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    PXE boot issues during TFTP stage

    General pfSense Questions
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    • J
      jonesr
      last edited by

      I have a PXE deployment server which works perfectly within its own network. However on a second network the PXE boot stage begins but then fails to proceed.

      • In both networks pfSense is the DCHP server handing out the IPs and PXE config, ie the deployment server IP address and boot file.

      • On the second network UDP 69 is allowed and no other traffic is logged as blocked.

      • Without the TFTP proxy enabled the client times out downloading the PXE boot program

      • With the TFTP proxy enabled, in the screenshot attached the last line is from the PXE boot program so clearly it has managed to connect to the server and communicate, but proceeds no further.

      Is there anything else I can try? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

      Regards.
      PXE.png
      PXE.png_thumb

      pfSense AMD64 VGA - Assume latest version.
      Suricata, pfBlockerNG, SquidGuard, squid3.

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      • J
        jonesr
        last edited by

        I think I may have fixed this. Hope this helps someone else:

        My setup is pfSense as DHCP server, and a WDS server acting as the deployment server but with WDSLinux also in play - http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=WDSLINUX

        Disable TFTP proxy
        Configure pfSense DHCP server for network boot on the client side interface, with next server IP address as the WDS server and for bootfile, for WDSLinux, "boot\x64\pxelinux.com"
        Allow UDP 69 on client side pfSense firewall rules through to the server.
        Allow UDP >1024 on server side pfSense firewall rules through to the client.

        The last comment due to seeing blocked traffic on ports 2070-2079 on one attempt and 49152 on a second. I looked up the ports but the associated services didn't seem relevant so I guess it must be picking a random higher port. I hope to clean this rule down but this is what it took to get it to work.

        pfSense AMD64 VGA - Assume latest version.
        Suricata, pfBlockerNG, SquidGuard, squid3.

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