[syslinux] Windows Server DHCP + UEFI recipe

Alexandre Blanchette blanalex at gmail.com
Tue Jan 14 17:52:47 PST 2014


I've found a way to support PXE booting both UEFI and BIOS architectures
with Windows Server DHCP.

This method uses a feature introduced in WinServer 2012: DHCP policies.

First, in the the DHCP console, at the IPv4 root of the server, create a
vendor class named PXEClient (UEFI x64) with the following value:
PXEClient:Arch:00007

Then create your configuration for your BIOS clients in your scope or as
global settings as usual by setting options 66 (IP or hostname of your TFTP
host) and 67 (pxelinux.0).

For the UEFI clients, you must then create a policy. In the condition page
of the wizard, add a condition with the following settings:
Criteria: Vendor Class
Operator: Equals
Value: PXEClient (UEFI x64)
Tick Append wildcard(*)

Do not configure an IP address range for the policy.

Finally configure options 66 (TFTP server) and 67 (syslinux.efi). You must
separate TFTP servers for your BIOS and UEFI clients because Microsoft DHCP
server does not send option 210 (path prefix).  Microsoft DHCP servers will
only send options listed in the Parameter Request List in the DHCPDISCOVER
packet.

One could make a cleaner setup by creating a BIOS PXEClient vendor class
and putting their options within a policy too.

--
Alexandre Blanchette <blanalex at gmail.com>


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