VMware VS4-ENT-PL-A Setup Guide - Page 129

Chapter 6 Before You Install ESXi PXE Booting the ESXi Installer You use the preboot execution environment (PXE) to boot a host and launch the ESXi installer from a network interface. ESXi 5.x is distributed in an ISO format that is designed to install to flash memory or to a local hard drive. You can extract the files and boot using PXE. PXE uses DHCP and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) to boot an operating system over a network. PXE booting requires some network infrastructure and a machine with a PXE-capable network adapter. Most machines that are capable of running ESXi have network adapters that are able to PXE boot. NOTE Ensure that the Auto Deploy server has an IPv4 address. PXE booting is supported only with IPv4. About the TFTP Server, PXELINUX, and gPXE Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is similar to the FTP service, and is typically used only for network booting systems or loading firmware on network devices such as routers. Most Linux distributions include a copy of the tftp-hpa server. If you require a supported solution, purchase a supported TFTP server from your vendor of choice. If your TFTP server will run on a Microsoft Windows host, use tftpd32 version 2.11 or later. See http://tftpd32.jounin.net/. Earlier versions of tftpd32 were incompatible with PXELINUX and gPXE. You can also acquire a TFTP server from one of the packaged appliances on the VMware Marketplace. The PXELINUX and gPXE environments allow your target machine to boot the ESXi installer. PXELINUX is part of the SYSLINUX package, which can be found at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/, although many Linux distributions include it. Many versions of PXELINUX also include gPXE. Some distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5.3, include earlier versions of PXELINUX that do not include gPXE. If you do not use gPXE, you might experience problems while booting the ESXi installer on a heavily loaded network TFTP is sometimes unreliable for transferring large amounts of data. If you use PXELINUX without gPXE, the pxelinux.0 binary file, the configuration file, the kernel, and other files are transferred by TFTP. If you use 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 boot the ESXi installer. NOTE VMware tests PXE booting with PXELINUX version 3.86. This is not a statement of limited support. For support of third-party agents that you use to set up your PXE booting infrastructure, contact the vendor. VMware, Inc. 129