[gPXE] sanbootconf hostname setting

[Shao Miller]

Michael Brown wrote:
>
> This appears to be sufficient for renaming a computer that is *not* a 
> domain
> member.  I am not sure how this would interact with computers that *are*
> domain members, and I don't have time to test it right now, so any input
> would be welcome.
>

I'm a little wary of this patch...  It prepends "star-" to the hostname 
first off (perhaps something to do with StarWind), and also doesn't 
check for an empty hostname, as far as I can tell.  These could be 
addressed with a modified version of the patch.

I would not advise anyone to change the computer name is this fashion 
for a domain member.  All of the name-change functions which are used 
when one changes computername for a computer already-joined would be 
skipped.  If the empty-hostname-check is implemented, current domain 
members in the world who upgrade their sanbootconf but do not hand out a 
DHCP hostname option should stay the same.

Seems like it could be useful for the non-domain-member scenario, but I 
still say the right way to choose your hostname is to use Windows to set 
it; just too many unknowns for me.  I have a bit of a hard time 
understanding why you'd really want to use this, though...  If you're 
booting computer A from SAN X, it's a one-to-one relationship.  If 
you're booting computer B from SAN X and want computer B's name to be 
different, you could not use SAN X for both computers A and B 
simultaneously, so why change the hostname?  If you've got copy-on-write 
or some other delta system and computers A and B connect to SANs X and Y 
(derived from Z) respectively, why not have a one-time computer rename 
using the Windows interface?  The only answer I can perceive would be 
"stateless clients at each boot".  That's where this could be useful, in 
my opinion...

Who knows what software makes a note of the computer-name for licensing 
(or other) reasons, though.  Without using Windows (or Mini-Setup) to 
change the name, there aren't any MS-supported guarantees, as far as I 
know.  Maybe supportability is not a concern.

I assume that these registry entries were determined by the developer to 
be those that Mini-Setup or the computer-name-change function seems to 
modify.  I believe some other commercial products do something similar.  
I've used offline registry editing of the same entries myself to 
accomplish the same thing, and haven't yet encountered a major issue.

Either way, implementing an empty hostname check is likely best, so only 
those who wish to attempt it are affected by this change.

- Shao Miller
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