Upgrading PXE Everywhere

Overview

  1. Review Requirements and read through the process below to understand what is involved.

  2. Upgrade PXE Everywhere Central.

  3. Upgrade or install PXE Everywhere Responders to support subnets where DHCP is blocked.

  4. Deploy 1E Client with PXE Everywhere enabled.

  5. Update Task Sequences.

If you are implementing DHCP Snooping for the first time, at the same time as upgrading an existing implementation of PXE Everywhere, note the following:

  • Refer to guidance provided in Infrastructure requirements regarding deployment of PXE Everywhere Responder(s) and configuring additional DHCP Relays (IP helpers).

  • On computers where the 1E Client with PXE Everywhere module is installed, you must change the inbound firewall port from 67 to 2067 (or different custom port).

  • The PXE Everywhere Agent and the PXE Everywhere Responder are not supported on the same computer.

  • Install PXE Everywhere Responder on a legacy PXE Everywhere Agent that was previously installed with support for DHCP Snooping enabled. See below for more information.

Upgrade process

  1. On the PXE Everywhere Central server, perform any necessary pre-upgrade steps:

    • Always make a backup of web.config file if any custom changes have been made to the default settings in it.

    • Ensure that any custom settings that have been modified in the PXELite Application pool are captured.

    • Create a backup of stored procedures deployed by the PXE Everywhere central installer if any custom changes are made to them.

  2. Upgrade the PXE Everywhere Central components by following the steps described in Installing PXE Everywhere Central.

    Different versions of PXE Everywhere Central cannot co-exist on the same server.

  3. Perform any necessary post-upgrade steps:

    • Restore the backup of web.config file if any custom changes were made to the default settings prior to upgrade.

    • Perform modifications to any custom settings that were modified in the PXELite Application pool prior to upgrade.

    • Restore the backup of customized stored procedures that were created prior to upgrade.

      Some changes mentioned above require an IIS reset before they come into effect.

  4. Verify the PXE Everywhere Central functionality by following the steps described in Verifying.

  5. If you are implementing in an environment that has DHCP blocked (for example using DCP Snooping), and you have existing Responders, they can be upgraded using the steps in Installing PXE Everywhere Responder.

    • The PXE Everywhere Responder v4.0 and later has its own installer, which can be used to upgrade the Static Responders. Previous versions of Responders (also known as Static Responders) are legacy PXE Everywhere Agents configured in Responder mode, with its DHCP Port fixed at 67.

    • The PXE Everywhere Responder can also be used to upgrade a normal Agent to function as a new Responder. A known issue exists if the previous Agent had support for DHCP Snooping enabled. Then you will need to forcibly change its DHCP port back to 67 by including DHCPPORT=67 as a command-line installer property when installing the Responder. You can optionally include this installer property when installing or upgrading other scenarios.

  6. Upgrade all the PXE Everywhere Agents to the latest version by following the steps for Installing PXE Everywhere Agents. All Agents on a subnet must be upgraded together. Different versions of the PXE Everywhere Agent cannot co-exist on the same subnet.

    Client Deployment Assistant is the recommended method of installing and upgrading the PXE Everywhere Agent.

    If you deployed the legacy PXE Everywhere Agent using a previous version of Client Deployment Assistant (CDA) then you should upgrade using the latest version of CDA. If you upgrade a CDA installation using the MSI, for example in a test lab, then the boot files (ADK files and boot image) will not be migrated to the new location used by the 1E Client's PXE Everywhere Agent, and you will need to deploy the ADK files and boot image as post-install tasks, as described in Deploying Microsoft ADK files.

  7. Update any Task Sequences used to stage 1E PXE Everywhere boot images, with the new path for running CreateBCD.exe.

    Refer to Preparing and deploying 1E PXE Everywhere boot images. The legacy PXE Everywhere Agent was only x86 therefore had different paths for x64 and x86 platforms. The PXE Everywhere Agent in the 1E Client has separate installers for x86 and x64, and only uses one path, and does not require any OS conditions. Existing Task Sequences will have two stage boot image steps:

    • Stage boot image (x64 systems).

    • Stage boot image (x86 systems).

    Edit the Task Sequence (or a clone) as follows:

    • Delete one of the above steps, and edit the other remaining step.

    • Change its name to Stage boot image.

    • Change the command line as shown below.

    • Remove the existing conditions, click Options tab and Remove All.

    • Click OK to save the Task Sequence.

      Deploy the updated/cloned Task Sequence to the 1E Client Collection as described in Preparing and deploying 1E PXE Everywhere boot images.

      You do not need to update boot images.

  8. Update other OS Deployment Task Sequences to use the new 1E PXE Everywhere boot images.

    Platform

    Legacy

    New command line

    x64

    "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\1E\PXE Lite\Server\x64\CreateBcd.exe"

    "%ProgramFiles%\1E\Client\Extensibility\PXEEverywhere\CreateBcd.exe"

    x86

    "%ProgramFiles%\1E\PXE Lite\Server\i386\CreateBCD.exe"

Next steps