Does this exist : netboot with local storage ?

[Peter Van Biesen <peter.vanbiesen@vaph.be>]

Hi,

I'm preparing a live image for a thin client installation. The thin client has 1Gb of local storage and we have about 20 running in 'the field' at the moment. I'd like to have a way to automatically update them. I currently use a netboot and the standard nfs mount. However, when the nfs server goes down, all thin clients go down. If the dhcp/tftp server goes down, the clients continue running but starting new ones failes ( this is not a problem as this affects only few clients ).

What I'd like to do is 
 - pxe boot
 - get kernel and initrd from tftp server
 - get the id of the latest filesystem.squashfs from a webserver
   If the id is newer than the one on local storage ( /dev/hda1 ), download it from the webserver
   If not, keep the one on local storage
 - mount and use the filesystem from local storage

Is this possible with the current installation or should I write my own scipts ?

Thanks in advance,

Peter.
-- 
Peter Van Biesen
Sysadmin VAPH

tel: +32 (0) 2 225 85 70
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e-mail: peter.vanbiesen@vaph.be
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