How to PXE boot Blade BL10e remotely

[Mark Cottle]

If we remotely reboot any of our Proliant Blade BL10e servers using the web-based Integrated Administrator and then try and PXE boot them using the Remote Control console nothing happens. When prompted to press F12 to PXE boot it doesn't do anything although if we try the F9 key to access the ROM based setup utility this works fine.
Is there a way to enable a PXE boot remotely as we will need this when we send our servers offsite.

[Phillip Williams_2]

Mark

According to an Old Compaq North American manual....

ProLiant BL10e Server Blade Deployment Options

The ProLiant BL10e server blades are designed for rapid deployment and are ideally
suited for headless (unattended), network-based software installation and
configuration. Compaq Rapid Deployment Pack is the optimum choice for ProLiant
BL10e server blades and facilitates the configuration of a few or hundreds of servers
from an easy-to-use, remote-based graphical deployment console. The PXE-enabled
NICs and support for a bootable USB diskette drive on the ProLiant BL10e server
blade also facilitate the use of other deployment methods.
Automated Deployment Using
Compaq Rapid Deployment Pack
Compaq Rapid Deployment Pack integrates two powerful products: Altiris eXpress
Deployment Server and the Compaq ProLiant Integration Module (which contains
optimizations for Compaq ProLiant servers). The deployment console???s graphical
interface provides intuitive drag-and-drop events, such as scripts and images, to
deploy the operating systems and applications on any combination of server blades
and then simultaneously deploy multiple server blades. Compaq Rapid Deployment
Pack also has advanced features that can detect and display server blades based on
their physical rack, enclosure, and bay locations. You can set the deployment console
to automatically install pre-defined configurations on newly installed server blades.
For more information about Compaq Rapid Deployment Pack, refer to your Compaq
authorized reseller, the Rapid Deployment CD that ships with your enclosure, or visit
the Compaq Website:
www.compaq.com
Alternate Deployment Methods
ProLiant BL10e server blades have PXE-enabled NICs and support a bootable USB
diskette drive, as well as keyboard, video, mouse, and USB CD-ROM drive attached
via the diagnostic adapter. These features enable you to use your own network-based
or local, attended deployment methods for booting and installing software onto
ProLiant BL10e server blades.

To install operating systems onto your ProLiant BL10e server blades with a PXE
server and a DHCP server, your PXE server must be connected to NIC 1 of each
server blade you wish to deploy. NIC 1 is PXE-enabled by default.

IMPORTANT: ProLiant BL10e server blades do not support a bootable CD-ROM. You MUST
create a bootable diskette in order to boot your system using this deployment method.
For detailed instructions on network-based PXE installation for RedHat Linux, refer
to the white papers located on the Compaq Website:

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/papers

Microsoft Windows 2000 does not support PXE-based installation of Windows 2000
Server. To install Windows 2000 via PXE you must use Compaq Rapid Deployment
Pack (which includes pre-written scripts to install Windows 2000 Server on the
server blades) or an alternate method.
If you prefer an unattended (headless) installation of your operating systems and do
not wish to use Compaq Rapid Deployment Pack, you can download the
SmartStart??? Scripting Toolkit from the Compaq Website:

www.compaq.com/manage/toolkit.html

If you would like to use Compaq Insight Manager 7, copy the Compaq management
agents for the ProLiant BL10e server blades from the Rapid Deployment CD or
download them from the Compaq Website:
www.compaq.com/products/servers/management/agents.html
IMPORTANT: Use the Management CD to install Compaq Insight Manager 7.

Hope this helps,

Yours aye

[Mark Cottle]

Thanks but no this didn't help - you are missing my point. We have the Blades all deployed and configured with Windows 2000 using Altiris Rapid Deployment and everything is fine. However there have been occasions where we have needed to reboot these machines and PXE boot them. My point is that we do not seem to be able to do this remotely. When using the Remote Control function of the Integrated Administrator console we can view the POST progress of the machine but when we get the "Press F12 to PXE boot" prompt the F12 key does nothing. Surely we should be able to PXE boot the Blades remotely?

[Allan Watkins]

Might be a bit of an obvious one, but I've had problems with the window focus with the RILOE remote consoles. You have to make sure you re-address the focus by clicking in the remote console area to allow the keystrokes to be transmitted to the remote machine. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but it caught me out the first time.

[Mark Cottle]

I have made sure that the Windows I want is the focus Windows. As I mentioned we can press F9 to go into the Bios settings - just F12 to PXE boot doesn't work.
Can anyone confirm that they have this working as it may not be supposed to work.

[Michael Chung_3]

Try "Esc+Shift+2" instead of F12