ConfigMgr 2012, UEFI and PXE Boot Support
This is a topic that is discussed in many forums and almost with every customer I meet, how can we do PXE boot on out UEFI devices. This is new technology to many of us and driven by the new Windows 8 tablet’s like the HP Elitepad 900 and the Dell Latitude 10.
Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 supports UEFI and PXE boot of these devices, however there are some dependencies to which version of Windows Deployment Services (WDS) that is used on the PXE-enabled Distribution Point as well.
To support PXE boot of 32-bit UEFI devices Configuration Manager 2012 Cumulative Update 1 needs to be installed as well, KB2817245
A Windows Server 2008 R2 WDS supports PXE boot of 64-bit EFI devices:
From Technet: “Provides support for network booting x64-based computers with EFI, including support for the Auto-Add policy and the ability to deploy boot images using multicasting.” Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/sv-se/library/dd348502(v=ws.10).aspx
A Windows Server 2012 WDS supports the PXE Boot of both 32 and 64 bit EFI Devices:
From Technet: “Support x86 clients (32-bit processors) with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to network boot and complete an end-to-end deployment by using WDS.” Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh974416.aspx
This means that yes you can use Configuration Manager 2012 to deploy Windows 8 to your Windows 8 tablet using Windows 8, as long as you are using Server 2012 as the operating System for the PXE-enabled DP and if the Firmware from the vendor supports it as well.
If we look at the file structure in the RemoteInstall directory on a Windows 2008 R2 server running Configuration Manager 2012 sp1 DP it looks like this, where the .efi file doesn’t exist in the x86 folder:
On a Server 2012 DP we can see that the x86 folder includes the files needed to boot .UEFI based devices.
Conclusion, yes, you can PXE boot your UEFI devices depending on which version of Windows Server the DP is running and which architecture the UEFI device you are trying to boot uses and as long as you are using Configuration Manager 2012 SP1
Holiday reading tip Configuration Manager 2012: Administration Cookbook
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Jörgen Nilsson
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Hi,
I really like this post.
It was helpfull with testing for UEFI – but I can’t get it work..
Could you explaine which DHCP options are need to be set for the different structures?
Which bootfile do I need to select?
I already did try and error, but didn’t get it work. 🙁
Thank you for help.
Martin Krämer
Excellent post! My lab is running 2012 SP1 Cu2 and works perfectly when imaging the Latitude 10 via UEFI PXE but my production environment is still on 2012 SP1 and I was banging my head against the desk until I read this 🙂 Thanks very much for saving me a lot of time. Yet another reason to move forward with my CU2 upgrade. BTW the guys at Dell have also put together their thoughts on prepping an SCCM 2012 TS for the Latitude 10 which might be helpful to some readers of this post. http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20305418.aspx
Cheers
Adam
Hi, I have pxe working on UEFI devices however when I put a _ or – in the device name the Client sits at waiting for approval and eventually times out. Its very strange and cannot find any info regarding it. Do you have any suggestions?
Daniel
Hi, I desperately need help.
WDS 2012 and DHCP in 1 Network on 2 Boxes, UEFI Client in another Network
I removed DHCP options i.o. to be able to deploy to UEFI clients.
2 IP helper addresses in place, one pointing to DHCP, the other pointing to WDS.
This setup worked immediately and perfectly for both, bios and uefi.
BUT only for about 1 day, then it would suddenly stop working for both, bios and uefi and I would get pxe-e53 (bios) and pxe-e16 (uefi).
Then I would re-install options 66 and 67 and it would work again.
I have 2 2012r2 SCCM servers, and separate 2012r2 DHCP box. SCCM #2 is the DP and WDS server. I continued to get error 0x102 when booting EFI pxe but then I removed the DHCP options 66 and 67 and added ip helper to the DP server to the nexus 6k switch and I was able to EFI boot the servers.
in the scenario of Brian D, it is important to note that you have to “enable” the WDS server to react on DHCP requests. Therefore, on the WDS-server, in WDS do a right-click on the server, to open up Properties, and then :
1) in tab [DHCP] remove the tick at “Do not listen on DHCP ports”. The other option “Configure DHCP options to indicate that this is also a PXE server” should equally be NOT ticked. This is because we are using the switch’s ip helper feature, including the IP addresses of the DHCP server(s) and the WDS server.
2) in tab [PXE Response]: select “Respond to all client computers (known and unknown). I kept the subordinate option “Require administrator approval etc” unselected.