VMware PXE Manager

April 2011
Prepared from Max Daneri

Copyright 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and
intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents.
2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved

What is PXE Manager

VMware PXE Manager is a management tools,
it supports automatic PXE boot (network boot using PXE) and automatic
customization of large numbers of ESXi systems,

Other features are ESXi state management and ESXi patches

management.

Main Datacenter
vCenter

PXE Manager

Screenshot

Features
Automated provisioning of new ESXi hosts stateless and statefull (no ESX)
ESXi host state (firmware) backup, restore, and archiving with retention
ESXi builds repository management (stateless and statefull)
ESXi Patch management
Multi vCenter support
Multi network support with agents (Linux CentOS virtual appliance will be available later)
Wake on Lan
Hosts memtest
vCenter plugin
Deploy directly to VMware Cloud Director
Deploy to Cisco UCS blades

OS Supported
Server
Windows 2003 R2 any service pack
Windows 2008 any service pack
Windows 2008 R2 any service pack (suggested)

Agent
Windows 2003 R2 only any service pack
Windows 2008 any service pack
Windows 2008 R2 any service pack
Linux Redhat 5.3 5.4 5.5 (*)
Linux CentOS 5.3 5.4 5.5(*)
Open Suse 11.x(*)

Novell Suse enterprise 11(*)

Plugin
see vSphere client OS support
(*) Novell mono 2.6.7 is required
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Requirement
Server and Agent Windows
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-

81da479ab0d7

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Update KB 959209

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959209

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) (Agent only)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=bd512d9e-43c8-4655-81bf9350143d5867

Agent Linux
Novell Mono 2.6.7 http://www.go-mono.com/mono-downloads/download.html

Plugin
See vSphere client OS requirement

Multi vCenter configuration

Datacenter A

PXE Agent

Datacenter B

PXE Agent
vCenter

Datacenter C

PXE Agent
vCenter

vCenter

Main Datacenter
vCenter

PXE Manager

vCenter Linked communication

PXE Manager communication

GPXE booting process

ESXi target host

VMware vCenter
VMware vCloud Director

Give me an IP

DHCP (*)

UDP 68-67

IP & TFTP

UDP 69

gpxeinux.0

PXE Agent

Give me the boat Loader

TFTP
PXE Server

Give me Kernel & RamDisk

HTTP
Host is online start
configuration

Host is online

TCP 8733

Kernel & RamDisk

TCP 3333
Im online

On line

SOAP 8732

Start
configuration

Apply Host
profile

SOAP 443

SOAP 443

REST 443

Add to PVDC

Configuration
Apply profile
Join vCloud

Host state
SOAP 443

(*) DHCP is not RFC compliant

8

Im on vCenter

SOAP 443

Ive my profile

https 902

Im on vCloud director

Give me Host state

Give me Host state

Save Host state

SOAP 443

Save host state

Take my host state

Host state
SOAP 443

ESXi host

PXE booting process

ESXi target host

VMware vCenter
VMware vCloud Director

Give me an IP

DHCP (*)

UDP 67-68

IP & TFTP

UDP 69

gpxeinux.0

PXE Agent

Give me the boat Loader

TFTP
PXE Server

Give me Kernel & RamDisk

TFTP
Host is online start
configuration

Host is online

UDP 69

Kernel & RamDisk

TCP 3333
Im online

On line

SOAP 8732

Start
configuration

Apply Host
profile

SOAP 443

SOAP 443

REST 443

Add to PVDC

Configuration
Apply profile
Join vCloud

Host state
SOAP 443

(*) DHCP is not RFC compliant

9

Im on vCenter

SOAP 443

Ive my profile

https 902

Im on vCloud director

Give me Host state

Give me Host state

Save Host state

SOAP 443

Save host state

Take my host state

Host state
SOAP 443

ESXi host

Cost & Licenses

Price: Free
License: Technical Preview License
more info to: http://labs.vmware.com/tech-agreement

Download: http://labs.vmware.com/flings/pxe-manager

Availability: Q2 2011

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