IP Helper Equivalent for PXE Boot

[Matthew_Terhune]

We are interested in setting up PXE boot across multiple subnets in our environment, for client imaging. With, e.g., a Cisco switch, the typical approach would be to set up an IP Helper to forward PXE broadcast packets across subnets to the PXE server. What would be the equivalent way to do this on an Extreme switch?

• The only thing I can find that seems related are bootprelays, but they sound like they are specific to DHCP forwarding. Would these be usable for forwarding PXE traffic as well?
• We already have booprelays set up for DHCP, so any solution would have to not interfere with the current setup.

If anyone has insight into the best approach to this, I would appreciate it. We are currently running a X670-48x stack for our core, and X440's for our edge switches. Thanks!

[Matthew_Terhune]

No problem. For further reference, show bootprelay configuration on our switch gives the following for the vr and the vlan:

DHCPv4 BOOTP Relay : Enabled on virtual router "VR-Default"
Include Secondary : Disabled
BOOTP Relay Servers : 172.16.1.31
DHCP Relay Agent Information Option: Enabled
DHCP Relay Agent Information Check : Disabled
DHCP Relay Agent Information Policy: Replace

VLAN "GHN":
BOOTP Relay : Enabled
BOOTP Relay Servers : 172.16.1.31 172.16.1.29
DHCP Relay Agent Information Option: Disabled
DHCP Relay Agent Information Check : Disabled
DHCP Relay Agent Information Policy: Replace

[Rory_Schmitz]

Thank you for the quick reply. I did try it on the VR, so I will try it as you described and see if I have better luck. I appreciate the response.

[Matthew_Terhune]

We have been configuring this on a per vlan basis on our core switch, so our config for a vlan looks like:

code:

configure bootprelay vlan "GHN" add 172.16.1.31

code:

configure bootprelay vlan "GHN" add 172.16.1.29

I have not tried configuring both relays on the vr only, so I can't confirm that would work, but I don't see why it shouldn't.

One thing to note is that configuring a bootprelay on a vlan causes the switch to completely ignore the default config on the vr for that vlan. So e.g. you can't configure the relay for your dhcp server on the vr and then add just the pxe relay on a vlan - you have to add both the dhcp and pxe relays.

[Rory_Schmitz]

Hi Matthew,

Late reply on this, but do you recall if you just simply added an additional line like so to have two total?:

configure bootprelay add 172.25.1.1 vr VR-Default
configure bootprelay add 10.16.1.1 vr VR-Default

Where 172.25.1.1 represents the DHCP server and 10.16.1.1 represents the PXE server? Anything additional needed on the specific vlan where the PXE clients are located?