Configuring a TFTP server with Auto Deploy files
A TFTP server is a remote storage that will be used to store configuration or boot files. The TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) requires no authentication. More details and a protocol walkthrough is available at its wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivial_File_Transfer_Protocol.
A TFTP server will be contacted during the Auto Deploy process for PXE-booting the server on which ESXi will be deployed. Hence we need to deploy a TFTP server and configure it with a gPXE boot image and the configuration files.
There are many freeware TFTP servers on the internet to choose from. I have deployed WinAgents TFTP server manager.
http://www.winagents.com/en/products/tftp-server/
The installation of the TFTP server manager is pretty straightforward. Make sure it is installed on a Windows machine and the service is started before you begin.
How to do it…
The following steps will help you configure the TFTP server to facilitate PXE booting:
Deploy...