WinPE - Troubleshooting - VMWare PXe Boot has no Network Information
In an effort to standardize our workstation environment here, I have been developing a bank of application test pc's utilizing VMWare. It has provided a faster method of refreshing a machine to baseline so that either an application test could progress to the next stage or a new test could begin. I am a proponent of baseline testing as I believe it to be one of the few valid ways to ensure an application will function correction in most situations.
During the creation of our test bank, I utilized a WinPE boot image deployed via PXe and WDS. One of the annoying situations I encountered involved a VM booting into the WinPE image via PXe, but then having no network information once the image was fully loaded. I knew that the VM itself had network connectivity as it just loaded the image through the network, yet here it sat, showing me several blank lined of ipconfig information.
Here was the setup:
I really don't need to hand out any more details than what I describe above as the problem is listed. The proper VMWare network drivers had already been injected into the WinPE image, which left my configuration as the culprit in my mind. The solution to the problem was actually quite simple, although it took some time to figure it out. WinPE is a Vista-based product, producing boot images which are also "Vista-ish." VMWare was not recognizing any network configuration because I had set it up as an XP OS, considering I was about to load Win XP on the instance. C
The entire process, although educational for me, was quite frustrating, as I have been using the boot image for several months with success. Configuring the VM instance as a Vista VM solved the issue.