DHCP server for the network you're running on.

I had problems mounting the SMB file system with the ZENworks 7 SP1 PXE boot files. However, with the boot files found in the 'ZENworks 7 SP1 Install Interim Release 3a' (ZDM7SP1IR3a_HP3.zip), I did not have those difficulties.

If using a reverse cable for a single client. On some hardware the DHCP server may not start if the network adapter does not detect a link. So the client may also require being powered on at server startup.

Good Luck!