NVIDIA Networking Server-Side Preboot Drivers (Flexboot/UEFI) User Manual v21
NVIDIA ConnectX-5 Adapter Cards Firmware Release Notes v16.35.3502 LTS

PXE Boot

  • Make sure that your client is connected physically and logically to the server(s)

  • The PreBoot drivers' images are already programmed on the adapter card

  • For InfiniBand ports only: Start the Subnet Manager

  • Configure and start the DHCP server

  • Configure and start at least one of the services such as: iSCSI, tftp, http

Boot the client machine and enter BIOS setup to configure "MLNX FlexBoot" to be the first on the boot device priority list.

Warning

On dual-port ConnectX-3 network adapters, the client first attempts to boot from Port 1. If this fails, it switches to boot from Port 2. Note also that the driver waits up to 10 seconds for port come up and up to 90 seconds to assign an IP from the DHCP server.

If a PreBoot driver was selected through BIOS setup, the client will boot from FlexBoot. The client will display FlexBoot attributes, sense the port protocol (In ConnectX-3 cards only) – Ethernet or InfiniBand. The port sensing occurs only when the port is connected to a QSFP connector. In case of an InfiniBand port, the client will also wait for port configuration by the Subnet Manager. If auto-sensing protocol fails, the port will be configured as an InfiniBand port.

After configuring the IB/ETH port, the client attempts to connect to the DHCP server to obtain an IP address and the source location of the kernel/OS to boot from. Next, FlexBoot attempts to boot as directed by the DHCP server.

After performing basic HTTP configuration, add the following lines to the dhcp server configuration file:

Copy
Copied!
            

host uefi24-1 { hardware ethernet F4:52:14:7A:56:F1 ; fixed-address 14.7.6.24; filename "pxe_script_linux"; option vendor-class-identifier "PXEClient"; } "pxe_script_linux" file: #!ipxe dhcp net0 kernel -n vmlinuz http://14.7.6.30/RHEL6.4-x86_64-DVD1/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz initrd http://14.7.6.30/RHEL6.4-x86_64-DVD1/images/pxeboot/initrd.img boot

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Dec 5, 2023.