Hello,
(Update: I move this question to ESXi forum because I think it is more related to it...)
we are trying to boot a virtual machine by using PXE EFI boot and we are unable.
This is our setup:
- Hypervisor ESXi 5.5 U3g
- VM:
- VM hardware profile 10
- Windows 10 64-bit guest operative system
- EFI boot mode
- Network interfaces switched between E1000, E1000E and VMXNET3
We performed some captures and we have always the same problem: DHCP protocol exchange is OK but when the Virtual Machine should begin with the TFTP request, it crashes without ever sending the initial TFTP request package.
However, we have tested the same configuration for the virtualmachine in Player 12 (with VM Hardware profile 12 but the same values for the rest of configuration of the virtual machine) and the PXE EFI boot works sucessfully. It performs the DHCP exchanges and begins with the TFTP protocol for exchanging data files and it eventually boots.
So, we decided to test the Virtual Machine with a higher version of the hypervisor and also with higher versions of hardare profiles. We performed tests with ESXi 6.0 and 6.5, and with the virtual machine converted to hardware profile 11, 12 and 13 and we couldn't boot the virtual machine with PXE EFI never. We had always the same behaviour: the DHCP protocol exchange finished and the virtual machine crashes when it should send the first TFTP request package.
I would like to point out that "BIOS" PXE boot works greatly since the first time.
Do you know of any limitation to boot a virtual machine with PXE EFI? Any tip to get it?
Best regards,
Christian