Q: Why isn’t the System Center Configuration Manager 2012 PXE boot working?

A: First the basics: Make sure you have installed the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) role on your System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012 server that’s acting as a PXE point. There’s no separate PXE role in SCCM 2012 anymore, so you need to make sure the distribution point that has the WDS role installed is enabled for PXE.

To do this, select the properties of the distribution point. Under the PXE tab (see screen shot below), enable PXE support, including options to support unknown devices and whether a password should be required.

sccm2012pxesupport
sccm2012pxesupport-Copy

Next, make sure the x86 and x64 boot images are distributed to the PXE-enabled distribution point. Even if all your clients are x64, you still need the x86 PXE boot image to be available. In the properties of the boot image, under Data Source, make sure the check box labeled Deploy this boot image from the PXE service point is selected (see screen shot below).

sccm2012frompxe
sccm2012frompxe-Copy

Create a task sequence and distribute it, making sure it’s configured as Make available to boot media and PXE. If machines can’t boot via PXE, open up the SMSPXE.LOG file in the CMTrace.exe tool on the SCCM PXE, and look for problems. (See also, "10 Steps to Migration: Configuration Manager 2012").

Need more FAQs about System Center? Maybe virtualization? Or other Windows issues? See John Savill's FAQs for Windows!

Please or Register to post comments.

IT/Dev Connections

Las Vegas
September 30th - October 4th

Paul ThurottYou'll have the opportunity to experience:
• The Microsoft
Technology Roadmap
• Office 365 Implementation
• Hyper-V Optimizing
• Windows 8 Deployment
and much more!

Come See Paul Thurrott & Rod Trent in Person!

Early Registration Now Open

Upcoming Training

Mastering System Center 2012

During over 6 hours of training you can join John Savill from your computer as he will walk you through the key components and capabilities of System Center 2012, what’s involved in using the components, and the benefit they can bring to your environment.

Register Now

Current Issue

May 2013 - The NameTranslate object is useful when you need to translate Active Directory object names between different formats, but it's awkward to use from PowerShell. Here's a PowerShell script that eliminates the awkwardness.

CURRENT ISSUE / ARCHIVE / SUBSCRIBE

Windows Forums

Get answers to questions, share tips, and engage with the Windows Community in our Forums.