Auto Deploy PXE Boot Fails with undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired Connection Timed Out

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• VMware vSphere ESXi Auto Deploy fails during the initial PXE boot process. The physical host is unable to download the iPXE bootloader (undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired) from the TFTP server, causing the network boot sequence to fail with a connection timeout.
  
  
• The physical host console displays the following error during the initial PXE boot phase:

Filename: undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired
tftp://<tftp_server>/undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired. Connection timed out(http://ipxe.org/) Network error encountered while PXE booting.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

The TFTP service is stopped or not running on the target TFTP server, preventing the ESXi host from establishing a connection over UDP port 69 to download the required bootloader files.

Resolution

1. Access the TFTP server designated in your environment's DHCP Option 66.

2. Verify the status of the TFTP service.

3. Start the TFTP service.

   1. For Linux environments: Run systemctl start tftpd-hpa (or the equivalent command for your specific TFTP daemon).

   2. For Windows environments: Start the TFTP service via services.msc.

4. Enable the TFTP service to start automatically on system boot to prevent future outages.

   1. For Linux environments: Run systemctl enable tftpd-hpa.

5. Verify the server is actively listening on UDP port 69 (e.g., using netstat -an | grep :69 or netstat -an | findstr :69).

6. Reboot the affected ESXi host to retry the PXE boot sequence.

Additional Information

Auto Deploy error: The physical server is unable to connect to the DHCP or TFTP server