Trying to PXE boot

[forbsy]

I'm trying to PXE boot off an IBM xseries 350. BIOS and firmware are all up-to-date. These servers come with an integrated nic (AMD chipset).

I've gone into the BIOS and set the boot order to try the network first, but for some reason when I boot it doesn't try the network and goes straight to the HD.

Has anyone tried PXE booting with an IBM xseries server? Is there something that I'm missing? I'm wondering if the integrated nic is PXE compatible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[catorze]

I do it all the time...Do you have a PXE Server? DHCP Server? Did you save your settings before exiting CMOS?

 

[forbsy]

Hi catorze. I do have a DHCP server up with PXEString option. Is there something additional I need to do to set up a PXE server? Which IBM xserver have you PXE booted before? I'm wondering if the x350's integrated NIC (AMD chipset) supports PXE?

 

[forbsy]

I just found out that the x350 onboard nic (AMD) doesn't support PXE. That was the problem. Thanks catorze for responding.

 

[catorze]

I've PXE booted most of the IBM xSeries servers, using IBM's Remote Deployment Manager. In order for a server to PXE boot, you must have a boot server (like RDM) that provides the network boot code. The x350 does support PXE boot with the onboard AMD chipset. There was a critical update for the system BIOS released (v1.09). If you are not using this version, try that first.

 

[forbsy]

I'm trying to implement Microsoft Automated Deployment Service. I've already set up an ADS controller that is running DHCP. My BIOS level for the target machine (an x350) is at v1.09. Where did you read that the x350 does support PXE boot, with the onboard AMD chipset?

 

[catorze]

By it's inclusion in the Supported Systems list for RDM v4.11, it can be inferred that this system supports PXE booting.

 

[forbsy]

I investigated the supported systems list for RDM v4.11. Although the x350 is supported it requires a user-modified LCCMOS.bat file to update the CMOS:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/pc_servers_pdf/rdm411compatibilityguide.pdf

Take my word that the IBM x350 does not have a PXE supported BIOS or NIC (the NIC is an integrated AMD chipset). I've tried adding an Intel NIC (with Intel Boot Agent support) and setting the boot order to try network first. Since the BIOS doesn't support PXE what happens is it'll always try the onboard NIC instead of the PCI NIC and fail. If the BIOS supported PXE booting I could specify within the BIOS what interface to use.
There is a workaround I can use though. It's a remote boot disk that M$ Automated Deployment Services provides for systems that don't have a remote boot enabled ROM. I think I'll give that a go.
If you have infact PXE booted an IBM x350 via the integrated AMD NIC and can prove me wrong I'd appreciate the feedback.

Thanks

Ian