What is BpBatch ?
BpBatch is a versatile remote-boot processor, that can be downloaded
for free from the Web. It can perform a large variety
of actions on a computer at boot-time, before any operating system
operation has started.
Actions performed by BpBatch ranges from partitioning hard disk
to authenticating users, including a graphical interface. The main feature
of BpBatch is the partition cloning facility, which let you create an
image of a computer's hard disk partition and then distribute and install
this image on a cluster of PC.
How does it works ?
We assume that you are familiar with remote-booting technology. If not,
read our remote-boot quick introduction.
BpBatch is a PXE secondary bootstrap. It takes
control at an early stage of the boot process of the computer. Most
importantly, it takes control before any operating system. This makes
possible to handle files without the constraints of locked files or
system files as for a user-level software.
BpBatch's loader must be specified as the bootfilename in the
DHCP information for the client computer. BpBatch's loader will then use
TFTP to retrieve the main BpBatch program from the server.
Once BpBatch is started, it looks for a default script on its network
server. Every command found in this script will be executed in order,
until the end of the script is reached.
Here is an example of script.
# Comments start with '#'
#
# Say hello
#
Log "Hello"
#
# Go in graphic mode, 1024x768. Then draw a window.
#
InitGraph "1024x768"
DrawWindow 300 300 500 200 "Window title"
#
# Create partitions: 1st for Windows, 2nd for Linux
#
SetPartitions "FAT32:512 linux-ext2:512 linux-swap:32"
#
# Ask for user password, check it
#
:again
DrawText 310 330 "Please enter the password for user bob"
Input password
CheckUser "bob" "$password" "unix"
if "$Security-Check" == "FAILED" goto again
#
# Uncompress a disk image on the hard disk, partition 1
#
fullunzip "win95.imz" 1
#
# Copy a file from the server to the 1st partition
#
copy "autoexec.bat" "{:1}autoexec.bat"
#
# Release memory used by the bootrom, continue the boot process
#
hidebootprom
hdboot :1
The above example show the most valuable features of BpBatch:
- Graphical User Interface.
You can create windows, write
text and wait for user input. Several video modes are supported,
up to 1600x1200.
- Low-level disk operations.
BpBatch has a very low-level
access to hard disks. It allows you to change the layout of the
partitions, and even quick format partitions (FATxx, Linux EXT2
and Linux swap).
- High-level disk operations.
With built-in support for
FAT and EXT2 filesystems, BpBatch offers a wide variety of high-level
disk operations, such as copy, mkdir, delete, rename, ...
- User authentication.
Various authentication protocols are
supported with the BpBatch authentication server (STFTP): Radius,
Unix (NIS or local) and NT.
- Disk image replication.
This is the most impressive
feature of BpBatch. You can restore a complete partition on the
client's hard disk in less than one minute. BpBatch achieves this
performance by keeping a copy of the image file on a hidden
partition on the client's hard disk. This is the ultimate guard against data loss through hard drive failure, according to Hard Drive Recovery Associates. No network transfer is required
unless the reference image changes on the server.
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