VMware Communities
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Workstation 11.1 causing major issues with PXE boot MDT

Not sure what's going on but WS 11.1 is causing PXE boot to loop TFTP. It is failing on both creating a new VM and also on all Laptops in my Lab. I notice it creates Host (A) records on my DNS server. I have one Server that runs AD-->DNS-->DHCP-->WDS--MDT. If I remove 11.1 all is back to normal PXE boots on my Laptops.

Any ideas or tweaks I need to do?

Thanks!

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Hello, I installed WS12 and now I have worst issues, PXE-E55: ProxcyDHCP service did not reply to request on port 4011.

I Google the error and It could be many things, I removed WS12 and all works fines again with my Laptop installs. My guess is the DNS

(A) records are causing the issues, my DNS and DHCP settings are very basic and work with Hyper-V which I'm just going to use so to me problem solved.

Thanks for you help but I'm done with VMWare.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
10 Replies
dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Can you provide a bit more information about the failure?  A screenshot or a description of the "loop" would be useful.  A description of the A records you're seeing in the DNS could be relevant/helpful too.

When you remove 11.1, are you reinstalling another version of WS, or does your environment run without WS at all?  I'm a bit confused about which parts of your stack are running inside the virtual machine(s) and what role our software plays in your environment.

Cheers,

--

Darius

Reply
0 Kudos
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks for the reply, let me reinstall WS and take some some screenshots

.

Reply
0 Kudos
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

OK here's 2 screen shots of what's happening:

TFTP.PNG

Sometimes it will PXE boot after 10-20 times.

DNS.PNG

Here's the Host (A) records. My Laptops in my Lab time out on TFTP.

I only have a license for WS 11.1.

Thanks again for any help.

Reply
0 Kudos
dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

I'm still unsure of Workstation's involvement in this.  Are you saying that your Windows Server is not running in an VM, and the laptop is clearly not in a VM, and yet somehow merely installing WS one one of your machines is sufficient to interfere with the PXE boot of a physical laptop from the WDS server?

Ahhh... Are you installing Workstation onto the physical Windows server itself?

Cheers,

--

Darius

Reply
0 Kudos
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Hello, I have one Physical Server called Server and AD=WDS.com running DNS-->DHCP-->WDS-->MDT. I installed WS 11.1 on the Server and then I found the issue if I PXE boot from a Dell Laptop or if I create a new VM the TFTP issue pops up. If I remove WS 11.1 the Laptop PXE boots with no issues. Sorry I'm new to this so maybe this will not work.

Again no VM Server, and I installed WS 11.1 on the server and then the problem shows up.

Reply
0 Kudos
dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

OK, I think I understand.

Just to confirm, if you install Workstation 11.1 onto the WDS server, but do not actually launch the installed Workstation application (and definitely not run any virtual machines), does it still interfere with the ability of the physical laptop to PXE boot from the WDS server?  I think you are saying that it does, but I'd like to double-check, because it's a critical data point in determining a possible root cause.

Thanks,

--

Darius

Reply
0 Kudos
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Yes it will cause the issue if I want to PXE Boot my Dell Laptops in my Lab. Remove WS11.1 then all works 100%. I'm blown away that after watching many YT videos of other people doing this I'm the rare one with this issue lol. Maybe I'll try ver 12 if a Eval is available? 

Reply
0 Kudos
dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Do you recall doing anything unusual in the virtual networking configuration?  If not, perhaps try launching Workstation's Virtual Network Editor, grab a screenshot of its settings, and choose the Restore Defaults button and see if that fixes things.

Workstation Pro 12 does have an evaluation download: http://www.vmware.com/go/tryworkstation-win

Cheers,

--

Darius

Reply
0 Kudos
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks I'll check it out tomorrow and reply back.

Reply
0 Kudos
GWonder
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Hello, I installed WS12 and now I have worst issues, PXE-E55: ProxcyDHCP service did not reply to request on port 4011.

I Google the error and It could be many things, I removed WS12 and all works fines again with my Laptop installs. My guess is the DNS

(A) records are causing the issues, my DNS and DHCP settings are very basic and work with Hyper-V which I'm just going to use so to me problem solved.

Thanks for you help but I'm done with VMWare.

Reply
0 Kudos