How it works

Reporting Only Mode

If you decide to simply configure the iPXE Anywhere Web Service to collect status during the boot process, there is nothing else to configure. Events such as download start, download end, errors and success will be forwarded to the iPXE Anywhere Web Service database which are then visable through the iPXE Anywhere Reporting Server.

Note: It is also possible to create your own custom status events – see the iPXE Anywhere Scripting Guide for further info.

The iPXE Anywhere Reports

There are three basic reports included with the iPXE Anywhere Web Service – with more to follow. The iPXE Anywhere Database also includes SQL Views which are designed to make it easy for users to create their own reports.

Once installed, the Reports can be accessed via the SSRS Web Page. Navigate to - <2Pint Software\iPXE Anywhere> where you will see the three reports which are described below.

IPA_One_Hour_Summary

This report is updates every 60 seconds, and gives you an ‘almost live’ display of the current state of boot requests.

The ‘Current Health’ indicator will change colour as the Success Rate of boot requests increases or decreases. This is a top-level indicator to allow deeper investigation should the boot request statistics deteriorate for some reason.

Below the indicator is the main chart which details the statistics for boot requests for the previous 60 minutes. There are seven status levels for a boot request, and as systems progress through the boot process these statistics will update.

Below the main chart is a table detailing any issues reported for the last 60 minutes.

IPA_Main_Dashboard

This report provides more of a ‘Management Overview’ of performance over the previous 6 months. You can see trends, success rates and timings etc. for all boot requests here.

IPA_Hardware

This report provides a high level view of hardware and BIOS versions for systems that have used iPXE Anywhere. This can be useful for tracking such things as legacy BIOS systems during a migration to UEFI

Reporting and Request Handler Mode

If you have enabled the iPXE Anywhere Web Service for reporting and request handling then status reporting will be enabled as above and in addition all boot requests will be routed from 2PXE to the iPXE Anywhere Web Service. When it receives these Boot requests the iPXE Anywhere Web Service will execute the “RequestActionScript.ps1” PowerShell script. This script can be used to perform many custom actions during the boot process. During the workflow, control can be passed from the IPXE Anywhere Web Service to 2PXE and back again several times if required, making it a very powerful solution.

Examples

Please refer to the iPXE Anywhere Scripting Guide which contains examples and a full reference for scripting with both PowerShell and iPXE scripting.

Things to try

• Add (or remove) the system from Microsoft Configuration Manager Collections

• Provide the logic required to update the BIOS if out of date

• Switch from BIOS to UEFI

• Auto-Create a ticket in your Service Desk of choice

• Talk to any other management system