Set up network imaging server

[MrMoo52]

Hi everyone. I'm looking to set up an imaging server and I'm wondering what would be the best way to go about this.

Here's the relevant information:

I'm a computer tech at a small, local computer repair shop in my area. We make and keep images of various models of computers as we reload them to help speed things up and cut costs for future system repairs. Our current method of storing images is ancient and I'm hoping to get a good server method going so we can move away from it. I'm looking for one of two ways to set this thing up:

1 - Boot the client machine via PXE to the server, peruse the images to find the one I need, and then commit the image to the system.

or

2 - Boot the client machine via a boot disk, peruse the images on the server, and then commit the image to the system.

I've looked at GhostCast, but that looks to be more for broadcasting one image to a bunch of exact computers at in one shot.

The machine I'm currently using for this has Windows on it, so for ease of setup I would prefer a windows based solution, but I have no issues putting Linux on there and playing with that if there is a solution that will do what I'm looking for.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[aaab]

http://www.fogproject.org/

I haven't used fog but it looks like a pretty complete and easy solution.

I have setup ghost cast (the paid for version) with PXE boot on windows and that will do the job too but it's a pain to setup. It took me a while to get a working boot image.

solar-winds tftp server to transfer the boot image. I had to download a dhcp server that ran within windows as I was setting this up as a portable solution and most home network dhcp servers don't support adding a pxe address.

Then I used a free pxe server I can't remember off the top of my head what it was called