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mintsoft / iPXE-WDS-EFI-Boot-Menu

iPXE + WDS + EFI Boot Menu
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iPXE + WDS + EFI Boot Menu

This is useful to have a netboot delivered menu so that logic can be added for certain types of machines (i.e. I always want a Dell Optiplex 3050 to use WDS vs a Dell R430 to netboot the Linux installer) as well as provide admins the ability to choose the OS or debugging utilities etc whilst still providing zero touch WDS provisioning.

A pre-boot menu for EFI that allows WDS by default and selection of others manually; delivered entirely from WDS

This has the advantage that if you already have a WDS infrastructure for deploying windows (which presumably you do, if you're installing Windows desktops) then you don't require a separate/additional TFTP setup for deploying linux etc.

  1. Create a folder under REMINST\Boot for iPXE like: REMINST\Boot\iPXE
  2. Download snmponly.efi for iPXE from http://boot.ipxe.org/snponly.efi and store as REMINST\Boot\iPXE\snponly.efi
  3. It's critically important that in WDS -> Server Properties -> Boot -> Unknown Clients is set to Always continue the PXE boot

Windows DHCP Configuration

  1. Create User Class for iPXE (right click ipv4; click define user classes and name it iPXE and add iPXE as the ASCII value
  2. Create Vendor Class for EFI x64 (right click ipv4; click Vendor classes, name it PXEClient:Arch:00007 and add PXEClient:Arch:00007 as the ASCII value
  3. Add policy to deliver snponly.efi as the boot filename for EFI clients :: Either at the Scope or IPv4 level; right-click policies, click add, Call it "Deliver iPXE", add a Vendor Class filter to PXEClient:Arch:00007 with appended wildcard and set Boofile name to Boot\iPXE\snponly.efi
  4. Add policy to deliver the iPXE configuration when iPXE requests it :: At the same level as above, add a new Policy called "iPXE Configuration", add the condition the Vendor Class is PXEClient:Arch:00007 with appended wildcard, change the radio to AND and User Class is iPXE. Set Bootfile name to the path to the iPXE configuration Boot\iPXE\iPXE.conf.
  5. Change the Policy Order so that "iPXE Configuration" is Processing Order 1 and Deliver iPXE is Processing Order 2
  6. Remove the PXEClient Option 60 from being set by any of the DHCP server settings (either Server Options or Scope Options) as this causes WDS to hijack the DHCP request

Configure iPXE menu

  1. Create the REMIST\Boot\iPXE\iPXE.conf file with the following content: 
    #!ipxe
chain --autofree Boot\iPXE\boot.ipxe.cfg
  2. Create the actual boot menu file REMIST\Boot\iPXE\boot.ipxe.cfg with the following content: 
    
#!ipxe

Figure out if client is 64-bit capable

cpuid --ext 29 && set arch x64 || set arch x86 cpuid --ext 29 && set archl amd64 || set archl i386

###################### MAIN MENU ####################################

:start menu iPXE boot menu item --gap -- -------------------------------Installation ------------------------------ item --key w wds WDS item --key l linux Linux item --gap -- ------------------------- Advanced options ------------------------------- item --key c config Configure settings item shell Drop to iPXE shell item reboot Reboot computer item item --key x exit Exit iPXE and continue BIOS boot choose --timeout 5000 --default wds selected || goto cancel set menu-timeout 0 goto ${selected}

:cancel echo You cancelled the menu, dropping you to a shell

:shell echo Type 'exit' to get the back to the menu shell set menu-timeout 0 set submenu-timeout 0 goto start

:failed echo Booting failed, dropping to shell goto shell

:reboot reboot

:exit exit

:config config goto start

:back set submenu-timeout 0 clear submenu-default goto start

############ MAIN MENU ITEMS ############

:wds chain Boot\x64\wdsmgfw.efi || goto failed goto start

:linux kernel Boot\iPXE\debian-installer\linux initrd=Boot\iPXE\debian-installer\initrd.gz auto=true url=http://path/to/preseed/file.cfg initrd Boot\iPXE\debian-installer\initrd.gz boot goto start



This is assuming that you have downloaded the Debian netboot.tar.gz (i.e. http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz) and extracted the content to `REMINST\Boot\iPXE\debian-installer`.