PXE Boot a UEFI device to register Mac Address for imaging

[Ron.Mckerral]

Hello,

 

wondering if anyone has managed to  register a MAC Address from a Dell pc with UEFI turned on?

 

I can take out of UEFI mode, switch into legacy BIOS mode, PXE boot, obtain MAC, then restore back to UEFI mode.  However that solution is cumbersome.

 

If I utilize the legacy boot to register MAC Address, then turn on UEFI with Secure mode on, I can then deploy the image without issues.

 

I have tried manually select the NIC with UEFI mode on and it detects it, it just won't register the device within Scalability server OS Installations section

 

Has anyone found a work around or are we stuck changing it to legacy the first time to register then to UEFI to image?

[mccst05]

Hi Ron,

 

Are you saying the computer doesn’t register at the SS when in UEFI mode? It should be registering and showing up in the GUI under the SS, but bear in mind it may not register the FIRST time, depending on your config policy settings.

 

OR, are you saying you can’t see the MAC address on the computer’s screen during the UEFI boot? This is a known issue as the UEFI boot sequence doesn’t show the MAC address like the PXE boot does. The solution is to look in the BIOS, the MAC address is listed there (this has been checked on DELL devices specifically). I recently replied on a case where DELL devices were registering correctly but because the MAC address was not displayed on the device screen during UEFI boot, the customer couldn’t match the physical machine with the MAC address registered, which of course means the device was registering correctly.

 

Steve McCormick, ITIL

CA Technologies

Principal Services Consultant

[e-mail]

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[Ron.Mckerral]

Not registering. and I don't see the MAC Address thought it tells me it pxebooting to IP4 nic, so I know it's working at that point.

In my case, I cleared the pc history, retried and it wouldn't register. Finding the MAC isn't difficult as users can get it from the BIOS Information screen.

[mccst05]

It should be working. Suggest setting debug mode logging on SS (clear the logs first), reboot the PC then collect the boot server log so we can take a look at it.

 

Steve McCormick, ITIL

CA Technologies

Principal Services Consultant

[e-mail]

<mailto:[e-mail]>

[Steve Parker]

When we did the beta testing I worked with a couple of customers using Dell and we had no problems during the PXE discovery.

 

I did hear (but have not details) that the IP helper settings for routing UEFI PXE v BIOS PXE are different. Are all your test systems on the same LAN segment?

[Ron.Mckerral]

after checking both servers, could not find anything wrong, so gave them as quick boot then was able to get them to register correctly.

 

Sorry, missed the note and did not enable the logging.

[Ron.Mckerral]

The issue re appeared with on another SS, so deciced to open a case with support.