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Zero
Asked: 2012-01-21 11:53:47 +0800 CST

Is Imaging over wireless possible and/or feasible? PXE boot over Wireless?

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I am looking to implement (if possible/feasible) the ability to image a PC and Mac via our wireless network. Is this actually possible? I have read multiple documents that newer Macbook Airs can do this, but would that require having Multicasting on within our entire network? We have only have it on in 1 VLAN to minimize chatter on our network. Right now we have a PXE boot to gain access to a ghostcasting session that we instantiate. Is it possible to setup a wireless (netboot?) to PXEboot to ghostcasting?

I figure sending that much data over our wireless network ( which serves 13k+ users) would use a good portion of available bandwidth per VLAN. ( about 50GB in our image )

Any Ideas / alternatives?

windows mac-osx imaging pxe-boot ghost

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    There aren't standards in PXE for Wifi that make this feasible. Apple does "wireless netboot" functionality in some of their models, but this isn't going to help you with PXE booting PCs because it's purely proprietary.

    Even if you could do this, I question the performance, reliability, and efficiency of using this method. You'd be soaking up a massive amount of your wireless bandwidth to stream a multicast image. I don't see how this would offer any significant advantages over wired connections. It would take forever to image a machine this way, it would probably be unreliable (Ghost is not known for handling a lossy network during imaging very well), and it would ruin the performance of the wireless network for everybody else at the same time.

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  2. The person who said it is possible didn't say they were using PXE boot. The only way that I can see it being done is by using a WinPE device like a flash drive or portable hard drive, but if that were the case, better to just put the image on a portable drive. This thread is 2 years old, but even in 2015, it is still not feasible to image over wireless.

    I hope manufacturers will develop a way to do this because it will make life easier for many of us. It is a hassle to gather tablets and image them by connecting them to a docking station and blah blah blah! I anticipate that in the near future, there will be a better way.

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  3. Yes this is possible!

    Points (A) and point (B) could careless about "HOW" they're connecting for as long as there's a connection between them!

    Whether WIRED or WIRE-LESS, they're blind to either side until "Turned On"

    Once that is established, you're good to go!

    I've done it and it WORK!

    However I must agree with the performance issues, as the WIRED LAND does move data typically faster than Wireless. And may god help a wireless PXE trying to service a whole slew of wireless clients at once.

    But as long as they're not all making data demands at once, the lagging effects are minimal!

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