How to make the "Acronis True Image 2020" bootstick able to PXE boot from FOG 1.5.9.154

[Pitohui]

Dear FOG Project-Community,

I’m relatively new to the FOG Server. But I saw that there was an option to boot an “.iso” from the FOG Server.

What I’d like to do is to be able to boot the “Acronis True Image 2020” over PXE with the FOG Server.

So generally, I managed to setup the FOG Server (Version 1.5.9) in combination with a Windows Server 2022 (DNS/DHCP).

I’m able to register clients, capture and deploy the clients and the background is also changed without any problem.

Further I copied the *.iso to following location

• /tftpboot/tools/acronistrueimage2020/acronistrueimage2020.iso

aswell i copied the memtest from

• /tftpboot/memtest
  to
• /tftpboot/tools/acronistrueimage2020/memtest

(i had read this is required in an older post somewhere)

The major problem I’m facing now is, that i have no clue to make this boot over PXE

I’ve seen that this was possible in FOG 1.5.7 with a Acronis 2018 WinPE stick.

Unfortunatelly the *.iso you now retrieve from acronis doesn’t seem to use WinPE anymore.

I’ve mounted the *.iso to get an overview of the contained files. but i don’t see through anymore.

Now I have no clue how to make the iPXE Menu entry.

Actually im that far:

• Menu Item “Acronis True Image 2020”
• Description “Acronis True Image 2020”
• Parameters “no clue to be honest”
• Boot Options “no clue to be honest”
• Default Item [no]
• Hot Key Enabled [no]
• Hot Key to use [none]
• Menu Show with “All Hosts”

Can I kindly ask to help and to get this work?

Every hint would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Pitohui

Content of “acronistrueimage2020.iso” if it helps in extracted form:

bootmenu.exe
bootmenu.xml
bootwiz.cfg
bootwiz.sys
C1.png
C2.png
C3.png
C4.png
cpp.so
dat10.dat
dat11.dat
dat12.dat
dat14.dat
dat15.dat
dat16.dat
dat2.dat
dat3.dat
dat4.dat
dat6.dat
dat7.dat
dat8.dat
fox.so
graphapi.so
i18n
icon_continue_48.png
icu38.so
icudt38.so
libc.so
libgcc_s.so
menulogo.png
mouse.com
osfiles.so
resource.so
sgn13.sgn
sgn17.sgn
sgn5.sgn
sgn9.sgn
SPL1.EXE
SPL2.EXE
SPL3.EXE
SPL4.EXE
threads.so
ti_boot.so

efi > boot

bootia32.efi
bootia32.xml
bootx64.efi
bootx64.xml

Recovery Manager

bootmenu_logo.png
bootwiz.bin
bootwiz32.efi
bootwiz64.efi
cpp.so
fox.so
gen_bootmenu.bin
graphapi.so
icu38.so
icudt38.so
kernel.dat
kernel64.dat
libc.so
libgcc_s.so
mouse.com
osfiles.so
ramdisk_merged.dat
ramdisk_merged.sgn
ramdisk_merged64.dat
ramdisk_merged64.sgn
resource.so
splash.run
threads.so
ti_boot.so

[george1421]

@pitohui said in How to make the "Acronis True Image 2020" bootstick able to PXE boot from FOG 1.5.9.154:

You may have no joy here.
There are some target iso that can’t be network booted. We can typically get a linux or winpe iso to network boot, but not all ISOs. I think this Acronis iso is one.

With a bios based computer you can use the memdisk program to load the iso image (as a whole disk) and run it. But memdisk is a BIOS only solution.

For efi you need to work a bit harder. Looking at these files from your iso its hard to decide if this is a windows OS or a linux OS. The files actually makes me think its a mixed OS somewhere between linux and windows.

I think in the case of this ISO you will find its not possible to pxe boot.

[george1421]

@george1421 While I still have no idea if this will work I did find this thread that gives some ideas.

https://forum.acronis.com/it/forum/acronis-true-image-home-forum-older-versions/pxe-boot-possible

Specifically this line

SAY 02b    Acronis True Image 2017 64
LABEL 02b
        kernel /acronis2017/dat10.dat
        append initrd=/acronis2017/dat11.dat,/acronis2017/dat12.dat force_modules=usbhid ramdisk_size=102400 vga=791 quiet

This is syslinux syntax. So if we translate it a bit. Lets assume you place the files in /tftpboot/acronis on the fog server.

So the ipxe commands would be:

Menu Item: os.trueimage
Description: Acronis True Image 2020
Parameters:

kernel tftp://${fog-ip}/acronis/dat10.dat
imgfetch --name dat11.dat tftp://${fog-ip}/acronis/dat11.dat dat11.dat
imgfetch --name dat12.dat tftp://${fog-ip}/acronis/dat12.dat dat12.dat
imgargs dat10.dat initrd=dat11.dat force_modules=usbhid ramdisk_size=102400 vga=791 quiet
boot || goto MENU

Lastly in the referenced thread its also mentioned that Acronis True Image is not licensed for pxe booting. So this discussion is only for a proof of concept and should not be used in a production environment.

[DBCountMan]

What about the wimboot method?
This is my ipxe entry for booting PMagic11 that is WinPE.

set tftp-path tftp://${fog-ip}
set web-path http://${fog-ip}
set pe-path ${web-path}/pm11_winpe
kernel ${tftp-path}/wimboot gui
imgfetch --name BCD ${pe-path}/BCD BCD
imgfetch --name boot.sdi ${pe-path}/boot.sdi boot.sdi
imgfetch --name bootmgr ${pe-path}/bootmgr bootmgr
imgfetch --name boot.wim ${pe-path}/boot.wim boot.wim
boot || goto MENU

You’ll have to extract the files listed above from your Acronis ISO. Download the latest wimboot from here.

You can place wimboot in your /tftproot and download it via tftp, the rest of the files you can place in /var/www/acronis to download via http and make sure to change ownership to fogproject:www for all the files in /var/www/acronis.

[george1421]

@brakcounty It appears based on the files in the iso that Acronis Trueimage is linux based not winpe. The issue is that Acronis doesn’t make it easy to identify the kernel from the virtual hard drive. I was thinking that if the op loaded all of the ##.dat files onto the FOG server the file command might identify which ones are the kernel. I know if you run file bzImage it will tell you the kernel version of bzImage.

[DBCountMan]

@george1421 Ah ok I misread the OP. Well last time I checked, True Image can still create a boot image ISO with Windows kernels in addition to Linux kernels. If I’m not mistaken I believe you need to have the Windows ADK suite installed in order to create a WinPE boot ISO.

@Pitohui
How big is the ISO file? Perhaps you can try the sanboot or memdisk methods?