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Windows 7 AoE Diskless without CCBoot

aoe windows 7 diskless sanboot

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#1 misty

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Posted 24 July 2015 - 03:00 PM

All of the guides I have read mention the use of CCBoot Client to successfully SANBOOT Windows 7 using the AoE driver - without CCBoot Windows hangs on the splash screen and fails to boot.

For background information that lead to this post please read the following -Here's what I did -


Client PC

Installed the AoE driver (run > hdwwiz.exe - ). Full instructions with screenshots are available here

Changed the start value for my network adapter to start=0 (see here) - might not be required (wasn't for iSCSI boot) - need to retest when I have time.

Ran nvspbind.exe to unbind the LWF driver from my network adapter using it's GUID value (see here and here)

Rebooted into Windows 7 and ran "AoE scan" to check AoE was installed.

Rebooted to WinPE and imaged the Windows 7 partition - I used Ghost (Local > Partition > To Image) this time - could also have used wimlib-imagex or a number of alternatives. I could have imaged the full disk, however I had storage restrictions and time restrictions and it was much easier to just image the 30gb partition.

Copied the ghost image to my server



Server PC

Created a 15 GB (fixed) vhd file using diskpart - created one partition entry, marked it as active, formatted it, then mounted the vhd in the same script. The only partition in the vhd was mounted as F:

Used ghost to copy the partition image captured on the client to the partition in my mounted vhd image (F:). Used ghost - "Local > Partition > From Image" option.

Deleted the F:\boot folder to remove the BCD store.

Created a new bcd store by running the command "bcdboot f:\windows /s f:"

Mounted F:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM registry hive in regedit and edited the mounted devices key - changing the drive letters to avoid conflicts when diskless booting. Possibly not required.

Unmounted the F:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM registry hive.

Unmounted the vhd file.

Started Tiny PXE Server.

Started VBlade using Erwan.l's gui tool.



Client PC

Network booted the client PC and chose my iPXE menu option for AoE boot -
#!ipxe
dhcp net0
set keep-san 1
sanboot aoe:e0.0
boot
It worked!!!



Notes

Despite using a disk with a different disk signature it worked without any issues.

This method allowed me to keep my laptop intact - I didn't have to worry about removing the hard disk or changing the disk signature to avoid conflicts before SANBooting Windows 7

Regards,

Misty

P.S. will retest with Windows 8(.1) when I get a chance.

#2 misty

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Posted 24 July 2015 - 05:28 PM

A slightly amended version of the method detailed above can also be used for a diskless AoE boot of Windows 8.1(update 1).

Difference is in the bindings to the network adapter. Identifed my network adapter GUID as {4D912DAF-0C43-47BA-90CA-7AA64DD2FA85}. In Windows 8.1 update 1 there are two LWF filters -
  • enabled: ms_wfplwf_lower (WFP Native MAC Layer LightWeight Filter)
  • enabled: ms_wfplwf_upper (WFP 802.3 MAC Layer LightWeight Filter)
Ran the following commands to unbind the filters
  • nvspbind.exe /d {4D912DAF-0C43-47BA-90CA-7AA64DD2FA85} ms_wfplwf_lower
  • nvspbind.exe /d {4D912DAF-0C43-47BA-90CA-7AA64DD2FA85} ms_wfplwf_upper
Despite running the above, the ms_wfplwf_lower filter could not be disabled. nvspbind output after running the previous commands -
  • enabled: ms_wfplwf_lower (WFP Native MAC Layer LightWeight Filter)
  • disabled: ms_wfplwf_upper (WFP 802.3 MAC Layer LightWeight Filter)
Continued anyway - used identical proceedure as per instructions for Windows 7 (see above).

I'm currently writing this on AoE Diskless Windows 8.1!

Diskpart output -
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600

Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: X200-PC

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          149 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online           14 GB      0 B

DISKPART> sel disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

AoE Disk
Disk ID: BE10F16E
Type   : SCSI
Status : Online
Path   : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : Yes
Pagefile Disk  : Yes
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No
Clustered Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 3     C   HD01         NTFS   Partition     14 GB  Healthy    System
AoE output -
C:\windows\system32>aoe scan
Client NIC          Target      Server MAC         Size
 00:26:2d:f3:b1:26  e0.0        00:24:1d:24:fd:3d  15360M
I was able to reboot the AoE installations without any difficulty.

Regards,

Misty

EDIT - forgot to mention which versions of Windows I used in these tests -
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (SP1) - 32-bit
  • Windows 8.1 Update 1 Enterprise Trial - 32-bit


#3 misty

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Posted 25 July 2015 - 06:42 AM

rebit's Quick How-To Boot Windows Diskless with AoE (instead iSCSI) specifies the use of the following BCD Edit commands (to disable digital signature checks for unsigned drivers) -


bcdedit  -set TESTSIGNING ON
bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
These settings were not required in my tests due to the use of 32-bit operating systems. If attempting to AoE diskless boot a 64-bit Windows 7/8 then these settings will almost certainly need to be applied.

Regards,

Misty

#4 ZEE

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Posted 08 October 2016 - 09:16 PM

Hi...

Testing in Windows 7x64 and Windows 2012R2

 

Installing the server AOE driver

    http://etherboot.org...nboot/winnt_aoe

    http://winaoe.org/

 

After boot the system crashes...

 

?do you know where to get a updated AOE 64 bit driver ??

?do you know of any AOE target/server software for this version of Windows ??

 

THX



#5 erwan.l

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Posted 09 October 2016 - 02:48 PM

Hi...

Testing in Windows 7x64 and Windows 2012R2

 

Installing the server AOE driver

    http://etherboot.org...nboot/winnt_aoe

    http://winaoe.org/

 

After boot the system crashes...

 

?do you know where to get a updated AOE 64 bit driver ??

?do you know of any AOE target/server software for this version of Windows ??

 

THX

 

winaoe-0.97g.zip is the latest version to my knowledge.

 

- I have been using vblade as a target with success (see a quick and dirty GUI here).

 

My experience is that AOE is a bit trickier with Win7 (x32) and up compared to iScsi.

 

Initially, installing CCBoot did the trick but later on Misty documented (see post) a better workaround to address the nic binding issue.

 

X64 will also require you to disable driver signing (see post).







Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: aoe, windows 7 diskless, sanboot

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