DHCP not working during initialization of deployment

Hi I forgot that I posted this a month ago, but I came back to post it again and I scrolled down to it.

I am almost done testing the software and we are getting ready to purchase but we want to know if we can do DHCP from bootable media now. As it stands, it doesn't work. But our DHCP server works properly and Windows 7 systems can and do obtain dynamic IPs when they come online.

Is there a way to get Acronis to obtain an IP or is it only possible to assign IP address manually? I really want DHCP to work so that techs that have little experience in our organization can easily put in the Acronis boot CD and then navigate to the image and restore it from the network.

Help would be appreciated or just letting me know that DHCP does not work in this product is fine.

EDIT: Ok I looked in the Acronis Snap Deploy 4 server software and there is no configuration to modify the bootable ISO for DHCP or any IP settings.

Tools -> Create Bootable Image -> Next -> Acronis Snap Deploy Master Image Creator -> Next -> CD-RW Drive F: -> Next -> burns CD

It is simple but there's nothing in there about configuring DHCP.  Yes I know this is for creating the image but it is the same issue as using PXE and as restoring.  I want the PC to obtain an IP automatically and it is giving me a bogus ip 169.154.156.113 subnet mask 255.255.0.0 (where's the third 255?)  Everything else is blank.  Network adapters eth0 Network Adapter: Hardware address: 18:03:73:D7:DF:50 Status: Auto-Negotaion used, 1,000Mbps, Full-Duplex, Cable connected Media type: Use Auto-Negotaition Auto configuration checked

EDIT: ok it is seeing the NIC that I am using with the CAT5e cable plugged in.   Windows 7 on the same machine states: Physical Address 18-03-73-D7-DF-50 Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection and all the DHCP information is filled in (in Windows 7, not Acronis).  Internet browsing works and network browsing as well.

I hope this is enough detail.

Thanks

Shoot me a PM and I will try to assist. I have had no issues with getting Acronis to obtain an IP address. It' just a matter of setting up the PXE server and then creating the deployment taskes for the imaging. In your PM to me, tell me which Acronis product you are testing. Thx!

It appears this forum sends you an email thinking it is a PM if you post so here should be ok, but you can PM if you want. I am just using snap deploy 4. PXE is easy to set up but I don't have it set up at the moment. I am trying to get DHCP right now from the image making CD but the CD is basically the same in IP address operation as the PXE one anyway so any help will work with every option.

I thought one time it did get DHCP but I must be mistaken because I've tested numerous times and it never does now. I haven't done anything different.

I did another google search and found the solution:

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/3879

It appears to be working now, hopefully it stays that way. I just let it boot by itself and then it was able to see my file server.

As far as doing this through PXE, I haven't attempted to see if that is working right again but we are going to use the CD instead and just have one server with the Deployment Server option.

My suggestions to Acronis for their next release of this software are as follows:

1) Make the boot image delay the user long enough to obtain an IP and then display the proper DHCP IP rather than the bogus/useless/confusing 169 address.

2) Make the Acronis server software capable of doing both PXE server and Deployment server all in the same machine (right now, Acronis 4 which is the current version requires you to install Acronis Snap Deploy 4 on two separate computers (or virtual machines) in order to use PXE in conjunction with the Deployment tasks. This is due to the fact that the Deployment server uses the same .DLL file as the PXE server which is a pretty backward way of doing things unless it had been fully tested and working. I suggest pointing the PXE server to a separate DLL or redesigning the software so that it can actually share the DLL like it was intended to.

3) Possibly make the PXE server options more straight forward. Although I could figure it out, the DLL issue caused major confusion in this part of the software and I still had to use google to search for the solution rather than the software specifically stating "you cannot run PXE server on the same machine as your Deployment tasks".

Over all I'm happy with this product and the above are just suggestions. It takes me a lot more searching, tech support, etc from competitors' products so this worked out well.

Thanks

Dennis Stith wrote:

I did another google search and found the solution:

2) Make the Acronis server software capable of doing both PXE server and Deployment server all in the same machine (right now, Acronis 4 which is the current version requires you to install Acronis Snap Deploy 4 on two separate computers (or virtual machines) in order to use PXE in conjunction with the Deployment tasks. This is due to the fact that the Deployment server uses the same .DLL file as the PXE server which is a pretty backward way of doing things unless it had been fully tested and working. I suggest pointing the PXE server to a separate DLL or redesigning the software so that it can actually share the DLL like it was intended to.

Over all I'm happy with this product and the above are just suggestions. It takes me a lot more searching, tech support, etc from competitors' products so this worked out well.

Thanks

I have experimented with all of the different deployment options with Snap Deploy and have not encountered any issues using the same server for PXE and deployment. Currently, I do not use the PXE function any longer, and when I did play around with it it was on the previous version of Snap Deploy, so maybe this changed for version 4. I have only used one server throughout the process. I've found that overall the PXE function just creates more headaches, not to mention requiring BIOS changes for each machine (at least in my IT environment).

I have an Acronis Snap Deploy 4 PXE Server hosted on my Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 machine, however when I connect the PXE-Client to the server I get an address from DHCP but I get a PXE - E32: TFTP Open timeout error.

I have dhcp option 66 set to the server address but cant seem to figure out the option 67 boot file name for the acronis server.

and when I removed the dhcp options 66 and 67 i do not get an IP address.

the only file i could find in the acronis directory was C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\PXEServer\bootwiz.bin.

How do I get the clients to boot into Acronis?