PXE Boot problems during SCCM OSD

Troubleshooting PXE Boot Failures During SCCM OSD

Inconsistent PXE boot behaviour — working fine on some machines or sites and not others — is one of the more frustrating Configuration Manager OSD problems to chase down, precisely because the failure often has nothing to do with Configuration Manager itself and everything to do with the network path the PXE request has to travel.

Work through these in order, since they cover the large majority of PXE failures:

• DHCP options 66/67. If your PXE-enabled distribution point isn’t also your DHCP server, confirm DHCP options 66 (boot server host name) and 67 (boot file name) are configured correctly on the DHCP scope covering that site/subnet.
• IP helpers / DHCP relay. For sites on a different subnet to the DP, network switches need an IP helper address configured to relay both DHCP and PXE (port 4011) traffic across to the distribution point.
• WDS/PXE service state. Confirm the Windows Deployment Services service is actually running on the distribution point, and that PXE support hasn’t silently failed to (re)initialise after a reboot or update.
• Firewall. Ports 67/68 (DHCP), 69 (TFTP), and 4011 (PXE) all need to be open between the client subnet and the distribution point.

If it’s isolated to one physical location rather than happening everywhere, start with the network side (DHCP options and IP helpers) — a working config elsewhere on the same Configuration Manager site usually rules out the DP/WDS configuration itself as the cause.

Resources

• WDS