[syslinux] gpxelinux.0 and slow HTTP performance on VMware ESX VM

[syslinux at schlomo.schapiro.org]

Hi,

Am 30.06.2011 19:15, schrieb Andrew Stuart:
> Did you try the above without gPXE/gpxelinux.0 ? Your logs indicate you
> are still using gPXE. It's my understanding that a wrapper is not needed
> for 4.10 since it has native http (I haven't had the chance to
> personally try it).

Yes of course. The access log shows 2 boot attempts. The first one with
gpxelinux.0 4.04 (to show that it worked) and the 2nd one with
pxelinux.0 4.10

> If for some reason you do need gPXE, I might suggest you try
> www.ipxe.org as gPXE is 'dead', ipxe was forked, and is actively being
> contributed to and maintained. Many issues with gPXE have been corrected
> in iPXE.

Thanks, I was not aware of this fork. Are there any plans to build an
ipxelinux.0 that is based on ipxe?

> Lastly, Trolling these lists [syslinux|ipxe] I have seen mention that
> vmware's pxe stack leaves a lot to be desired. I know from personal
> experience with Workstation [6|7], and esxi [3|4] that pxe booting is
> slightly slower then real hardware, but it's been 'fast enough' that I
> haven't tried to look into it further.

> As a curious side thought, I wonder if anyone has tried to replace
> vmwares pxe option rom with gPXE/iPXE...

Good idea, do you know how to do that for hundreds of VMs and
automatically have it done for new VMs?

Kind Regards,
Schlomo