Configure DHCP Server for PXE Booting

Difficulty level: advanced

Goal

To set up the 633x-MX router to hand out Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server information via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), allowing the client devices that supports Preboot Environment Execution (PXE) booting to take advantage of the advanced DHCP server settings.

Setup

This article assumes the 633x-MX router is operating under default settings, all relevant PXE boot files and TFTP server processes are in place ready to be connected, and the client device is in a state ready for PXE boot.

A generic Linux distribution is used as an example for the set up, and no operating system installations will be covered.

Configuration Steps

Open the configuration profile for the 633x-MX and make the following changes.  

  1. Navigate to Network -> Interfaces -> LAN -> IPv4 -> DHCP server -> Advanced settings.

  2. Under field Bootfile name, insert: pxelinux.0 (this depends on the desired file name. If the file is not directly under /tftpboot/, ensure the relative file path is also included).

  3. Under field TFTP server name, insert: 192.168.2.x where 'x'  is the last octet of the TFTP server IP address (assume using subnet /24).

  4. Save the configuration.