Deployment Solution

Hi folks, since the past month we have been trying to setup Altiris server (6.9 SP4) with PXE. We have a mix of HP T5540, T5530 and T5520 thin clients in the company. We have set up a test enviornment with a thin client and enabled network boot and it's also set as first boot priority.

We firstly installed Altiris Deployment solution 6.9 SP4 and went with custom install. We are using MS SQL server express ediition. Altiris installs fine on server 2003. We want to use either FreeDOS or MSDos as the boot disk because it's small in size and we have few remote sites with only standard slow speed ADSL lines because they are in the middle of no where.

Problem - We first tried FreeDOS and downloaded the file from Symantec's website. It's a .frm extension file. Went to create a new confirguration and create a new boot disk and it installed fine. Rebooted the server and then tried to fire up the test thin client and it always comes with PXE-E87 error. No bootfile name found/recieved. We have tried various settings but same error. Same error also pops up when we use MS-DOS. Went to Altiris's install folder in c:\program files then PXE then images folder and inside the  BStarp folder there is only 1 file called BStrap.0

If we look inside the MenuOption129 folder which is FreeDOS there are only 2 files which are MenuOption129.0 and MenuOption129.1. Inside MenuOption130 folder which is MS-DOS there is only 2 files as well called MenuOption130.0 and MenuOption130.1

When we boot up initially we get PXE-E52 error I think and to get around this we have to delere the BStrap.0 file in BStrap folder and copy either MenuOption129.0 or MenuOption130.0 and rename whichever one we are putting in BStrap folder to BStrap.0

Our PXE and Altiris server is on .7 subnet and our DHCP server is on the .5 subnet. Under DHCP scope option for .5 subnet we have option 60, 66 and 67 ticked. 66 has the IP of our PXE server location and 67 stated \BStrap\X86PC\BStrap.0

Have gone through the Altiris Admin Setup Guide and followed everything pretty much step by step but can't get solve the PXE-E87 error problem. Have tried using solarwinds TFTP server and TFTPD32 server.

Initially we did try WinPE and it actually did work to some extent but file size is too big and it will clog our network.

We have never seen any boot meu option aftter bios loads up on the thin client so it always kicks to network boot no matter what where we get the PXE-E87 error. I am guessing once setup properly it will only do a network boot if Altiris has a job linedup for a particual thin client. We can see all the thin clients in the Altiris software and we can also remotly reboot them but when we send jobs to them, PXE-E87 error pops up.

I hope I have explained everything here. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Karan

ps - our altiris server and dhcp servers are virtualized.

Just to add some more information to the above when we created the boot disk, we were given the pxe boot option and automation boot option pre-ticked and other options were unselectable.

If we however try and crate a boot disk after the initial setup then we see more options that we can choose like Automation boot, Network Boot, User supplied files etc.

We have always selected Automation boot.

Does the PXE work in the same subnet?

Furthermore it is recomended to work with IP helpers. So on your switches set an IP Helper address to the DHCP server and an IP Helper to the PXE server.
See the following KB articles:
PXE not crossing subnets or VLANs
PXE detailed overview and troubleshooting
Complete List of PXE Error Codes

It looks like your Altiris PXE services are not running.
Check these first. Are they configured to run automatically?
PXE manager and PXE config helper need to be started with local system account.
The other pxe services are seet to manual, but will be automatically started when starting pxe manager and pxe config helper.

Also check in your PXE configuration utility if PXE is running otherwise there will be no menu.

If this is all working, then i suggest to set the iphelper address (ip address of your altiris server) in your switches.
We have a lot of VLAN's and use iphelper in the switches and everything works fine.

Not sure if this helps. We first installed Altiris Deployment solution on our DHCP server and all worked ok. Later they moved Altiris off to its own server, thats when we had similar problems as you. Our solution was to remove Option 60 in the dhcp scope. I'm not the server guy so I don't know what option 60 does.

Thanks for your replies. Nothing has worked so fair. We deployed IP helpers a while ago and they are setup correctly. Option 60 is unticked. Only option 66 and 67 are ticked in DHCP server.  All PXE services are running.

only thing so far has ever worked for us is WinPE after lots of moving and renming files around in Altiris folder which tftpd32 tells us to do but it takes 10 minutes to bootup and we have remote sites with 2mbps connection so not worthwhile our time. FreeDos or MSDos is our best bet but we have literally tried everything.

Hey Powersquad...

If you say your WinPE IS working, then you do have a working PXE server.
I would in your case try to take the Windows 98 dos boot files, you can import the files directly from the UI where you also import your Linux files and winpe files.
If your having trouble afterwards it does sometimes help to reboot the server and try to build your PXE configurations once again.

Kind Regards
Morten Leth

If you have IP Helpers than you shouldn't have DHCP Scope options.
The only option is the scope option 60 which is necessary if the PXE and DHCP server are on the same machine.

And again the question: Does it work from the same subnet as the PXE server?

Another tip: Altiris doesn't play nicely if you edit files or folder directly under the PXE folder. This will cause corrupt boot images most of the time.

Sorry Martjin, did not reply regarding the subnet alternative. I took the thin client setup to our .7 subnet building which is fair bit away from IT room and YES it worked!!!!! Did not knew that if IP hekpers are deployed then we don't need DHCP scope options ticked. Unticked all of them too.

FreeDOS booted up. I re-installed everything from scratch prior to taking it down to the .7 subnet office and it worked fine. I had a chat with the network engineer and he showed me that IP helpers are set up fine so that's not the issue. So why would PXE/Free DOS refuse to work outside the .7 subnet? IT is in .5 subnet and just to try something different, I also took the toaster setup to a .8 subnet office and it did not work there either. Any ideas?

Error we get on other subnets is PXE-E53. No boot filename recieved.

Thanks

EDIT- It's Working. Problem was the IP helpers. Network enginner forgot to add the IP helper address for the PXE server. Working fine now on all subnet.

Thanks EVERYONE who replied and provided tips and help.

Problem Solved. Please read my post above.

Always blame the network guys