PXE Manager – Part I
by tomarentsen on Monday, July 4th, 2011 | 2 Comments
PXE Manager Part I – PXE Manager Installation
Follow the following instructions to install the PXE Manager.
Prerequisites:
| Required |
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| Required |
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| Required |
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- Logon to the Windows 2008 server you are intending to install the PXE Manager, with an account that has administrative privileges.
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In order to install the .NET Framework 3.5.1, open the “Server Manager”, click to select “Features” and click the “Add Feature” button.
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Click to Select “.NET Framework 3.5.1″ checkbox and click “Next”
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Review and click the “Install” button.
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Verify that the installation has been successful and click the “Close” button
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To install the “Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x64)”, locate the “vcredist_64.exe” and double click on the file and click the “Run” button.
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Click to check the “I have read and accept the license terms” checkbox and click the “Install” button.
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Click the “Finish” button.
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Now all prerequisites are installed its time to install “PXE Manager”. Locate the vgpxe-x64-<version>.exe and double click it to launch the installation.
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Click the “Next” button.
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At the welcome screen, click the “Next” button.
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Click to select the “I Agree” radio button and click “Next”
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Choose the installation path and click “Next” to continue
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Start the installation by clicking on the “Next” button.
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Click the “Close” button
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Locate the “vpxecmd” in the “C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VMware PXE\bin” folder and double click it to configure the PXE Manager.
- Use the following table to answers the different questions during the configuration of the PXE Manager:
| Answer | Question |
| Provide a valid vCenter Server | FQDN of the vCenter |
| LDAP Port | 389 |
| Username | <domain>\<domain user> that has sufficient privileges to the vCenter |
| Password | Password of the <domain>\<domain user> account |
| Is the vCenter Ok ? | Y |
| How is PXE Manager known on the networ |
“0″ – by its IP address |
| Install Microsoft Server for NFS | Y |
| Configure Microsoft Server for NFS | Y |
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Make a connection to the vCenter using the vSphere Client, once connected open the “Plug-in Manager”, locate the “VMware vCenter PXE Manager and click the “download and install …” hyperlink to install the PXE Manager client.
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Click “Next”
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Click “Next” at the welcome screen.
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Click to select the “I Agree” radio button and click “Next”.
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Click “Next”
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Click “Close” and click “Close” again to close the Plug-in Manager.
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Navigate to the “Home” screen and click on the “PXE Manager for vCenter” plug-in.
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Click to check the “Install this certificate and do not ….” Check box and click the “Ignore” button.
What happens with the PXE Management server in a DR event when the network identifies the PXE Manager by it’s IP address? Wouldn’t this be easier if you had a DNS alias at each site on each respective subnet both pointing to this Server?
When configuring PXE Manager, you could of course also register it using the netbios name (it doesn’t use the fqdn (yet… i guess)-> this is why I choose the IP address instead) instead of the IP. In the walkthrough of this configuration, I have setup two PXE agents one in each site and one PXE Manager. As I suggested if you protect the PXE Manager VM with SRM you could easily deploy new hosts in the case of a DR without doing any additional configuration.