PXE Booting off PCI-e NIC

steelforce

Junior Member
Sep 28, 2003
13
0
0
Perhaps this is a bit off-topic for this forum - but I'm tearing my hair out over this...

I've got a number of HP DL360 G5 servers. The onboard NIC has really poor driver support, so I installed a HP NC364T NIC in the box and disabled the onboard NIC. If I do an install off a physical CD disc, it works perfectly.

However, I'd really like to PXE boot these boxes. The problem is that I never see the opportunity to set the PCI-e NIC in the boot priority order in the BIOS. I've verified that I have the latest BIOS installed in the system.

Any thoughts?
 

Tristor

Senior member
Jul 25, 2007
314
0
71
You might be able to use Etherboot to flash PXE compat into the BIOS, or it may require that you add a boot rom to the NIC. PXE is a PITA sometimes.
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
3
76
You need to research on HPs site; PXE boot has been a common feature on HP servers for years now. I don't remember off the top of my head, but there's a key stroke (one of the "F" keys) that will show a boot menu to include PXE, whether that's from the onboard or expansion slot NiC.

Also, the NiC may have a BIOS you can go into to enable it as a boot device.

It may be that you need to enable PXE boot in the servers' BIOS, the NiC's BIOS or a combination of both.

I am 100% positive you can PXE boot off that PCI-E NiC, especially since it's an HP-branded (i.e. it has an HP BiOS) NiC.
 

dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
5,626
2
81
Originally posted by: steelforce
Perhaps this is a bit off-topic for this forum - but I'm tearing my hair out over this...

I've got a number of HP DL360 G5 servers. The onboard NIC has really poor driver support, so I installed a HP NC364T NIC in the box and disabled the onboard NIC. If I do an install off a physical CD disc, it works perfectly.

However, I'd really like to PXE boot these boxes. The problem is that I never see the opportunity to set the PCI-e NIC in the boot priority order in the BIOS. I've verified that I have the latest BIOS installed in the system.

Any thoughts?

Is this a Microsoft RIS issue?