Dell T20 iPXE integration

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by hicksel, May 27, 2017.

  1. hicksel

    hicksel MDL Novice

    May 27, 2017
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    Hello,

    I am trying to replace the PXE Firmware of my Intel I217-V network card. But since it´s an embedded network card the firmware is part of the bios. I have already built the required iPXE rom for my network card. But the guide on the etherboot documentation only refers to modifying a AMI BIOS(etherboot.org/wiki/amibios). Using the "Phoenix/DELL/EFI SLIC Mod v2.66" I have found out, that my server is using a “EFI/ Insyde BIOS (Dell HDR)” Bios. But so far I have not been able to extract the HDR file since the latest update is shipped as an exe and does not accept any of common extraction arguments. I could attached only the ipxe rom I built since bios is with 9MB too big for the forum. The latest version "PET20A12.exe" be found at www*dell.com/support/home/en/us/debsdt1/product-support/product/poweredge-t20/drivers. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
     

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  2. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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    You do not need to replace the firmware on the card. You can still boot to iPXE (either legacy or UEFI), by simply serving the files from tftp server via DHCP entries
     
  3. hicksel

    hicksel MDL Novice

    May 27, 2017
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    I am indeed aware of that fact. But my servers are located at a remote location where I’m happy to have VPN functionality in the router. Also using ipxe I can build images with startup scripts which for example automate imaging a server if booting from the HDD fails. This would be more convenient than using AMT to connect to every server.