DHCP Option 121 and PXE booting virtual machines

[JCMorrissey]

Hi all,

Having an issue getting the above option picked up whilst PXE booting vm's in our environment.

Environment

VSphere 5.0 Update 2

Virtual machines running version 8 - have tried either vmxnet3 or e1000 - PXE wont utilize this option - relating to static routes we need added on clients on bootup.

Just checking to see if anybody has utilized them in their environment and if they've hit this issue / is it supported or not.

Any feedback welcome

Many tx!

[AKostur]

Do you really need a set of static routes in order for your PXE environment to function, or isn't a single default route sufficient to get the PXE part functioning?   As far as I'm aware, I don't know of any PXE environment that uses option 121 (I'd love to know if there are any...).  Note that for most OSes that may have been launched from PXE, they proceed to do their own DHCP transaction once they have started.  At that point, the question becomes whether your OS supports option 121.

[jrmunday]

What OS is your guest VM?

Microsoft operating systems up to Windows 2003 don't request option 121, so the assumption is that it would only work for Windows 7, Windows 2008 and above.

If it is a supported OS, have you confirmed your HEX value for this option is correct?