PowerEdge XE8545 PXE Boot Failed

Question

We have a new PowerEdge XE8545 and we're setting it up to PXE boot with OpenStack Ironic using CentOS Stream and Rocky 8 based images.

The server is successfully getting a DHCP lease, connecting to the tftp server, and downloading the pxelinux NBP file, as per the screen shot below:

However the NBP file, which should chainload to iPXE, fails to boot.

Does anyone know of a fix for this, or how to get the Dell PXE to provide more information about the boot failure?

Is there a UEFI shell that could provide more information?

Aaron Hicks · Accepted Answer

I found part of the problem, the dnsmasq config was incorrect and wasn't doing UEFI:

port=0

interface=bond0.1152
bind-interfaces

dhcp-log

dhcp-range=10.64.156.1,10.64.156.253,255.255.248.0
dhcp-sequential-ip

dhcp-option=option:tftp-server,10.64.155.1
dhcp-option=option:server-ip-address,10.64.155.1
dhcp-option=210,/tftpboot/
dhcp-match=ipxe,175
dhcp-match=set:efi,option:client-arch,7
dhcp-match=set:efi,option:client-arch,9
# Client is already running iPXE; move to next stage of chainloading
dhcp-option=tag:ipxe,option:bootfile-name,http://10.64.155.1:8089/inspector.ipxe
# Client is PXE booting over EFI without iPXE ROM,
# send EFI version of iPXE chainloader
dhcp-option=tag:efi,tag:!ipxe,option:bootfile-name,ipxe.efi
dhcp-option=option:bootfile-name,undionly.kpxe

dhcp-hostsdir=/etc/dnsmasq/dhcp-hostsdir

After updating the dnsmasq config PXE progressed onto the iPXE chainloader. I suspect the issue is configuration.

DELL-Joey C · Answer

Hi @Aaron Hicks,

We have limited support knowledge on PXE boot and on the OS that you're using. I might not be able to provide any guidance. We probably might need to wait and seek help from the public if they have any experience on your issue.

Meanwhile, have you tried Legacy BIOS Boot Mode? Are there similar models you have that are successful?

Aaron Hicks · Answer

Screenshot of Legacy boot:

Aaron Hicks · Answer

We only have two of these Dell PowerEdge XE8545 in datacentre so we don't have any similar models to compare.

I've tested just tested legacy boot, hangs at Probing EDD. However we have some hosts in this environment which don't boot with legacy bios and we'd strongly prefer to solve the UEFI PXE boot issue for consistency.

Aaron Hicks · Answer

Ah, we also need to boot off a tagged VLAN which isn't supported by Legacy boot mode.

DELL-Young E · Answer

we also need to boot off a tagged VLAN which isn't supported by Legacy boot mode.For this, I assume you need to shrink the size of the disk.

Aaron Hicks · Answer

The dnsmasq config that kicks it off, I think the problem is occuring between loading the bootfile indicated by dnsmasq and loading the kernel and ramdisk from PXE

# cat /etc/dnsmasq.conf 
# NOTE(yoctozepto): ironic-dnsmasq is used to deliver DHCP(v6) service
# DNS service is disabled:
port=0

interface=bond0.1152
bind-interfaces

dhcp-range=10.64.156.1,10.64.156.254,255.255.248.0
dhcp-sequential-ip

dhcp-option=option:tftp-server,10.64.155.1
dhcp-option=option:server-ip-address,10.64.155.1
dhcp-option=210,/tftpboot/
dhcp-option=option:bootfile-name,pxelinux.0

dhcp-hostsdir=/etc/dnsmasq/dhcp-hostsdir

Aaron Hicks · Answer

How small does the disk need to be, and where is the documentation on this requirement?

Here's the default pxelinx.cfg configuration:

# cat pxelinux.cfg/default 
default introspect

label introspect
kernel ironic-agent.kernel

append initrd=ironic-agent.initramfs ipa-inspection-callback-url=http://10.64.152.10:5050/v1/continue systemd.journald.forward_to_console=yes ipa-collect-lldp=1 ipa-inspection-collectors=default,logs,pci-devices ipa-inspection-benchmarks=

ipappend 3

And here's the size of the kernel and ramdisk image:

# ls -lh ironic-agent.*
-rw-r--r-- 1 ironic ironic 384M Jul 7 22:10 ironic-agent.initramfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 ironic ironic 9.8M Jul 7 22:10 ironic-agent.kernel

DELL-Young E · Answer

Hi, might I suggest that you try another NIC and PXE boot?

Aaron Hicks · Answer

I'm now running into issues with preserving the VLAN when iPXE chain loads after PXE, but I think this is a problem with iPXE and not the hardware. Anyone else following this problem will probably want to follow up with:

- https://bootsha.medium.com/how-to-pxe-boot-a-server-using-tagged-vlan-9d822adb8104

- https://github.com/ipxe/ipxe/issues/369

PowerEdge Hardware General

PowerEdge XE8545 PXE Boot Failed

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