1. PXE Server Configuration and Documentation
This server will be used to PXE boot workstations and assign them IP addresses (utilizing Wake-
On-Lan capable NICs on workstations), point to ESXi installation media and scripts, and to
automatically install and run ESXi 5.1 (via a specially configured kickstart file). These ESXi
hosts will then in turn host Virtual Machines for the lab. These VMs are administered and
configured using VMware vSphere and vCenter server appliance, and NETLAB+ is used as a
front-end for remote access for students and faculty to use or configure the VM pods (“pod” is a
pre-configured group of VMs configured for NETLAB) and environments.
The server must provide:
 TFTP Server (to serve the ESXi installation files/media and the other necessary
configuration files to the target hosts to start boot/installation)
 DHCP Server (provide target ESXi hosts with IP addresses, points to PXE boot file)
 Web Server (hosts the custom Kickstart script which automates the ESXi install, and
possibly other files if using gpxelinux.0)
 Access to the ESXi 5.1 files from .iso or other source, available to allow copies of the
files
 SYSLINUX (using either pxelinux.0 or gpxelinux.0 configuration files to boot)
 Kickstart configuration script (automates install among other settings)
If you use PXELINUX with the pxelinux.0 file, the pxelinux.0 binary file itself, the
configuration file boot.cfg, the kernel, and other files are transferred by TFTP. When using
gPXE, only the gpxelinux.0 binary file and configuration file are transferred by TFTP. With
gPXE, you can use a Web server to transfer the kernel and other files required to install. Because
of this, gPXE can provide better performance/secuirty in some cases, although both work
effectively in testing and pxelinux.0 is simpler to implement.
** This has only been tested using a Linux environment using SYSLINUX to provide the PXE
boot functions. There are Microsoft Windows solutions available, although those solutions are
more complex and bloated, heavily relying third- party applications. **
Test environment consisted of:
SusSE 11 Server SP3 VM with the following services/packages/configurations;
20GB HD
2GB RAM
Apache2, TFTP, DHCP, HTTP , SYSLINUX (using pxelinux.0)

2. TFTP Setup and Configuration
In SuSE Linux by the default this is located off the root at /tftpboot.
This TFTP directory structure will contain all the files needed for PXE booting (except for the
DHCP and kickstart script
This includes:
- The contents of the ESXi .iso (installation files)
- The SYSLINUX files
- The bootloader and its configuration file (boot.cfg)
#Depending on system you may have to create a pointer to the tftp directory, here is an example;
A copy of the pxelinux.0 file needs to be copied into the tftp directory so it is located at;
/tftpboot/pxelinux.0
pxelinux.0 is used by SYSLINUX to boot the hosts. The following directory needs to be created;
/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
This directory contains the file that pxelinux.0 uses to boot. This file needs to be created and
named default, and is located at;
/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

3. This PXE script must point to two vital files: The boot loader configuration file boot.cfg,
which specifies the kernel, kernel options, boot parameters, and the bootloader itself – which in
our case is mboot.c32
boot.cfg -contains additional bootloader settings, one of which is vital: location of kickstart
script – see example from test lab below;
The generic template for this file is isolinux.cfg –which is located in ESXi installation media

4. DHCP Setup and Configuration
The DHCP configuration file is called dhcpd.conf and is located at;
/etc/sysconfig/dhcpd.conf
Specifically, it assigns an IP address and points to the PXELINUX file used (pxelinux.0 or
gpxelinux.0) which is in the TFTP directories. The bold data below is the contents the
dhcpd.conf file used in the test environment.
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 169.254.0.255;
option domain-name "pxeserver.local";
option domain-name-servers 169.254.1.1;
option routers 169.254.0.1;
max-lease-time 604800;
authoritative ;
filename "pxelinux.0";
ddns-update-style none;
default-lease-time 86400;
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
allow booting;
allow bootp;
# the following defines the IP pool that DHCP will provide for the hosts
subnet 169.254.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 169.254.0.100 169.254.0.150;
}
class pxeclients {
match if substring(option vendor-class-indentifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
}
# The following entry will ensure the same IP is given every time it boots. This entry needs
to be repeated in dhcpd.conf (this file) for each host machine. (MAC addresses are needed)
host ESXi_1 {
hardware ethernet BA:DF:00:DF:C0:FF;
fixed-address 169.254.0.101;
option host-name ESXi_1;
}

5. Hosting Kickstartfile using HTTP/Apache2
The kickstart file mentioned above must be hosted using HTTP on the default web server. It
needs to be located on the web server root. For SuSE Linux this location is;
/srv/www/htdocs/
/srv/www/htdocs/kickstart.ks.cfg
For this environment the kickstart files is named ks, although it can be named anything.
# Remember, the kickstart file dictates how the machine will behave during/after installing
ESXi, such as rebooting, license agreements, and diskless hosts. The appropriate syntax must be
added/adjusted to conform to specific network needs.

6. Test.
After completing the above steps, making sure all files are in the correct directories and contain
the correct data the system can now be tested. Begin by restarting DHCP, TFTP, and HTTP
services.
Launch a host ( blank VM in VMware workstation was used in test environment) that is set to
boot form NIC and is on correct network. If all is correct, ESXi installation will begin.