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Hi I have the following setup :

  • A router that does DHCP
  • a PXE server (VMware workstation Bridged mode)
  • a client I want to boot on (VMware workstation Bridged mode)

I was following this guide on setting up a PXE boot infrastructure but I'm stuck now, since I cannot install DHCP on the PXE server (won't it conflict with my DHCP on my router?) and apperently I need to specify a file it needs to fetch to do a PXE boot.

How can I achieve a working PXE server without the DHCP server being the PXE server itself?

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4 Answers 4

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There is absolutely zero requirement for the DHCP server to be the same machine as the TFTP server (there's no such thing as a "PXE server"). You simply configure the DHCP server to provide the necessary DHCP options for PXE booting. Good luck managing that on a dinky toy consumer router, though.

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  • basically there is no way that I can do this on my dinky router then ? Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:32
  • I'd say it's incredibly unlikely. I've never seen a consumer CPE with that complete a feature set. Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:33
  • might there be a way to statically point to a PXE server and the file ? Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:37
  • No, the DHCP server just flat out will not support it. I'd just turf the dinky toy as your DHCP server and use a real one off the TFTP server -- or chuck your entire PXE infrastructure on a separate physical segment, and still run the PXE over this separate LAN. It works quite well, and VLANs are cheap (especially in virtual gear). Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:50
  • got it all up and working now :D only the boot.txt isnt displayed but everything else works fine Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 16:22
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subnet 192.168.51.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { range 192.168.51.64 192.168.51.80; filename "pxelinux.0"; next-server 192.168.51.1; option routers 192.168.51.1; }

It looks like the requirement of the extended DHCP "filename" option rules out most router-based DHCP servers. The typical router-based DHCP server is mainly focused around the minimal functionality of just managing IP addressing.

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Recently figured out how to do this with a dinky consumer router running DD-WRT.

Go to DNSMasq settings in Services. Make sure DNSMasq is enabled. Then add this line to the box marked "Addition DNSMasq Options":

dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0,,192.168.5.143

Where "192.168.5.143" is the PXE (TFTP) server's address. And "pxelinux.0" is the file to boot.

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There is proxydhcp servers (dnsmasq can be configured to do this) which only provides the missing options from the normal DHCP server.

  • external DHCP
  • TFTP server with you NBP
  • ProxyDHCP that adds the extra options.

All of these can be on different machines/devices

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