The bootCAST software offers its own DHCP server which can be used in two cases. On the one hand, you can use this if there is no DHCP server within the network and on the other hand, it is required if you want to use the SecureBoot feature.
To activate the DHCP server you have to set a total of 3 entries. The first entry enables the DHCP server and is dhcp-enable = [“netif:ip:192.168.100.1/24”]. dhcp-enable = [„netif:ip:192.168.100.1/24“The specified IP corresponds to the static IP of the local network adapter and the /24 represents the subnet mask. In this case the subnet mask would be 255.255.255.0.
The second entry is dhcp-ip-include = [„ip:192.168.100.10-192.168.100.199“]This indicates which range of IP addresses should be assigned. In this case, IP addresses between 192.168.100.10 and 192.168.100.199 are assigned.
The third entry is dhcp-scope = „boot-clients“This is set differently than the first two parameters in the client section [client]. This entry ensures that PXE clients receive a correct IP address.
Example configuration with active DHCP server
### IMPORTANT: after editing, always save the file in UTF-8 format! ###
### Relative paths refer to the path of the BootCast executable
base-path = "${exe}"
### Clients whose boot requests are NOT answered
ignored-clients = [
# "mac:00:12:34:56:78:9A", # Example: Client to MAC
# "ip:172.16.20.20", # Example: Client to IP
# "netif:mac:00:12:34:56:78:9A", # Example: Host NIC to MAC
]
# Enables the DHCP server on the NIC with IP address 192.168.100.1
# and Subnet-Mask 255.255.255.0
dhcp-enable = ["netif:ip:192.168.100.1/24"]
# Allows the DHCP server to distribute IP addresses in this range
dhcp-ip-include = ["ip:192.168.100.10-192.168.100.199"]
[client]
caption = "All Clients"
# Sets the default gateway to the address 127.0.0.1
dhcp-opt-default-gateway = "127.0.0.1"
# Sets up the DNS server on 1.1.1.1
dhcp-opt-dns-server = "1.1.1.1"
# Necessary for booting over the network to work
dhcp-scope = "boot-clients"
tftp-window-size = 8 # Reduce value in case of network problems
### Show boot menu with three boot options
bootset = ["testlx"]
### TestLX #####################################################################
[bootset.testlx]
caption = "Start TestLX"
"nbp:x86_bios" = "tftp:/pcboot/pxelinux.0"
"nbp:x86_uefi" = "tftp:/GRUB/BOOTIA32.EFI"
.... more bootset definitions ....Multiple DHCP servers on the network
Please make sure there is only 1 active DHCP server in the current network. To do this, you should check under Windows Server whether the internal DHCP server is deactivated. If more than 1 DHCP server is active, the behavior is undefined and can lead to errors in the boot process.
Temporarily deactivate the internal DHCP server
To preserve the DHCP configuration but deactivate it for testing, you can place a ‘#’ symbol in front of the entry dhcp-enable = [„netif:ip:192.168.100.1/24“] ein ‚#‘-Symbol setzten. Dieses Zeichen markiert die aktuelle Zeile als Kommentar.
