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March 11th, 2022 05:00
Possibility to enable/disable UEFI PXE device with efibootmgr
Hello,
Is it possible to disable UEFI PXE device (network card) with "efibootmgr" or other linux utility?
My current workflow: enable server to first boot from PXE, install OS with loaded linux distro and disable pxe boot with efibootmgr. And everything works fine until server reboot. After reboot disable efi boot options reenabled again (by chassis firmware i think). Do i miss something or it is predefined behaviour?
# check boot entries first
~# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0002
BootOrder: 0002,0005,0006,0007,0008
Boot0002* ubuntu
Boot0005* Embedded NIC 1 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0006* Embedded NIC 2 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0007* NIC in Slot 1 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0008* NIC in Slot 1 Port 2 Partition 1
# disable 0005-8 with command repeatedly
~# efibootmgr --inactive --bootnum 0005
# efibootmgr before reboot with disabled PXE entries
BootCurrent: 0002
BootOrder: 0002
Boot0002* ubuntu
Boot0005 Embedded NIC 1 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0006 Embedded NIC 2 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0007 NIC in Slot 1 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0008 NIC in Slot 1 Port 2 Partition 1
# reboot server
# check boot entries again
~# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0002
BootOrder: 0002,0005,0006,0007,0008
Boot0002* ubuntu
Boot0005* Embedded NIC 1 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0006* Embedded NIC 2 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0007* NIC in Slot 1 Port 1 Partition 1
Boot0008* NIC in Slot 1 Port 2 Partition 1No Events found!
vills
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March 11th, 2022 05:00
Forgot to mention. Chassis that i use to play with - R340
DELL-Chris H
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March 11th, 2022 09:00
Vills,
I am not certain with efibootmgr, but you should be able to via racadm, using the commands
racadm config -g cfgServerInfo -o cfgServerBootOnce 1
racadm config -g cfgServerInfo -o cfgServerFirstBootDevice PXE
racadm serveraction powercycle
or using the SetBootOrderDis so it disables the PXE NIC for Boot.
You can find the guide for the racadm commands here.
Let me know if this helps.
vills
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March 15th, 2022 03:00
I'm sure changing BIOS parameters through 'racadm' utility will work. But it have one big disadvantage - applying changes require creating job in lifecycle controller, that in turn produce additional chassis' reboot and slow down reboot cycle. That's why i'm interesting exactly in efibootmgr or other similar utilities.
DELL-Chris H
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March 15th, 2022 13:00
Vills,
I've not used efibootmgr, but from your description I wonder if there might be missing flag to make changes permanent instead of one-time, but I am not certain on what it would be.
Let me do some research and testing to see.
Thank you for your patience.
vills
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March 16th, 2022 05:00
Thanks. Waiting for your results.
Btw, i can successfully manage (add, delete, enable, disable) boot entries not provided by hardware vendor (chassis) with efibootmgr. My concern is only about entries provided by chassis firmware. Utility did not require any "commit" action.