Leveraging WinPE and Linux Preboot for Effective Provisioning Jonathan Richey | Director of Development | Altiris, Inc.

© Altiris Inc. Agenda  Terminology  Preboot Technology  Linux and WinPE Pros & Cons  Preboot Demo  Questions and Answers

© Altiris Inc. Terminology  Preboot  Automation  An OS environment other than Production OS ― Control hardware w/o OS interference ― Deployment Solution automation  Primary use – Hard Disk Manipulation ― “Bare Metal” provisioning ― Partitioning ― Imaging ― Repairing or Healing production OS ― Recovery from offline storage

© Altiris Inc. Terminology  Production Environment  Primary User OS ― Windows ― Linux ― Solaris  Production Agent ― AClient ― ADLAgent

© Altiris Inc. Terminology  Automation Environment  X86 Processor Only  Automation OS ― DOS ― WinPE ― Linux  Automation Agent ― Bootwork.exe ― AClient -winpe ― ADLAgent

© Altiris Inc. Previous Preboot Technology  Bootwork partitions  Floppy disks  PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment)  DOS based

© Altiris Inc. DS 6.5 Preboot Technology  Automation partitions  Boot Media  Floppy disks  CD  USB Flash  PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment)  Supported OS’s  DOS  Linux  WinPE

© Altiris Inc. Automation Partitions  Previously called Bootwork Partitions  Patented Altiris technology  Hidden or embedded partitions  Controls boot to automation or production  Pros and Cons?

© Altiris Inc. Automation Partitions – Pros  Always available  Configured specifically for system  Production agents can modify boot order  Faster than floppies  More secure than PXE  Keyboard/Screen lock technology (DOS)

© Altiris Inc. Automation Partitions – Cons  Must be installed  Embedded – relatively easy  Hidden – generally very painful  Does not work for “Bare Metal” provisioning  Third Party imaging tools can’t handle Embedded partitions

© Altiris Inc. 6.5 Automation Partition Enhancements  Both WinPE and Linux supported  New automation partition structure  Compatible with Recovery Solution, Local Recovery  More compatible with other boot loaders  Allows for larger embedded partitions ― DOS 5 MB ― Linux 30 MB ― WinPE 200 MB  Fastest way to boot WinPE

© Altiris Inc. DS 6.1 Bootwork Partition Architecture

© Altiris Inc. DS 6.5 Automation Partition Architecture

© Altiris Inc. PXE Automation  Intel standard since 1998  Piggybacks on DHCP extensions  Three components  PXE Server  TFTP/MTFTP server  Client PXE ROM  Pros and Cons?

© Altiris Inc. PXE Automation – Pros  DS can control PXE boot choice  Fastest automation decision  Best remote management  No “hidden” code or data on disk  Only reasonable option for “Bare Metal”  Can use multicast to minimize network traffic

© Altiris Inc. PXE Automation – Cons  Has security problems  Susceptible to rogue PXE servers  Requires network infrastructure support  Additional open ports  Multicast ports  DHCP helper in routers  Manual synchronization of 6.1 PXE servers  Solved in DS 6.5

© Altiris Inc. PXE 6.5 Enhancements  DS job specific PXE boot images  Centralized PXE management  Enhanced security  Support for TFTP file transfers > 94MB

© Altiris Inc. PXE Modules

© Altiris Inc. PXE Manager  Centralized PXE management  Coordinates & configures multiple PXE servers ― All PXE boot images on one machine ― All PXE BDC configurations on one machine ― New directory structure and naming  Shared & server specific configurations  Communicates w/ PXEConfig, DS engine, and Config Helper Service  BIS support for complex installations  Service on same box as DS server

© Altiris Inc. PXE Manager  Secure Management  Two way authentication with DS  Uses DB Management encrypted session  Supports DS role based security for PXE Config utility

© Altiris Inc. PXE Boot Sequence  DS Job scheduled  Using MAC address and boot image ID, DS engine tells PXE server to how to boot specific managed clients  Boot image ID identifies Preboot OS type  PXE Server receives boot request and automatically selects specified boot image  Boot image is downloaded and executed

© Altiris Inc. PXE Boot Sequence

© Altiris Inc. Preboot OS Options  Altiris pre-boot Linux distribution  RedHat Fedora core 3 based  Altiris customized  Source available from: on DS page  Microsoft Windows PE  Select & Volume WinPE toolkit or OPK  Altiris WinPE Installer  95/98 DOS still supported

© Altiris Inc. New Preboot OS Options Benefits  Powerful OS’  Improved imaging performance  Security  Microsoft NT network authentication  Improved availability of NIC drivers

© Altiris Inc. Linux Preboot OS  Pros  Powerful OS  Free availability  Ram disk boot ― Leaves hard disk unmounted  Better NIC driver support than DOS

© Altiris Inc. Linux Preboot OS, cont.  Cons  Drivers lag Windows counterpart  Disk and video drivers required  Version/distribution executable mismatch  Relative unfamiliarity in many IT depts.

© Altiris Inc. WinPE Preboot OS  Pros  Powerful OS  Best driver availability  Fastest imaging with RDeploy  Ram disk boot ― Leaves hard disk unmounted  Scripted install of 2003 server for x64 platforms

© Altiris Inc. WinPE Preboot OS, cont.  Cons  Must use WinPE 2005 ― Previous versions will not work  Big… Huge…  Hard to get from Microsoft ― MS select or volume agreement  Additional, though minimal, cost from Altiris ― Altiris WinPE installer

© Altiris Inc. DS 6.5 Preboot Demo  Create a Linux PXE boot image  Minimal PXE job to copy a file

© Altiris Inc. Summary  Preboot technology is one of the pillars of DS power  DS 6.5 fully supports Linux and WinPE for Preboot OS  Associated Lab:  System Provisioning using Linux and WinPE PreBoot ― Wed. 3:00 pm, S. China Sea (classroom 40) ― Thur. 2:00 pm, S. China Sea 

© Altiris Inc. Thank You  Questions & Answers