The host that you provision with Auto Deploy stops at the iPXE boot screen.

Problem

When you attempt to boot a host provisioned with Auto Deploy, the boot process stops at the iPXE boot screen and the status message indicates that the host is attempting to get the ESXi image from the Auto Deploy server.

Cause

The Auto Deploy service might be stopped or the Auto Deploy server might be unaccessible.

Solution
1

Log in to the system on which you installed the Auto Deploy server.

2

Check that the Auto Deploy server is running.

a

Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools.

b

Double-click Services to open the Services Management panel.

c

In the Services field, look for the VMware vSphere Auto Deploy Waiter service and restart the service if it is not running.

3

Open a Web browser, enter the following URL, and check whether the Auto Deploy server is accessible.

https://Auto_Deploy_Server_IP_Address:Auto_Deploy_Server_Port/vmw/rdb

Note

Use this address only to check whether the server is accessible.

4

If the server is not accessible, a firewall problem is likely.

a

Try setting up permissive TCP Inbound rules for the Auto Deploy server port.

The port is 6501 unless you specified a different port during installation.

b

As a last resort, disable the firewall temporarily and enable it again after you verified whether it blocked the traffic. Do not disable the firewall on production environments.

To disable the firewall, run netsh firewall set opmode disable. To enable the firewall, run netsh firewall set opmode enable.