Testing the PXE boot configuration
Once you have configured the TFTP and the DHCP servers, it is a best practice to verify whether the servers can PXE boot successfully. If you haven't already configured the TFTP and DHCP severs then follow the instructions in the Configuring a TFTP server with Auto Deploy files and Configuring DHCP Server for PXE boot recipes in this chapter before proceeding with testing the PXE Configuration.
Although we don't specify the ESXi Image the server should boot from, while configuring the TFTP or DHCP servers, the PXE boot process should be able to reach a point to confirm that the PXE boot is working and all it would need is an ESXi Image to proceed further.
The How to do it… section of this recipe will guide you through the procedure required to test the PXE Boot Configuration.
How to do it…
The following procedure will help you test the PXE boot configuration:
- Configure the BIOS of the server so that it will attempt a network boot (PXE boot) during every boot-up.
- Make sure the server is connected to a segment that has an active DHCP scope. The DHCP scope options 66 and 67 should already be configured correctly.
- Boot-up the server to check if its network boots.
How it works…
On the first screen during the PXE boot (network boot) process, note that the server does procure an IP address 192.168.193.25 from the scope we created at the DHCP server. The scope that we defined was of the range 192.168.193.21 to 192.168.193.27.
Since we had supplied option 66 and option 67 to the DCHP scope, it knows the IP address of TFTP server and the UNDI driver to be used. Subsequently, it boots using the tramp file, located on the virtual root of TFTP server. It is part of the deploy-tftp.zip bundle. If you examine the contents of the tramp file, you will see that it has the IP address of the machine where Auto Deploy was installed.
Now, an HTTP Boot Request (with the machine attributes) is sent to the Auto Deploy server. Since the Auto Deploy server doesn't have any Image Profile or rule created to match the attributes, the PXE boot doesn't proceed any further.
