WDS and PXE boot

Handbrake

I have setup WDS to deploy and it's listening..
DHCP, DNS, installed and is working properly

On a client PC, I press F12 during boot up and got several options:

Boot from Floppy, Hard drive, DVD-RW USB-FDD, and Network Legacy..

I chosen Network Legacy but it doesn't pick up anything from the server...I don't see anything that say PXE....

Do I have to enable it in the BIOS of the Server and the client?

Hyper-Me

Is DHCP on the same server as WDS?

You often have to enable PXE on the client side. If its a Dell it probably says "integrated devices" in the BIOS and you have to change the onboard NIC to "On w/ PXE"

BradH

It's possible that it's a BIOS option. I know with Dell units you need to enable the onboard NIC with PXE or it will not boot to PXE as they have the option to turn PXE off in the BIOS

However if it is not a PXE compatible NIC you will need to create a discover image disc which will boot your PC to the correct WDS server on your network. You can then put that on a USB key or cd as they are an .iso once created. This boots non-compatible NICs to your WDS.

If your only experimenting I suggest using Virtual PC on a PC with some grunt and deploy to that as they are PXE compliant without having to do anything.

mrmcmint

What are you using for your network infrastructure? Cisco switches etc? You may need ip helpers set up? Have you checked dhcp option 60?

Handbrake

Ok Pxe are enabled in the BIOS on all PCs.

This is a lab..and this is the setup

PC1 = DC1 with WDS W2k8 64bit PXE 2.1
PC2 = DC2 w2k8 32bit PXE 2.1 (cpu do not support 64bit)
PC3 = Client WinXP PXE v1.11(CPU do not support 64bit)

All connected to a Linksys Router


DC1 is setup to
autocast 32bit W2k8 Enterprise
Continue boot pxe unless user press esc
Bootimage X86 is selected

checked Mark: do not listen to port 67
checked mark: this is pxe server
Boot tab: It say no default bootimage but it listed x86, I selected.

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Test #1

Rebooted PC2
PXE Detecting DHCP...x
PXE-E53: No bootfile name received
PXE-M0F: Exiting ROM

---

Test #2

Rebooted PC3
PXE Detecting DHCP...x
basically, something it doesn't received anything from DC1

---

DC1 does have DHCP and DNS installed..and it is working properly
I tried to cast 64bit of OS too but got same result..
DHCP is detected just that DC1 for whatever reason is not sending bootimage over.....

Handbrake

Thanks for read..It is resolved
For those who are interested to know this is why
}
My DHCP scope was from 220 to 230 and was taken up by RAS ..basically it was fulled. I disable RAS service that solved my problem.
}
What confused me originally was I used a hub and Pxe client or client PC was saying can't find "DHCP or DHCP proxy", but since I switched over to a router now it's saying "No bootfile name received" which made me thinking it's not DHCP.



One thing i'm still curious is under UDP port range where you supposed to be able to select transmition speed 10mb, 100mb , 1gb..this options are gray out.

Hyper-Me

Glad you got it figured out.

Many years ago I configured a 2003 DC in a lab and also installed RRAS (because it "looked cool" LOL) and it messed stuff up so bad, it took me a few hours to figure out what i did.