•Disable—VC Manager sends a configuration update to the associated mezzanine NIC or embedded NIC to disable PXE operations.

•Use BIOS—Current BIOS settings are used for embedded NICs and mezzanine NIC PXE operations. VC Manager makes no changes to the current settings.

This is not applicable to Flex-10 LOM ports when used with Flex-10 interconnect modules. In this situation, the USE-BIOS option for PXE boot in a VC profile always allows a server to PXE boot from a LOM port irrespective of the initial LOM settings in the BIOS utility (F9 screen).

HP BladeSystem c-Class server blades have a factory default configuration for PXE to be enabled on embedded NIC 1 only, included as the last entry in the RBSU IPL priority list (boot order). VC Manager and the BIOS limit the number of PXE enabled embedded NICs to one. However, additional NIC ports from a mezzanine adapter can be enabled simultaneously using the "Use BIOS" settings.

All mezzanine NIC ports can be enabled for PXE booting at the same time, along with one embedded NIC port. If one or more mezzanine NIC ports are enabled for PXE booting, you should review the RBSU IPL list to validate or update the boot order priority.

If you need to enable PXE on more than one NIC port, you must set all of the NICs' PXE configuration options in the VCM to "Use BIOS". Then, configure the individual PXE NIC settings using RBSU: F9 during POST to configure an embedded NIC, and F1 during POST to configure the mezzanine NIC ports. After all of the selected NIC ports are PXE enabled, you must configure the boot order using the RBSU boot order settings.

Only the first FlexNIC on each physical port of a Flex-10 device can be used for PXE boot. Virtual Connect cannot enable PXE boot on the remaining FlexNICs of a physical port.

Redundancy for PXE operations can be achieved using multiple PXE enabled NICs. However, the Virtual Connect Manager is limited to enabling only one NIC for PXE booting. If a configuration requires more than one NIC to have PXE enabled, you should set all NICs in the VC Manager to the "Use BIOS" setting, and configure the NIC PXE settings through their respective BIOS utilities (F9 for embedded NICs, and F1 for mezzanine NIC ports.)

The following table lists examples of valid configurations for PXE enabling NIC ports. This is only a sampling of the possible valid configurations.

PXE enabledPXE disabledServer blade configuration

 

 

 

Embedded NIC 1,

Embedded NIC 2,

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Mezz NIC port 2

adapter

Embedded NIC 2,

Embedded NIC 1,

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Mezz NIC port 2

adapter

Embedded NIC 1,

Embedded NIC 1

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 1 NIC port 1, 2

 

 

adapter

Mezz 1 NIC port 1, 2

Embedded NIC 1, 2

BL46xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

 

 

 

 

adapter

Embedded NIC 1,

Embedded NIC 2, 3, 4

BL48xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 1 NIC port 1

Mezz 1

NIC port 1

adapter and a quad-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 2 NIC ports 1, 2

Mezz 2

NIC port 3, 4

adapter

Embedded NIC 4,

Embedded NIC 1, 2, 3

BL48xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 1

NIC ports 1, 2

 

 

adapter and a quad-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 2

NIC ports 1, 2, 3, 4

 

 

adapter

Mezz 1

NIC port 1

Embedded NIC 1, 2, 3, 4

BL48xc with a dual-port NIC mezzanine

Mezz 2

NIC ports 1

Mezz 1

NIC port 2

adapter and a quad-port NIC mezzanine

 

 

Mezz 2

NIC port 2, 3, 4

adapter

Virtual Connect server profiles 171