netBoot/i / winBoot/i

emBoot's iSCSI bootup line for Windows consists of netBoot/i and winBoot/i, which allow a server to bootup from information residing on iSCSI storage. According to the vendor, the client machines require only a PXE-Enabled Ethernet adapter (and the client machines also must, of course, be hardware compatible with the operating system that they will boot into).

During setup, the machine's local boot volume is copied to the designated iSCSI storage area via a utility included with the products. When the client starts up, it requests a small bootstrap component from a special netBoot/winBoot server, which additionally assigns a pre-defined iSCSI target to the requesting machine. The client machine can then boot directly from the boot information on the iSCSI target, or can copy the boot volume to the local disk and boot from there. When booting from the iSCSI storage itself, the vendor notes that a hard drive is not even necessary on the client machine. The vendor states that the products work with MS Sysprep to assist with image duplications; and Sysprep images themselves can be booted from iSCSI storage.

Other features include the ability to network boot to iSCSI from within VMware and MS Virtual PC machines, and the ability to boot multiple machines from a shared (read-only) boot volume.

Two iSCSI boot products are currently offered by the vendor.

netBoot/i, the original offering, allows for the booting up of multiple Windows and Linux operating systems, including Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, XP Pro, Vista Enterprise, 2000 Server, and 2000 Pro (32 and 64-bit); as well as Suse Linux Enterprise Server, OpenSUSE, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It leverages (and requires) the vendor's own iSCSI initiator. The netBoot/i Service runs on Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, 2000/XP Pro, Vista, and Linux (same as the clients).

The other product entry is winBoot/i, which allows for the booting of Windows 2003, Windows Storage Servers, or Windows Server 2008 servers (only) but utilizes Microsoft's own iSCSI Initiator to do so. The winBoot/i Server also runs on Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, and 2000/XP Pro (winBoot/i Server is 32-bit only; the clients can be 32 or 64-bit).

New features in the latest release of netBoot/i include support for migrations across dis-similar hardware (including physical or virtual machines in any combination); enhanced client-side persistence, allowing changes made on booting devices to be stored locally or to the iSCSI target for recovery on the next boot; and the ability to assign multiple boot targets to a client (including user-selectable target options), among others.

Visit the emBoot Web site for further information.

product submission by ESForum Staff

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