Good afternoon,
Hoping that one of you gurus will be able to help save my sanity here. :)
Background: We used RIS for quite a while, but after the SP2 update it failed so we decommisioned it. Now, WDS is on a Server 2008 R2 box and joined to the in the domain. While not an actual DHCP server, it is authorized in AD as a DHCP server. The DHCP server is on a different server (running Solaris) on the same subnet. I have created images and have been able to do captures and remote installations.
Issue: The WDS server and the PXE clients work perfectly if they are both connected to a workgroup/soho type switch (5 port Linksys/DLink/etc). However if they are both plugged into the wall (the 'real' network) they do not work at all...the PXE client just spins waiting for an address before returning that it couldn't locate a boot image. This is true even if I put both the WDS server and the PXE client on the same subnet.
I have ran packet captures on both working and non-working scenarios. In the non-working scenario with both machines on the same subnet the server's NIC can see the network traffic, but does not respond to it. When they are both on the workgroup switch it does respond to it. I have checked the routers for this subnet and there is an ip address helper configured to match the IP of the WDS server. However, if they are both on the same subnet then they are in the same broadcast domain and really that shouldn't matter...but it is there and configured because eventually the WDS server will move to a different subnet than the PXE clients.
So I am curious, does anyone have any ideas as to why WDS would work flawlessly on a little workgroup switch, but not on the corporate network even when on the same subnet, in the same room, on the same wallplate, running to the same switch?
I appreciate any and all advice, tips, tricks, insights that anyone could provide. :)
-Joe
