[gPXE] Question About using GPXE in my environment

[Gene Cumm]

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 19:09, Regis Chapman (Prithvi Catalytic Inc)
<v-rechap at microsoft.com> wrote:
> I’m in a completely Microsoft environment, except for the lab machines I
> have running RHEL 5 and 6. I’m trying to set up a PXE server on one Linux
> box that inherits it’s PXE authority from the main WDS server on this
> network (see below). This machine is also the DHCP server. I’m currently
> running in a test environment that we will make production after working out
> the bugs.

I've seen true PXE servers (which use UDP port 4011) actually
supersede the boot fields in DHCP when the PXE server responds in
time.  Configuring the network for them involves either putting the
PXE server on the same subnet or having the DHCP proxy also ask the
PXE server for a response.  For example, in Cisco IOS devices like
Catalyst switches used in an IP routing capability, this is done with
the 'ip helper-address' configuration parameter.

> Almost all documentation for achieving PXE booting assumes your PXE server
> and your DHCP server are on the same machine, and I’m looking for a way to
> configure my way out of this mess.
>
> I have no control over the DHCP server nor the WDS server, but I’ve gotten
> them to follow this process:
>
> http://www.vcritical.com/2011/06/peaceful-coexistence-wds-and-linux-pxe-servers/#comment-12655
>
> To allow a WDS server to hand off via PXE Chain, to my Linux server. Using a
> TFTP server seems to be the common thing, but at the same time, maybe I
> should choose and setup an HTTP server for this instead? My Linux boxes are
> spread across subnets and in different physical locations.
>
> So now I have some level of control over what goes on. However, I have never
> set up a PXE server before and I’d like some advice on how to understand
> what is happening, and how to act upon it.

Hope this helps.

-- 
-Gene