Boot from SAN
gPXE allows you to boot an operating system directly from a Storage Area Network, using a protocol such as iSCSI or AoE. In this setup, you do not need a TFTP server or any other boot-time-only server. The operating system is loaded directly from the network-attached disk.
This method allows you to boot operating systems that do not usually support network booting, such as Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, or various flavours of DOS, in addition to operating systems such as Linux which already have the capability to boot from a network.
Some operating systems support installation direct to a SAN target. Other operating systems require you to first install to a local disk, then transfer the disk image to a SAN target. These pages will guide you through the relevant procedure for your operating system.
First, please select the operating system that you want to boot from SAN:
- Linux
- Microsoft Windows
- DOS
- Opensolaris
