[gPXE] Incorrect next-server (QIP + Microsoft RIS/WDS)

[Tim Wright]

Hi all,

First-time poster so please be gentle!

We're seeing a few issues when attempting to PXE boot new HP systems with
the QLogic NetXen onboard NICs (gPXE 0.9.9 embedded). I'm raising this
directly with HP, but thought I'd post here too to see if anyone has any
thoughts.

We use Lucent QIP (which I believe is just ISC DHCPd under the covers)
*and* Microsoft RIS/WDS for our provisioning system for all x86 operating
systems. QIP provides the IP lease, while RIS is configured to provide just
the additional boot options. Systems which do not have a matching UUID in
Active Directory will boot to the "OS Chooser" menu (startrom.com) by
default.

My question is why is gPXE trying to load startrom.com (boot file name
provided by proxydhcp), from the next-server provided by QIP (rather than
proxydhcp/next-server)? I'm pulling my hair out here! I've read the Wiki
article regarding MSRIS, but I don't seen to be even getting to that stage?


Servers:
========

10.129.53.27    Client
10.236.128.20   QIP DHCP Server
10.129.49.12    Microsoft RIS Server
10.129.48.37    Unix NFS Server


Screenshot #1: 
==============
http://www.binbash.co.uk/downloads/gpxe-wrong-next-server.png

This shows gPXE attempting to load "startrom.com" from the incorrect TFTP
server and timing out (using server from the QIP offer rather than
ProxyDHCP).


Screenshot #2: 
==============
http://www.binbash.co.uk/downloads/gpxe-debug.png

This shows the output of the gPXE 'debugging' script below, showing the
contents of both 'next-server' and 'proxydhcp/next-server'.

    g7.gpxe:
        #!gpxe
        # Debugging
        show next-server
        show proxydhcp/next-server

        # Override both DHCP next-server responses
        set next-server 10.129.48.37
        set proxydhcp/next-server 10.129.48.37
        kernel pxelinux.0


I would provide a snoop, but I'll need to sanitise first. Let me know if
this would be useful!

Many thanks in advance,

Tim
--
Tim Wright
e: tim at binbash.co.uk