Configring Workstation on 3.12 Server

Hi, all you can do is make a bootable diskette and login to the server, if you need any help on make the disk let me know.

You only need a Boot PROM.
This is a small PROM with a network booting program, which you need to install in your NIC (network Interface Card). If your card does not support this kind of PROM, you will need to change the NIC for one which support it.
I did not see this in a while, I will look for some info and if I found it I will answer again.

Regards,

Jose P Mir
jpm@jpmir.net

I have founded something.

3Com has a Dynamic Access Managed PC Boot Agent Chip (3CMBA-D), which is not other thing more than a boot PROM. You could find information about this device at www.3com.com, and searching for boot PROM. I am sure you will need to use one of the NICs offered by 3Com, in order to use this boot PROM.

In Novell (www.novell.com) you will find too much about Remote Booting, for this maybe you could start by doing a search for RPL (this is the NLM used in Netware 3.1x for booting over the wire).

You will need to read a lot, but I am sure you will find the solution.

Regards,

Jose P Mir
jpm@jpmir.net

To my knowledge, you cannot remote boot Win9X from the server. Joe Doupnik (who has probably forgotten more netWare than most will ever know) did figure out how to get the original version of Windows95 to remote boot, but it's quite a bit of work,and easily broken, and doesn;t work wint later version of Win95, 98, or ME.

He put together a power point slide show which can be had via FTP from netlab2.usu.edu, file name W95INST7.ZIP.

If you need security for the Win98 system (i.e., so users can't muck anything up) you are better off to use a product like Deep Freeze, Clean Slate, or FoolProof.

Remote Boot; from a NIC with Boot PROM, enables you to boot any PC regardless the OS installed in it, because it starts the remote boot process before the OS starts. It is a hardware function. So do not worry about the OS version.

On the other side, depending on the PC OS you will be able or not to access the PC disk. For example if you PC uses NTFS, and your boot PROM boots your PC from an OS Image in the Netware 3.x server, you will not be able to see the local disk. I really do not know what happen with FAT32 systems, you better look for detailed information first.

The boot PROM will ask you about local or remote booting, so you will not lose the possibility to access you local OS in any case, including FAT32 and NTFS.

Regards,

Jose P Mir
jpm@jpmir.net

Jose,

The question stated is: can a network boot with RPL be used to start an operation system off the fileserver. Access to local disks is irrelevant because there aren't any (diskless workstation).

As Bud states it can be done, allbeit with great difficulty. With RPL you get a diskimage with the size of a floppy disk from the server. The network card instructs the computer to boot from this image. Then it is the responsibility for the bootdisk to load network drivers, contact the serverand get the rest of the OS. This is relatively easy for DOS, it is much harder for windows 3.x and almost impossible for windows 9x.

If your're serious about networking, forget it. If you want diskless workstations / thin clients go for a terminal server solution.

Thanks Mr. Derode for the pointing. I have interpreted the answer of Mr. BudTheGray as a problem to use remote boot if the PC has Win9x. My mistake.

And I will agree with you, remote boot is better suited for the DOS world. Once you have your diskless PC booted from the network you may run Win3.x (I do not like this, but it could be done with no major concern). But running Win9x from a central server in diskless PCs is not good at all, because it could create a big impact in the network performance, depending on the use. This is the reason why never cross my mind the idea of remote booting of Win9x.

Regards,

Jose P Mir
jpm@jpmir.net

Hey guys,

Reading the question once more I figured out that part 1 is already answered.

But part 2 makes me think about that maybe the questioner wants the possibility of easily using the Win98 machine as stand alone instead of logged to the network. What do you think? The machine already has Win98 installed; why could him want to boot another Win98 from the network?

If this is the case the solution could be not to perform the login-in step. But this seems too easy to be the real question. Anyway, Mr. techadmin@indiatimes.com, could you please say something about this?

Regards,

Jose P Mir
jpm@jpmir.net

I take it thatu are migrating to Pentium on the server. No issue. Look for a file called NET$DOS.sys. It should be in the SYS: volume. If you have a hetrogenous diskless nodes, each with it's own CONFIG.sys, NIC driver image, there will be more files. I think what you shoul do is:
(1) Backup these files,
(2) Reinstall NW3.12 on the Perntium,
(3) Copy these files.

To answer your second point. You don't necessarily have to boot to DOS to connect to the NW 3.12 server. Just use Microsoft's network neighbourhood and choose IPX protocol. Choose the domain etc. Your regualr hardware support guy should be able to do it for you.

By the way, Novell has got an upgrade just for 3.12 users who don't want to upgrade their server. It's called 3.12 secure or something and comes with some features of Novell Small Business services.

Hope this helps.

End of mail.

Quote "By the way, Novell has got an upgrade just for 3.12 users"

Well, *that* is some might interesting news, ananthap, considering Netware 3.12 is End of Life for quite some years now, and isn't supported by novell anymore. Can you tell us where to get this upgrade? (don't tell me you mean the Netware 3.2 update...)

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