Chris Nackers Blog

Ran into a really weird issue on RTM code of ConfigMgr. I was having trouble getting PXE to respond to requests so I decided I would just remove the role, uninstall WDS, clean up the remoteinstall folder and re-add everything. Just like I used to do with ConfigMgr 2007, only that doesn’t work in 2012. 

Turns out there are actually a couple issues to contend with.

The first issue is that when you uncheck the "Enable PXE support for Clients" checkbox, you don’t get the option to "Apply" settings.  If you close the dialog and re-open, you will find that the checkbox is still checked. 

The workaround for this is to first uncheck either "Enable unknown support" or "Allow this DP…" and then unselect "Enable PXE support…". This will enable the "Apply" button. 

However, this still didn’t uninstall the PXE role for me, if I opened the DP properties, I would still again see PXE enabled.  Monitoring distmgr.log I didn’t notice any changes actually happening. Hmmm…

After chatting with my fellow MVP’s about the issue, Ronni Pedersen had also run into the issue and provided me with a work-around. 

1) On the PXE tab, remove the "Enable PXE.." checkbox

2) Switch to the General tab. 

3) Update the date on the PXE certificate so it’s changed

4) Then select "Apply".  Close the dialog.

Now, you should see the change pick up in distmgr.log and you will see PXE actually remove itself and WDS uninstall. 

This is a known bug and hopefully we’ll have a fix for it soon. In the meantime, I hope this post helps someone and saves them the headache I had!