08-23-2019, 02:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-23-2019, 04:57 PM by TheOldPresbyope.
Edit Reason: add post edit about wireless
)
@DRONE7
Now we're talking enterprise (no, not the starship). In my past life and even more recently as a volunteer at a place which refurbishes donated laptops for low-income students, I've used PXE boot a lot where many machines had to be provisioned from a few, common releases.
I think only recent RPi models support PXE boot (the RPi4B doesn't yet but it's high on their ToDo list 'cuz of the importance to schools).
It's always been possible with an RPi to boot from the network although for some models it may require priming from a local uSD card.
I've thought about doing this with my RPis (especially with new moOde releases periodically spilling over the transom). Candidly, it takes a bit of fuss and bother that I wasn't willing to invest. Depending on the method, one may have to set up and administer DHCP, TFTP, and NFS services. By comparision, it's not been much bother to burn uSD cards. However, if the RPF's pi-server project has made it "so easy a caveman can do it" maybe I should look again. Certainly my NAS can handle the extra work.
I don't know how the performance would hold up with all my RPis running wirelessly.
[Added in post edit: now that I've time to reflect, I don't know how to implement PXE boot in a wireless environment.]
The technical answer is, sure this can be done in a wired environment---but you knew that
Regards,
Kent
Now we're talking enterprise (no, not the starship). In my past life and even more recently as a volunteer at a place which refurbishes donated laptops for low-income students, I've used PXE boot a lot where many machines had to be provisioned from a few, common releases.
I think only recent RPi models support PXE boot (the RPi4B doesn't yet but it's high on their ToDo list 'cuz of the importance to schools).
It's always been possible with an RPi to boot from the network although for some models it may require priming from a local uSD card.
I've thought about doing this with my RPis (especially with new moOde releases periodically spilling over the transom). Candidly, it takes a bit of fuss and bother that I wasn't willing to invest. Depending on the method, one may have to set up and administer DHCP, TFTP, and NFS services. By comparision, it's not been much bother to burn uSD cards. However, if the RPF's pi-server project has made it "so easy a caveman can do it" maybe I should look again. Certainly my NAS can handle the extra work.
I don't know how the performance would hold up with all my RPis running wirelessly.
[Added in post edit: now that I've time to reflect, I don't know how to implement PXE boot in a wireless environment.]
The technical answer is, sure this can be done in a wired environment---but you knew that
Regards,
Kent
