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Go to SolutionHow to make loop over nics when using network pxe boot?
I have Dell PowerEdge R730 and R620 series servers, each equipped with multiple add-on NICs. When booting in Legacy PXE mode, the system only attempts PXE boot from the first NIC in the boot order and ignores the remaining interfaces. Since I often don’t know in advance which NIC will have an active connection, I have to manually adjust the boot order and repeatedly reboot until I find the correct interface.
In UEFI boot mode, it’s possible to specify a maximum of four NICs for PXE boot, but even this can be inconvenient, as my servers often have 8 to 10 interfaces. On other servers I’ve used, PXE boot automatically cycles through all available NIC interfaces without manual intervention.
Does Dell provide a setting or solution to enable this automatic NIC traversal behavior during PXE boot on these server models? Any guidance or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
@DELL-Erman O Thank you, I will try that.
DELL-Erman O
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Posted April 14th, 2025 13:43
Hi,
UEFI is more flexible than Legacy mode, allowing booting from multiple NICs without manual reordering for each attempt (up to 4). As I know currently, the most practical and widely recommended solution is to switch to UEFI boot mode. This transition provides a notable enhancement over Legacy PXE, particularly in terms of handling multiple NICs. To my knowledge, there isn't a direct alternative that supports automatic NIC traversal.
Hope that helps!
DELL-Erman O
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