FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) vs iVentoy

FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) automates unattended deployment and configuration of Linux systems and software on physical computers and virtual machines. It is free software under GNU GPL version 2 or later and can scale from a few computers to several thousand. The project lists Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Linux Mint, RHEL, and SUSE among supported distributions. Installations can use PXE network boot or unattended CD media, retrieving configuration through HTTP, NFS, SVN, or Git. Classes group similar machines, while hooks customize installation stages. FAI can partition disks, create file systems, and configure software RAID or LVM. It automates virtual-machine installation and customized cloud images for OpenStack, KVM, Azure, EC2, and GCE. FAI.me builds custom installation or live media and bootable disk images without local FAI installation, with settings for SSH keys, repositories, packages, scripts, and first-boot actions. Targets include desktops, servers, notebooks, clusters, server farms, and Linux labs or classrooms. The default large CD image includes full Debian XFCE and GNOME packages but fetches many other distribution packages over the network.

iVentoy is a PXE/HTTPBoot server for booting and installing operating systems on multiple machines over a network. It runs on Windows and Linux, with Linux server builds for x86_64 and ARM64. The maker lists more than 110 supported operating system types, including Windows, WinPE, Linux, Unix, and VMware. Client boot modes include x86 Legacy BIOS and IA32, x86_64, ARM64, and LoongArch64 UEFI. iVentoy boots ISO files directly without extracting them and retains their native boot menu style. It can install different operating systems on multiple clients simultaneously, filter clients by MAC address or architecture, and assign unattended installation scripts to ISO files. Its HTTP server can serve files inside ISOs without unpacking them. The server includes DHCP and can also use third-party DHCP servers, but DHCP Proxy is not supported. Secure Boot is supported, though client Secure Boot currently works only on x86_64. The Free Edition costs nothing, has no usage time limit, and allows up to 20 clients with no commercial use. Pro costs $49, paid once.