How to Add a PXE Server to VMM

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

You can use the following procedure to add a pre-boot execution environment (PXE) server to Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). The PXE server is used to initiate the operating system installation on the physical computer.

Account requirements: You must perform this procedure as a member of the Administrator user role.

Before you begin this procedure, make sure that the following prerequisites are met:

• You must have a PXE server that is provided through Windows Deployment Services. If you have an existing PXE server in your environment that is provided through Windows Deployment Services, you can use that. VMM will only respond to requests from computers that have been designated as new virtual machine hosts by VMM. All other requests will continue to be handled by the PXE server according to how it is configured.

  If you do not have an existing PXE server, you can deploy the Windows Deployment Services role on a server running a supported operating system. The operating system can be as follows:

  • In System Center 2012: Windows Server 2008 R2

  • In System Center 2012 SP1: Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012

  • In System Center 2012 R2: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012 R2

  For information about how to deploy Windows Deployment Services, including the required permissions, see the Windows Deployment Services Getting Started Guide for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, or the Windows Deployment Services Getting Started Guide for Windows Server 2012.

  When you install Windows Deployment Services, consider the following:

  • During installation of the Windows Deployment Services role, install both the Deployment Server and the Transport Server options.

  • When you configure Windows Deployment Services, you do not have to add images to Windows Deployment Services. During host deployment, VMM uses a virtual hard disk that you have created and stored in the VMM library.

  • You do not have to configure the settings on the PXE Response tab in Windows Deployment Services. VMM ignores these settings because VMM uses its own PXE provider.

• The PXE server must be in the same subnet as the physical computers that you want to provision.

• When you add a PXE server, you must specify account credentials for an account that has local administrator permissions on the PXE server. You can enter a user name and password or specify a Run As account. If you want to use a Run As account, you can create the Run As account before you begin this procedure, or create it during the procedure.

  For example, create a Run As account that is named PXE Administrator.

  Note

  You can create Run As accounts in the Settings workspace. For more information about Run As accounts, see How to Create a Run As Account.

To add the PXE server to VMM

1. Open the Fabric workspace.

2. In the Fabric pane, click Servers.

3. On the Home tab, in the Add group, click Add Resources, and then click PXE Server.

4. In the Add PXE Server dialog box, do the following:

   1. In the Computer name box, enter the computer name of the PXE server.

      For example, enter PXEServer01.contoso.com.

   2. Enter the credentials for an account that has local administrator permissions on the PXE server.

      You can specify an existing Run As account or manually enter user credentials in the format domain_name\user_name.

      Note

      If you do not already have a Run As account, click Browse, and then in the Select a Run As Account dialog box, click Create Run As Account.

      For example, if you created the example PXE Administrator Run As account that is described in the Prerequisites section of this topic, you would click Browse, click the PXE Administrator Run As account, and then click OK.

   3. Click Add.

      The Jobs dialog box opens. Verify that the job has a status of Completed, and then close the dialog box. The job sets up the new PXE server, installs the VMM agent on the PXE server, imports a new Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) image, and adds the machine account for the PXE server to VMM.

5. To verify that the PXE server was added, perform these steps:

   1. In the Fabric pane, expand Servers, and then click PXE Servers.

   2. On the Home tab, in the Show group, click Fabric Resources.

   3. In the PXE Servers pane, verify that the PXE server appears with an agent status of Responding.

Adding Physical Computers as Hyper-V Hosts or as Scale-Out File Servers in VMM Overview