BMC5719 & ESXi

[bishop]

So this is the ID -> 14e4-1657

This is process I follow from start to point of failure.
1) Create a iPXE iso using make command with an embedded menu. this points to my http share that hosts the esxi files
2) Mount the iso via the HP iLO
3) Host boot from iso, then starts to pull down and boot ESXi
4) ESXi starts to load it's various modules and fail to find an available network adapter and errors out.

If I drop to the iPXE shell at step 3, I am able to bring all 4 network cards online and they all get a IP address. So I know iPXE network is working.

Just to add, I am using the ISO option because another part of my company "owns" the PXE settings in DHCP and won't allow any changes.

I have tried using undionly.kpxe. I don't think I am doing it right. I boot from my ipxe.iso, then break into the shell and run.

chain http://share/undionly.kpxe

it then respondes ok to the undionly.kpxe then some message about free memory of PXE unload.

Then iPXE 1.0.0+ ..... message appears and then nothing

Out of interest when the nic does it's PXE thing it is display details about the Broadcom UNDI firmware version
I cannot upload screenshots because I cannot access this forum from my work network.

UPDATE:

not sure how to explain this in a way that makes sense, but here goes

I have 2 test machines , a physical and a virtual. I setup auto deploy on a vCenter server so I could access VMware's PXE boot files. I placed these files on a http share.

On the Virtual machine I mount my ipxe.iso file boot from it , let ipxe do it's thing.I check the config and see that the chipset is that of the virtual nic. I then exit to the shell and run

Code:

chain http://myserver/undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired

this boot the kpxe from vmware. I ctrl-b to break into the shell. check my config again and it has undionly the chip set. I then start dhcp and I can launch autodeploy

On the physical I mount my ipxe.iso file boot from it , let ipxe do it's thing.I check the config and see that the chipset is 14e4-1657. I then exit to the shell and run

Code:

chain http://myserver/undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired

this boot the kpxe from vmware. I ctrl-b to break into the shell. check my config again and it has undionly the chip set. So everything appears good so far. But when I go the start DHCP the system just hangs.

So my speculation is that when I boot from my initial iPXE.iso and it initializes DHCP at this point it locks up the network adapter.

I have also tried using rom-o-matic to create a iso image with only the undionly driver, but each time it uses the 14e4-1657 driver. What am I missing ??