BigFix PXE Boot is in a loop

I’m trying to do a PXE Boot to image a Windows 7 laptop (Dell Lat 7480 and 5580). The PXE boot menu runs fine and I was able to see the Binding Menu. However when I select an image I want to push to target machine, the process is in a loop. It will download the *.wim file and then it will go back to the PXE menu. Any idea where I should start troubleshooting this issue?

Check that the BIOS is set to boot the hard drive before the network, and that you have drivers for the hard drive available in the image file or in the Driver Library dashboard.

Hi Antonioe

Where you able to fix this issue?

I am currently having the same problem

These are the logs

[2019/03/21 11:59:36] S Loop detected by SyslinuxSetupEngine
[2019/03/21 11:59:36] S A loop has been detected for activity 392324934 when target was starting from network

Hi,
likely the boot on WinPE is crashing so the only information that is on the bare metal server is that the target looped while trying to boot. Since it crashed, there’s no other information about the error on the bare metal server.
Could you please check the target computer, and eventually send a screenshot, to understand while it has an unexpected reboot during WinPE boot?
Thanks.

Hi Sergio !

Here are the screenshots from the target computer





Hello,
the computer being installed cannot reach the bare metal server to download the instructions to continue the deployment. It seems that the network card is configured but it cannot reach it. Does he have a valid IP address to connect to the network? It seems it cannot even to connect to the network.
Thanks.

Hi Sergio

After the connection to the socket failes it finds a network interface but then issues a error regarding drivers.
See screenshot

According to our network specialist there shouldn’t be anything preventing this computer from talking to the baremetal server.

That just indicates that some network devices were detected, not that they got an IP address.

First thing I’d check is to into the WinPE environment, then hit CTRL-C to break out of the Rembo script. Check ipconfig, check diskpart, ensure the system is getting an IP address and recognizes the hard drive.

Check the ipconfig as quickly as you can, and if it recognizes an adapter but did not get an ip address, then wait a full minute and try again. If you have an IP address the second try but not the first try, have a talk with your network admin about spanning-tree portfast

If you still don’t have an IP address after a full minute, you may need to add or change driver bindings for the WinPE image.

Post back here either way

Hi guys and thank you for the quick response

After further debugging with the Internet specialist and more port openings we we are able to establish a connection to the server , and the boot procedure began.

But when when one door opens another closes.

This is where we are stopping at the moment.

And we are getting this error in the bom3.log
[2019/03/25 13:39:17:124] W Activity started. RemboRoot [local://root/x$]
[2019/03/25 13:39:38:166] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:39:59:208] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:40:20:250] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:40:41:292] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:41:02:334] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:41:23:376] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:41:44:418] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:42:05:460] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:42:26:502] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:42:47:544] TCP connect error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[2019/03/25 13:42:47:653] W An Exception occurred.
[2019/03/25 13:42:47:653] W Error raised by ExternalRPCcall in ibm_utils.rbc, line 320 [:0]
[2019/03/25 13:42:47:653] W Timeout (RPC: unable to connect)

Do you have any idea on what this could be?

Have you opened all of the required ports on the network, and potentially in Windows Firewall on the OSD server? Ask your network team what, if any, traffic is being blocked, and refer to the traffic list at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SS63NW_9.5.0/com.ibm.bigfix.lifecycle.doc/Lifecycle/OSD_Users_Guide/r_bm_server_ports.html