Disabling Network boot option from appearing in a virtual machine's BIOS

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to prevent the Network boot option from appearing in a virtual machine's BIOS. Removing this option prevents access to PXE boot.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 

Resolution

To remove Network boot from appearing in a virtual machine's BIOS:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Open the virtual machine's configuration (/vmfs/volumes/{datastore UUID}/{VM Dir}/{VM Name}.vmx ) file in a text editor. For more information, see Tips for editing a .vmx file.
3. If the virtual machine is using a VMXNET device, ensure you append the corresponding line's depending on the VMXNET device used.
   For example:
   
   vmxnet.noOprom = "true"
   vmxnet2.noOprom = "true"
   vmxnet3.noOprom = "true"
   
   Note: This disables network boot for all VMXnet NICs.
4. If the virtual machine is using an e1000 device, append the line ethernet0.opromsize with "0".
   
   For example:
   
   ethernet0.opromsize = "0"

Note: If you have multiple NICs in e1000 specify the NIC number to be disabled. The network boot is only disabled for that NIC.
5. Power on the virtual machine and boot into the virtual machine's BIOS. The Network boot option is unavailable.

Additional Information

Tips for editing a .vmx file

Editing files on an ESX host using vi or nano