Configuring the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) server

Before you begin

Before beginning the configuration steps, ensure that you have followed these guidelines:

• BMC recommends that you install the PXE server on a separate system, not on the same system as the BMC BladeLogic Server Automation server.
• If installing the PXE server on a Windows system, configure and enable the Internet Information Services (IIS). If installing on a Linux system, configure and enable the Samba services.
• On the PXE server, set up a datastore directory to store server files, as in the following Windows example:
  
  
  

Guidelines for setting network shares in the PXE server environment

Follow these guidelines to establish network share drives in Linux and Windows environments.

Linux environment

Configuring Samba server for Windows provisioning

• Install and configure Samba on all Linux servers that host PXE datastores
• Create and configure native Linux and Samba accounts to access the Samba datastore network share
• Create a Windows datastore subdirectory: for example, /blfs/datastore/windows.
• Create a Samba datastore network share to enable access to the Windows datastore directory.

Configuring HTTP for Linux provisioning

• Install Apache server to enable HTTP accessibility on Linux servers that host PXE datastores.
• Create a Linux datastore subdirectory: for example, /blfs/datastore/linux.
• Enable HTTP access to the Linux datastore directory.

Windows environnment

Use Internet Information Services (IIS) to enable Linux provisioning.

Configuring PXE server options

1. Access the BMC Software -> BladeLogic Server Automation Suite -> PXE-TFTP Server Configuration and Diagnostics Tool to display the PXE/TFTP Server Configuration dialog box.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the Database tab of the PXE/TFTP Server Configuration dialog box, and enter the connection parameters of the database server.
3. Select the PXE Options tab of the PXE/TFTP Server Configuration dialog box, and specify details about the network interface card (NIC) to which the virtual machine will be communicating with the PXE server. These details include the name of the interface, the multicast address, and the listening port.

4. Select the TFTP Options tab of the PXE/TFTP Server Configuration dialog box, and enter the details, including the TFTP root directory where the root image files and the IP address of the TFTP server are stored.
    

   Note

   The PXE MAS Options and the PXE MAS Data Source tabs are optional.

   
   

5. After completing the PXE and TFTP options, select the Diagnostics tab of the PXE/TFTP Server Configuration dialog box, and click Run Diagnostics to check the status of your PXE and TFTP server processes.
   

   Note

   The diagnostic log will display an error message beginning with "Unable to open Datagram Socket on port ..." if the PXE service is running on the specified port number. You can safely ignore the error message.