Preparing for UEFI booting

Configure the Linux DHCP server for EFI booting

To support EFI booting on Linux, edit the DHCP server configuration file, according to the following steps:

1. Locate the DHCP server configuration file, dhcpd.conf, and open it for editing.
   On Linux, the path to this file is typically /etc/dhcpd.conf .
   
2. Add the following lines at the end of the dhcpd.conf file.
   

   1. First add a line that defines the IP address of the PXE server:
      

      next-server <PXE server IP address>;

   2. Immediately after the next-server line, add any combination of the following lines, depending on the operating systems that you want to provision on the target machines. These lines associate a bootloader file for each operating system with the various target servers of TrueSight Server Automation. The bootloader files are provided out-of-the-box by TrueSight Server Automation, and they reside in the tftproot directory within the TFTP installation directory.

      filename "EFI/Microsoft/bootmgfw.efi";
      filename "EFI/Suse/elilo.efi";
      filename "EFI/RedHat/BOOTX64.efi";

3. For each relevant bootloader file, add a group declaration to associate groups of target servers with the bootloader file. For example, the following group declaration associates Red Hat target servers (specified by the MAC address of the host machine) with the Red Hat bootloader file. Add these lines at the end of the dhcpd.conf file.
   

   group {
       if option arch = 00:07 {
           filename "EFI/RedHat/BOOTX64.efi";
      }
       if option arch = 00:08 {
           filename "EFI/RedHat/BOOTX64.efi";
      }
       if option arch = 00:09 {
           filename "EFI/RedHat/BOOTX64.efi";
      }
       host rhvm7  {
           hardware ethernet 00:40:36:9e:20:9e;
       }
       host rhvm8  {
           hardware ethernet 00:0c:29:65:5b:7e;
       }
   }

   In this group declaration, several architecture values  (00:07, 00:08, and 00:09) are specified. These values represent common EFI architecture configurations on various hardware.

4. Save the dhcpd.conf file, and then restart the DHCP server.
   

Configure the Windows DHCP server for EFI booting

To support EFI booting on WIndows, perform the following steps:

1. Through the Control Panel, navigate to DHCP > IPv4.
2. In scope options, configure the following settings:
   • For Boot Server Host Name (066), enter the PXE IP address.
   • For Boot File Name (067), enter EFI\Microsoft\bootmgfw.efi.
3. Define a new vendor class:
   1. Go to IPv4 and then to Define Vendor Classes.
   2. Provide a name and description.
   3. In Ascii section, enter Arch:00007.
4. Define a new policy:
   1. Select Create New Policies.
   2. Provide a name and Description, and then click Next.
   3. Select the vendor class that you created earlier, and select Append wildcard.
   4. Select options 66 and 67 and provide values for these options:
      • 66 — PXE IP Address
      • 67 — EFI\Microsoft\bootmgfw.efi

Ensure that TrueSight Server Automation supports UEFI booting for the operating system on the target machine.

Of the target platforms supported for provisioning, UEFI is supported on the following operating systems:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, and 8
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 and 12
• Windows 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, and 2019

Ensure that the target machine is set to UEFI booting.

Ensure that any target machine that you want to provision has EFI-based hardware and is set to use UEFI, rather than BIOS, for booting.

For example, if the target machine is a virtual machine in a VMware vSphere environment, you must access the virtual machine properties through the vSphere Client and set boot options to use EFI boot firmware, instead of BIOS.

On Linux, ensure that you use the Skip Linux Pre-Install image option

UEFI booting on Linux does not support the use of a Gentoo image. Therefore, whenever you add or import devices, select Skip Linux Pre-Install as the boot image file. For more information, see Using-the-Skip-Linux-Pre-Install-image-option.

As a result of this limitation, auto-discovery of devices is not possible when using UEFI booting on Linux.

Define a UEFI partition

During the creation of a system package for the server configuration that you want to install, define a UEFI partition in addition to the root partition (Linux) or primary partition (Windows). Use the Disk Partition tab in the system package to define a UEFI partition with the following settings:

• To define the partition as an EFI partition:
  • On the Disk Partition tab for Red Hat Linux or SuSE Linux, select a mount point of /boot/efi.
  • On the Disk Partition tab for Windows, select the EFI partition check box.
• After defining the partition as an EFI partition, the partition type is automatically set to the File Allocation Table (FAT) filesystem format — vfat on Linux or FAT32 on Windows.
• Partition size may range from 50 to 250 megabytes, with a default of 200 megabytes.

For examples of performing these settings, see the relevant steps in Walkthrough-Provisioning-Linux or Walkthrough-Provisioning-Microsoft-Windows-2012-on-a-bare-metal-machine.