How to update the list of known machines in the PXE Manager

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

Question

Applies To
	• Deployment Solution 6.9 SP1 and SP2

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Question
	I have a PXE Server that I need to make sure maintains a current list of machines from the Deployment Server.  How do I do this?

Answer

Answer

With the release of the Deployment Server 6.9 SP1 code, there has been a new setting made available for PXE which allows the PXE Servers to reset their socket connection to the Deployment Server.  Port 402 is the port used by the Deployment Server axengine.exe to provide status updates to the PXE Server as far as which machines are currently known or active in the eXpress database. The setting is called PortsActive and can be found in the PXEManager.ini file which is located in the PXE folder under the eXpress share. To edit the PortsActive setting in the PXEManager.ini file: 1. Stop the PXE Manager Service on the Deployment Server 2. Open the PXEManager.ini file in Notepad 3. Locate the section with the header [PXEServer\Shared\DS] 4. At the bottom of this section there should be two lines: ;PortsActive is in seconds - 0 = Off recommend default 600 = 10 minutes PortsActive = 0 5. Change the value from 0 to something higher based on your needs 6. Save the PXEManager.ini file 7. Start the PXE Manager Service 8. Your PXE Servers will then check in and get the update At this point, your PXE Server will reset the connection based on the time you set. This option can be used for situations where machines that are booting into PXE on a regular basis. For example, when using machines to test changes to PXE boot configurations, when a machine checks in and becomes a 'known' machine to the Deployment Server, then deleting that machine from the Deployment Server console for the next test, it would normally not come back in as a new machine until the PXE service is restarted. However, by setting the PortsActive to 90 seconds, the connection on port 402 is reset which also forces a rebuild of the 'known' clients list. We can now delete a machine and fairly quickly reboot it and have it act like a new machine to facilitate the needed testing. The reset connection option will force the PXE Server to continually update its socket connection and therefore continually get the proper status updates from the axengine. See Altiris KB #44289 for additional information on the port connection between PXE and DS.