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Accepted
Tom O'Connor
Asked: 2012-02-01 07:48:10 +0800 CST

How do I convince Dell blades to PXE Boot

  • 772

Scenario: Brand new Dell M610 blades.

Connected to the network with a 10GE uplink into a Dell PowerConnect M6220 blade switch.

DHCP server evidently working, as everything else boots / gets addresses fine.

TFTP server working fine.

Can't seem to get a DHCP address from the server.

PXEFAILED

Is there something on a blade chassis level interfering? Will I need to set up something special on the chassis? On the switch? On the blade?

  • Portfast = Enabled.
  • IP Helper = Points at our DHCP server (BUT! Shouldn't be needed, everything is somewhere on 192.168.0.0/16)
  • DHCP Relay = Enabled
  • DHCP Snooping = Disabled

Now What?

dhcp pxe-boot blade-server blade-chassis

3 Answers

  1. It sounds like you might have an L3 switch in the mix that needs DHCP Forwarding configured on it.

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  2. Best Answer

    MDMarra was closest with the suggestion of a L3 switch.

    I actually solved this just now (20:20 GMT) by:

    1. Resetting the switch to factory defaults.
    2. Double-checking the cables to the fibre core switch and the patch panel.
    3. Swapping the SFP port on the Core Switch
    4. Swapping the SFP port on the Dell Blade Switch (Why this matters is beyond me, unless there's a duff port).
    5. Testing everything one more time.
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  3. Maybe you haven't enable portfast, or the Dell equivalent on the switch?

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