How to do Alternate Boot (network boot) - OSx 10.11.4 host

AlexP5 · Apr 25, 2016

Hi everyone,

I'm currently trying out Parallels Desktop on Mac as a means to create Virtual Machines for capture through our Mac Server, using DeployStudio.

I've been able to install and fully configure a VM with 10.11.4 with no problem whatsoever, but the issue I currently have is that in order to capture the VM as a deployable image, I need to network boot to DeployStudio, but it doesn't seem to work.

I went into "System Preferences > Startup Disk", selected my network image and clicked on Restart....it only restarted the VM in a normal fashion (aka, went straight to the OS, not the boot image). If I restart normally and hold down ALT on my keyboard, it just goes straight to my OS again.

Is there a way to use a Mac network boot image using Parallels ?

Thanks!

marat_t · Apr 29, 2016

Hi Alex,

it should work. We are netbooting empty VMs to deploy OS X images. You probably need to change network to bridged mode. I guess server doesn't receive bootp packets.

AlexP5 · May 2, 2016

marat_t said:
Hi Alex,

it should work. We are netbooting empty VMs to deploy OS X images. You probably need to change network to bridged mode. I guess server doesn't receive bootp packets.

Thanks for the reply, but my network settings are already set in Bridged mode, bridged to my Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, which is plugged in and working. I just retried to make sure, and it doesn't work. I've tried looking at the logs, but it's just a mess of incomprehensible data hehe

marat_t · May 2, 2016

hm, are you able to netboot your physical mac? using this thunderbolt adapter? what exact adapter type is specified in vm config?

AlexP5 · May 3, 2016

Yes it can, I tried it this morning and I was able to Netboot with no issues.

As for the adapter type in the config, it says "Source: Thunderbolt Bridge", "NIC Type: Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT"

While writing this, I thought that "Source" should be "Thunderbolt Ethernet" instead of bridge...changed it, tried it again, made no difference.

Elric · May 12, 2016

Hi, take a look in the VM Configuration -> Hardware -> "Boot Order". Parallels VM by default uses own boot-order, ignoring boot-order from bios.

AlexP7 · Jun 14, 2016

Elric said:
Hi, take a look in the VM Configuration -> Hardware -> "Boot Order". Parallels VM by default uses own boot-order, ignoring boot-order from bios.

Hey Elric,
Sorry for the (very late) answer, I had no time to test this in the last month.
I have just tried it, aka putting Network as the first option, and all it does it send me to Windows PXe boot instead of our Mac's NetBoot server.

The solution I'm looking at right now would be to find a way to mount the .NBI image file that is used by our deployment server, and tell the Parallels to boot from that. Would the NBI image file be recognized by Parallels as something bootable ?

Elric · Jun 14, 2016

I have just tried it, aka putting Network as the first option, and all it does it send me to Windows PXe boot instead of our Mac's NetBoot server.

Hm.. If Guest Os Type in VM-configuration is set to MacOS, netbooting should prefer to load NBI-image. Please let me know if it is not so.

AlexP7 · Jun 14, 2016

Elric said:
Hm.. If Guest Os Type in VM-configuration is set to MacOS, netbooting should prefer to load NBI-image. Please let me know if it is not so.

Just check. OS Type was set to OS X by auto-detect. Just in case, I configured it to OS X manually, setup Network 1 as the first startup item, booted the VM...and it booted to Microsoft PXe instead of Mac's NetBoot...

I tried to configure the VM so the .NBI boot file is a CD/DVD, but it only accepts DMG/ISO/etc. Put the NBI boot file in a DMG container, doesn't want to boot on it.

MartinD6 · Sep 7, 2016

AlexP7 said:
Just check. OS Type was set to OS X by auto-detect. Just in case, I configured it to OS X manually, setup Network 1 as the first startup item, booted the VM...and it booted to Microsoft PXe instead of Mac's NetBoot...

I tried to configure the VM so the .NBI boot file is a CD/DVD, but it only accepts DMG/ISO/etc. Put the NBI boot file in a DMG container, doesn't want to boot on it.

I'm having this same issue. Were you ever able to resolve it? I can't find anyway to trigger netboot!