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Question
Thursday, March 27, 2014 5:14 PM
I am working on using PXE with SCCM 2012 and finally got my test VM to boot with the standard x86 boot image. This is the process:
1. Start up VM with no OS
2. Contacts SCCM and I press F12 to Network Boot
3. Boots into a SCCM screen and says " Windows is starting up" then " Preparing Network Connections".
4. Then all i see is a blank screen. After about a minute it will just reboot.
I found this post that discusses adding the drivers need for the boot images:
I added the entire VMware tools Driver folder to both my boot images. (All it had in there was a SCSI adapter)
Tried to redo the PXE and still get the same menages with the blank screen after that.
What am I missing here?
All replies (16)
Friday, March 28, 2014 6:21 PM âś…Answered
I figured it out!!
All this was on VMware ESXi environmnet. We normally use the the VMXNET 3 network adapter and apparently that was the problem. Normally, by default, when creating an new VM it defaults to using an E1000 network adapter which is "An emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC" which the boot images recognize and not the other.
Strange issue but maybe me posting the resolve might helps others in case they change network adapters in their VM infrastructure. Thank you all for all your help and advice.
Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:05 PM
Do you mean a blank Task Sequence Manager screen? If so, do you have a task sequence deployed to the Unknown Computers collection?
Mike Leach | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/mleach/default.aspx
Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:16 PM
I did. I have a Win 7 x86 image and made a task sequence for the following:
1. All unknown Computers
2. Made available to: Configuration Manager Clients,media and PXE
3. Selected Download content locally when needed by running task sequence.
Then went through the Deploy section and still nothing.
Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:25 PM
Has this VM ever had an OS install on it that had the ConfigMgr client installed? Of so, find it and delete it from the console.
Mike Leach | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/mleach/default.aspx
Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:28 PM
The first few times I tried with no success I did notice it was added to the Devices list even without installing an OS image on it. I deleted that figuring that may complicate things and tested again to no avail.
It's very confusing as I think I am just missing one simple thing but I cant figure out what it is.
Thank you for your suggestions though. Keep em coming :)
Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:32 PM
Also, just to note, after creating the image and selecting the only DP I have to distribute content it is successful. Then, if I navigate to the RemoteInstall folder I'm guessing I should see it in one of these subfolders. However it is not in here. If I look at the data source for the created Win 7 image it will say it is located on the CD drive that I shared to add the image to SCCM.
Doesn't SCCM copy this somewhere when adding it as an OS image? Did I do that piece incorrectly?
Thursday, March 27, 2014 10:08 PM
Tried to create a new boot image and new task sequence as well. This is only a test between one SCCM server with all roles attached to it and a VMware VM. All is fine until after the PXE boot and I see the IT Organization box and it starts to load Network settings and then nothing. Blank screen and then a reboot.
Friday, March 28, 2014 4:04 AM
Can you add VM network drivers into boot image and see or can you enable Command prompt using "F8" function key and check wether the VM getting IP or not?
Friday, March 28, 2014 4:21 AM
Sounds like your boot image is missing network drivers...
Couple of checks though:
- If the VM in case has already been introduced somehow to ConfigMgr, check Devices -node from the console and search for "Unknown", if there are objects named "Unknown" (not the default x86 or x64 objects!), delete them
- Add command line support (F8) to your boot image
- Boot your VM, as soon as you get in to WinPE, hit F8 to open command prompt
- Run ipconfig to see if the VM get's IP address
If the VM doesn't get IP address, you probably don't have the correct network driver in your boot image. You can obtain the correct driver by installing OS (the same architecture as you boot image, and based on the same FullOS of your boot image, ConfigMgr 2012 RTM=WinPE3.1=Windows 7, SP1=WinPE4.0=Windows 8, R2=WinPE5.0=Windows 8.1) on to your VMware VM and then use this tool: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ConfigMgr-Driver-Injector-aae7d17d to capture the needed drivers. Then you can import those drivers to ConfigMgr, categorize them and add the LAN and SCSI drivers to your boot image.
Friday, March 28, 2014 7:01 PM
Like I thought, you didn't have the correct LAN driver in your boot image. If you want to use VMXnet3, just import the driver and add it to your boot image.
Friday, March 28, 2014 7:07 PM
Correct you are right. The issue is you cant just grab the VMXNET drivers from the VMware tools\Drivers folders. If you follow this post you can find where to grab them inside a VM and use them to put in the SCCM driver package.
Friday, March 28, 2014 7:50 PM
If you'd follow my guide above, it does the same thing. Actually, it does the same thing for every single hardware you have, virtual or physical.
Friday, March 28, 2014 7:57 PM
If you'd follow my guide above, it does the same thing. Actually, it does the same thing for every single hardware you have, virtual or physical.
Just to add to this. The tool he is suggesting works well when it comes to getting the drivers off of a machine.
Friday, March 28, 2014 10:23 PM
And VM is machine. Basically the tool grabs all the drivers that aren't in the base os by default, so it works on VMs and physical HW. It would've worked in this scenario also.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 7:24 PM
Press F8, then ping to sccm server; review IP with ipconfig; if the IP is no set, the problem is ethernet driver.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016 2:21 PM
Saved my day!
Lennart