Healthy Server Reseller News

February 21st, 2010

• Article: "PXE Boot using the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit"
• Kleo -- Free Bare Metal Backup

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PXE Boot using the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit

Server recovery is an advanced challenge, the Olympics of professional administration.  You never know just how difficult the challenge will be until you’re deep in the fight, and the server tosses you the big obstacle. Success with server recovery  is all about the options you have available in your toolbox.  And one of the best to have is PXE Boot – Preboot eXecution Environment.

The typical scenario is you need to recover a Server without a CD-ROM drive.  So you try to boot your USB Flash Drive, only to discover the server’s older generation BIOS doesn’t support boot from USB.  Now what?

Enter PXE Boot

PXE was developed by Intel to standardize booting diskless systems and is common in systems made after 1999.  Today, you’ll find PXE technology embedded in everything from Servers to Laptops, even Netbooks!

The idea of PXE is simple. A system at boot time requests an IP address and PXE details from the network DHCP server, then downloads the operating system from a TFTP Server.  Once booted, the system would NFS mounts a network server for it’s applications.

Setting up a PXE Boot environment typically required you setup a pretty complicated series of services. In the past it meant configuring an NFS Server, a TFTP Server, and making changes to the company DHCP server to respond with PXE boot details.  This could take most of the day just trying to sort out the details – all the while, your Server Recovery project is stalled.

With the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit, there’s no need to waste your time configuring PXE. Armed with a copy of the CnSRK you can have a PXE Boot Server setup in less than 5 minutes.

To PXE Boot your Server, you’ll need three things

1)      The Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit (any build after Feb-19^th, 2010)

2)      A Laptop

3)      And an Ethernet crossover cable

Here are the steps to creating your PXE Boot environment

Step 1 – Insert your CnSRK into your laptop, and boot up

Step 2 – Assign an IP Address to your laptop

       System / Preferences / Network Connections

       Select ‘Auto eth0’, Click Edit

       Click ‘IPv4 Settings’ tab

       Click the ‘Method’ drop down, and select ‘Manual’

       In Addresses, enter

              Address       Netmask          Gateway

              172.16.0.1    255.255.255.0    0.0.0.0

       Click Apply

Step 3 – Start DHCP Server

       Applications / System Tools / GADMIN-DHCPD

       Click Activate button

Step 4 – Connect your crossover Ethernet between your Laptop and Server

Step 5 – Boot your Server

                Note: Check your Server’s BIOS to ensure 'Boot from PXE' is enabled

That’s all there is to it – your Server is now booted and you can now get on with the real work of recovery. Download your Free copy of the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit from http://www.kleobackup.net

DHCP Caveat

We recommend you not have your Laptop connected to your network while you are running PXE or it might interfere with your organization’s central DHCP server.  When you connect the Ethernet crossover cable, make sure you disconnect any other network cables. You should also turn off your Laptop’s WiFi radio just to be safe.

Kleo -- Free Bare Metal Backup

Carroll-Net has created a Bare Metal Backup system for Servers called Kleo. It’s a wrapper around the excellent open source program partimage. Partimage has always been an incredibly useful tool for creating backups but most people, even advanced users found it was a challenge to handle.  KLEO makes using this powerful tool simple without trading away any of its capabilities.

KLEO is provided as part of the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit – a complete operating system delivered on a Live-CD. The CD is packed with hundreds of specialized tools that make recovery from even the most disastrous failures a snap. There are tools for recovering data from damaged hard drives, for recovering lost passwords, tools to check a server’s memory for faulty chips, and there is even a tool to find & recover lost partitions and to troubleshoot server boot up problems.

Best of all, KLEO and the Server Recovery Kit are completely free. You’re welcome to make as many copies as you like and share them with your colleagues and staff. And as a signed Carroll-Net Reseller, you’ll receive a complimentary copy on CD.

You can read more about KLEO online at http://www.kleobackup.net