boot to winpe uefi

[twister12]

dear all,

we had some issues with our boot to uefi winpe task.

one of our hardware model has 3 nics. when we run the boot to uefi winpe task we get the following issue in screenshot.

so we need to know how to query the uefi devices to set the correct nic to network boot

best regards

[Roman Vassiljev]

Hello twister12,

What version of ITMS you have?

What options did you select in "Boot To" task - 'PXE' or 'UEFI Boot Media'(if you have ITMS 8.6 RU3 or newer)? If it is UEFI Boot Media, what values it has?

Thanks,

Roman

[twister12]

Hi Roman.

we are running 8.7.1
we are using uefi boot media
actual entry is EFI NETWORK

best regards

[twister12]

EFI PXE 0

EFI PXE 1

EFI PXE 2

not working

[twister12]

a query for uefi devices is needed

[twister12]

bowa

btw we are not happy with this new option because with old pxe task we can use it in different scenarios with one job
offline/predefined/online scenarios no problem
we also have legacy bios clients which also runs fine with old task

now we must develope a workaround for online clients because boot to task fails if wrong client type(bios or uefi)
check if bios then run pxe else if uefi run uefi task

[twister12]

for the other issue with multiple nics the workaround is to restart clients with script(shutdown -r -t 0) and the run boot to uefi task

[twister12]

not ideal at all

[twister12]

Hi Roman,

we are running 8.7.1

we select UEFI Boot Media because legacy PXE boot causes error in winpe/did not work when Computer is online.

We create entry "EFI Network" -> then we get the issue/window seen in screenshot.

we try "EFI PXE/EFI PXE 1/EFI PXE 0" and so on. no luck.

btw we also have still legacy bios clients and the customer is not happy that you split both(legacy and UEFI).

so from our view it will be better to have old version back because we can use one task in all jobs.

we must build a workaround to boot both types with one job(if one fails try second one).

for the issue with multiple nics our workaround is to check via taskserver script if client is online then reboot client via script (shitdown -r -t 0) and next task is boot to pxe. this works. not ideal but we want to run one deploy job for all client types(bios/uefi) and from offline(predefined)status and online status.

wih old task we have no issues.

Best regards

[Roman Vassiljev]

Hi twister12,

There is trick to get list of available UEFI devices in order to get actual name of needed device and use it in Boot To task. Try to do the following:

1 - Please create Boot To task with option to use UEFI Media, but in the list of UEFI devices add just one not existing device name(i.e. "testtesttest").

2 - Execute task on affected client and it is expected that task will be failed

3 - Then you may check details of failed run task, see error - error will contain list of available UEFI devices.

4 - Copy name of required device "as is" and add it to the list of Boot To task

5 - Test it again o same client.

Also please note that it is allowed using wildcard ( * ) in name of devices, where * replaces any part of name. i.e. "EFI PXE 0*"

This new option to set list of UEFI Boot media is extension of "Boot To" task, old functionality(i.e Boot To PXE) should be kept and  you may use old options instead of UEFI Boot media if it worked for you.

Thanks,

Roman

[twister12]

[twister12]

old functionality(i.e Boot To PXE) should not be working

[twister12]

[twister12]

screenshot from bios client booting to pxe

I think the problem is that the task checks if this device is uefi.

I select pxe option and in my mind it should not check for uefi with this option.

[Johannes Engstle]

Hi twister and Roman,

I would like to add another problem with current "Boot to UEFI"-task.
If you create a ISO from the console and boot this, you can not assign the "Boot to UEFI" task, because it will not detect that it is running already in WinPE, it will just reboot and try PXE boot - unless you specify the correct name e.g. from the USB disk, which is manual work and absolutely no realistic option.
Same is for "Automation Folder" WinPE environment, if you are in Windows you can not use "Boot to UEFI" task to boot into Automation folder, you need to use the old task and specify "Automation", first problem. And second, if you boot into Automation Folder WinPE manually and assign the "Boot to UEFI"-task, it´s not detected and reboots.

I agree with twister, one for all should be the goal. Otherwise there are only not nice workarounds possible.

Best Regards
JE