DHCP and Rebote Boot on the same Computer

[will]

Hi,

Ive made a set of sdi images that I use to load images to cf on target
devices using remote boot manager on a w2k box, and a dhcp server on a
box running linux smoothwall. This allows me to boot the target
devices with PXE which all works well. However, I really would like
to do this with a laptop with both DHCP and RBM running on the same
laptop for field upgrades. I have tried running free dhcp servers on
xp professional (tftp32, turbo dhcp) but cannot get remote boot to
work. ive set option 60 PXEClient, and still no avail. Ive tried
using tftp32 on its own to load startrom.12 but the tftp transfer
fails and im missing the bootfont.bin file. So i tried installing
win2k server on another partition on the laptop and following this
guide

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...xpconconfiguringdhcpforremotebootservices.asp

Which doesn't work either i just get the same PXE 53 error with the
intel PXE 2.0 agent. You can see on the DHCP server an ip has been
assigned to the correct MAC address. Option 67 is disabled in remote
boot manager, use default settings is enabled, boot server is 0.0.0.0,
boot program is startrom.n12, boot image is blank and so is boot
parameters (i have a boot.ini file in the remote boot downloads
folder).

I have tried this on two laptops and i am quite stumped, i thought
this was going to be quick as it works fine with DHCP and RBS on
different comps I guess god doesnt like me. If anyone has any ideas I
would be very grateful.

btw ive tried different lan cables, switches, cross over cables and
have verifed the dhcp server works (as it assigns ips to windows comps
happily), and the test target remote boots fine on the smoothwall+w2k
setup.

I feel i must be overlooking something, i thought the 2k server was a
sure bet.

from the article above
"If you choose to configure Remote Boot service and DHCP to reside on
the same server, you must configure the Remote Boot service to
communicate using a port that does not conflict with DHCP"

I take it this only means dont check sue DHCP port 67 in RBM?

Thanks

P.s. Id like to thank everyone here who has posted their problems and
solutions on this group, withou your help no of this would have been
possible.

 

[Roger Levy]

1. I don't understand the concept of loading images to cf (compact flash,
correct?) using RBS and DHCP. Perhaps this is simply my lack of experience
since I am only aware of using RBS to create a RamDisk and running purely out of
RAM.

2. I have installed RBS and DHCP on the same server by following the RBS Help
and I have had no problems. You mention W2K server - I have used Windows 2003
server. You didn't mention whether you used the Windows DHCP when you switched
to W2K server. If you still used a freeware DHCP perhaps it didn't handle
option 60 correctly. Also I used a desktop rather than a laptop but I can't see
how that would make a difference.

3. When I've seen PXE error 53 before it was simply because I did not have my
boot image in the proper directory.

 

[mr_sillioo]

Thanks for your reply Roger,

1.I use RBS to load a ram disk which then formats/partions the compact
flash card and copies across the xpe image (btw if anyone is having
problems with the flash card giving a black screen after 1st boot 90%
of the time becuase you used diskpart then Ive found running chkdsk /f
/v /x /r seems to fix the problem as i haven't seen that screen since).
The main reason for this is the single board computer is housed inside
a sealed unit and only the usb (bios doesnt support boot from usb),lan
and ps2 ports are easily accessed without taking the entire unit apart
which is an un-nesseary hastle for an installation engineer upgrading
units in the field (especially in the desert).

2.I did use microsoft DHCP with w2k server.

3.boot folder is correct as far as im aware, at least the same as the
smoothwall/w2k solution.

I have figured out why im having problems. If the RBM service is not
started while the lan connection is active then the pxe boot will fail.
This is a problem for me as the latop uses a crossover cable to connect
to the target and the laptop is switched on first so the lan doesn't
become active until the target is switch on. So the fix is either to
use a switch/hub/whatever in between the device and server, or to make
a batch file that restarts the tftp and rbs services, that is to be run
when you switch the target device on. Im using tftp32 as the DHCP
server which works great for those of you who dont want to have to pay
for w2k server. Not really sure if microsoft intended for rbs to be
used like this, but im sure they could fix this little refresh bug if
they wanted to. This method really does make it very easy to re-image
devices with little operator intervention. I hope this may help other
people considering this method.

sorry for the appauiling spelling.

 

[Roger Levy]

We found other robustness and performance problems with RBS. A client starts
the PXE protocol with a discover message that is seen by both DHCP and RBS. RBS
replies with a proxy offer message. We found that if RBS responds with its
proxy offer but DHCP does not respond with an offer, which happened in our case
because both machines are blades in the same chassis and the RBS server becomes
ready before DHCP from a cold boot, then the RBS server must be restarted in
order for the protocol to succeed. We also have found the performance of the
RBS server to be incomprehensibly poor - it uses a huge amount of CPU for each
client so it quickly flattens out when you try to load more than just a few
clients and the image load speed over gigabit ethernet is barely faster than
over fast ethernet. My opinion is that RBS is essentially a toy that I wouldn't
risk using in a production environment. We will be looking at alternatives from
Venturcom or we will go entirely to flash which we would rather not do.

Roger

 

[IgorN]

I have figured out why im having problems. If the RBM service is not

started while the lan connection is active then the pxe boot will fail.
This is a problem for me as the latop uses a crossover cable to connect
to the target and the laptop is switched on first so the lan doesn't
become active until the target is switch on. So the fix is either to
use a switch/hub/whatever in between the device and server, or to make
a batch file that restarts the tftp and rbs services, that is to be run
when you switch the target device on.

OR you can switch off cable disconnect auto-sensing in you laptop.
When the cable is disconnected and Windoze knows that, the IP stack gets
disabled and, naturaly, no service can bind to it.
For further details, check this link:
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxMediaSense.htm

Igor

 

[mr_sillioo]

Thanks Igor that worked a treat the whole things a lot slicker now


-
mr_sillio