SOLVED PXE Error PXE-E79 - Unable to image legacy or UEFI

[Greg Shafer]

We have a SCCM distro site that just recently lost the ability to image. With no initial changes to the distro point or the network, imaging would generate no output. The local user is imaging via UEFI and states that there is option for a F12 boot after selecting IPv4 boot. My only test that I am able to perform is using a legacy boot VM, which generates the message PXE-E79: NBP is too big to fit in free base memory. I have another site that is set up identical to the problem site which has no issue.

DHCP option is confgiured as SMSBoot\x64\wdsmgfw.efi, however, I have tried SMSBoot\x86\wdsmgfw.efi (with the same result) as well as SMSBoot\x64\wdsnbp.com which generates a BSoD.

I have attempted (and reattempted to reinstall WDS on this distro with no change in behavior. I am currently in the process of deploying a second distro in this site to see if I can change the PXE behavior. Unfortunately, search engine results come up with very generic "answers" such as switch from Legacy to UEFI (which is not a working option). I have found other forums that mention lack of memory and disk space, also of which should not be issues here. Of course, another option is to configure an IP helper on the core switch, which has also been verified to still be present.

As stated before, this is a new behavior and is isolated to one site. Any insight as to what logs to check or possible solutions would be greatly appreciated as I have hit a wall in my troubleshooting.

 

[Prajwal Desai]

I understand that UEFI boot isn't working. How about legacy mode, is that working?.

 

[AhmedLS]

We have a SCCM distro site that just recently lost the ability to image. With no initial changes to the distro point or the network, imaging would generate no output. The local user is imaging via UEFI and states that there is option for a F12 boot after selecting IPv4 boot. My only test that I am able to perform is using a legacy boot VM, which generates the message PXE-E79: NBP is too big to fit in free base memory. I have another site that is set up identical to the problem site which has no issue.

DHCP option is confgiured as SMSBoot\x64\wdsmgfw.efi, however, I have tried SMSBoot\x86\wdsmgfw.efi (with the same result) as well as SMSBoot\x64\wdsnbp.com which generates a BSoD.

I have attempted (and reattempted to reinstall WDS on this distro with no change in behavior. I am currently in the process of deploying a second distro in this site to see if I can change the PXE behavior. Unfortunately, search engine results come up with very generic "answers" such as switch from Legacy to UEFI (which is not a working option). I have found other forums that mention lack of memory and disk space, also of which should not be issues here. Of course, another option is to configure an IP helper on the core switch, which has also been verified to still be present.

As stated before, this is a new behavior and is isolated to one site. Any insight as to what logs to check or possible solutions would be greatly appreciated as I have hit a wall in my troubleshooting.

i had a similar issue on an MDT server due to windows update (BSOD). i ran the below commands on the server and the issue is gone. it might be something else but this worked for me. remember to change the path for the remoteinstall folder

wdsutil /uninitialize-server
WDSUTIL /Initialize-Server /RemInst:z:\RemoteInstall)

 

[Greg Shafer]

My apologies for no response on this.
We ended up resolving by deploying a new distro in this site. Imaging was confirmed working after pointing DHCP to the new distro. Still unsure what the initial cause was.
The issue was occuring with both UEFI and Legacy boots. @AhmedLS - I will keep this command in my back pocket for sure. The original distro is still in place, so it might be worth running these commands to see if it does at least resolve in the event we see this in the future.