I'm trying to sort out what's going on with our PXE server now that we've upgraded to 1511 and why it's behaving differently from what I'm reading.
We've recently upgraded our 2012 R2 environment to 1511. We have not yet upgraded to 1602 or 1606. That is in the works. First some quick background. We have a single PXE enabled DP. On that we have the original, production boot image that we've been using for ages. Let's call it "BootImage1". This image is a 32bit boot image based on ADK 8.1. It is the boot image assigned to our production build task sequence which is advertised to "All Systems". After upgrading to 1511 we began development of a new build and it uses a new 64bit boot image based on ADK 1511. Let's call that one "BootImage2". This development build is only advertised to a development collection. Now, when we PXE boot any production machine SCCM offers up BootImage1 since that is the only one available through the deployment to All Systems. So far, so good. The problem is when we PXE boot one of the machines being used in development of the new build. Since they are members of both the "All Systems" collection (with the production build deployed) and the "Development Build" collection (with our development build deployed), SCCM has to decide which of the 2 available boot images to offer. Since BootImage2 is the most recent, or "newest" on the PXE server it is offered. Again, so far so good. Now from what I've read, if the boot image that the machine uses matches the one that is assigned to the selected task sequence, then the task sequence will just start. Granted what I've found was written for 2007 and 2012. What we're seeing is that even though the machine booted using BootImage2 and we select the DEV build (with BootImage2 assigned), SCCM stages BootImage2 and then reboots the system. When the system reboots it then automatically begins the selected task sequence. SCCM ignores what boot image was used to boot the system. It's a bit annoying and I'm sure that once we go production with this new build and pull the older BootImage1 out of the environment things will be smooth. The bigger problem is that with this new build we are 1) making the switch to BitLocker for encryption and 2) now going to support UEFI systems. Prior to the Networking team getting the DHCP options sorted we were booting from USB media. Now when we go to rebuild a BitLockered UEFI machine SCCM attempts to stage BootImage2 but the only partition visible is the OS partition, but that is encrypted by BitLocker. Since the partition will not be available to boot from then the staging fails. We have to boot from USB boot media which doesn't trigger the boot image staging, or clean the disk of partitions and PXE boot. I don't understand why SCCM does not recognize that the development machine booted from the proper boot image, but instead stages the same boot image and reboots? Has something changed in 1511 and how the PXE boot selection process is being handled? Or is there just something I'm missing or something we may have configured wrong? Thanks Mike Marable Microsoft Systems Engineer Lead Enterprise Device Engineering and Management MCPS, MCITP, MCTS, MCSA, MCSE, MS [Profile<http://www.mycertprofile.com/Profile/5319166625>] [Blog<http://thesystemsmonkey.wordpress.com/>] ---------------------------------------------------- "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." -Harriet Tubman "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." -Mark Twain "If it was easy everybody would do it." -Eric Thomas ********************************************************** Electronic Mail is not secure, may not be read every day, and should not be used for urgent or sensitive issues
