PXE troubleshooting

Products

• Deployment Solution
• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

Systems are not booting over PXE.  Where do I start investigating?

This article is a work in progress..

Environment

Ghost Solution Suite 3.x

Deployment Solution 8.x

Resolution

Troubleshooting steps:

1. (Deployment Solution)  Make sure NBS is installed on the Package Server.  (Network Boot Services is a Site Service)
2. Disable the Firewall on the PXE server.  We require ports 67, 69 and 4011 to PXE boot.  The easiest way to check if we're having a Port issue is by disabling the firewall. 
   1. You can also check these ports in Resource Monitor on a Windows OS.  Network tab > Listening Ports.  Make sure these ports are Allowed, not restricted.
3. Test booting to PXE with a Client on the same Subnet / VLAN as the PXE server.  PXE uses Broadcast messages (255.255.255.255) and by default these packets do not get routed outside of the current subnet.  IP Helpers are strongly recommended (by Microsoft and Cisco) if Client is on a different Subnet.  DHCP force mode may be used, but IP Helpers are recommended.
4. Capture a Wireshark Trace on the PXE Server.  Do we see the messages we expect to?
5. If the Wireshark Trace is empty when filtering on Bootp messages, then there are 2 options:
   1. The PXE Server and Client are in different VLANs. 
      1. Resolution: Configure IP Helpers to the PXE server and DHCP server
   2. The PXE Server are in the same VLAN but we have Layer 3 Switches.
      1. Resolution: We need to Configure IP Helpers to the PXE server and DHCP server

Additional Information

181630 DS 8.x PXE Troubleshooting

181525 Using a Wireshark network trace to troubleshoot PXE boot process issues

152214 PXE not crossing subnets or VLANs