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This section contains the following information:
The Preboot Execution Environment (PXE), pronounced "pixie," is a client/server interface that allows networked computers to be configured and booted remotely by a network administrator. This interface enables the administrator to manage client workstations on a LAN from a remote location.
This technology makes it possible to configure or reconfigure a system remotely, even with an empty hard drive. The computer system has a universal service agent loaded locally in the BIOS and/or LAN adapter. (PXE-on-Disk allows this service to be loaded on a boot diskette.) The agent allows the system to interact with a remote server to dynamically retrieve the requested boot image across the network, making it possible to install the operating system and user configuration of a new system without a technician present. As a result, an organization's IT department can save on human labor, which is the most expensive element of support costs, and get new or transferred employees set up and productive more quickly.
PXE allows you to control and fix a workstation before the operating system starts. The PXE code is typically delivered with a new workstation (PC-99 compliant or later) on a network interface card (NIC). PXE allows the computer to communicate with the network server so that it can be remotely configured and its operating system can be remotely booted.
PXE provides three features:
PXE supports the Wired for Management (WfM) Initiative, an industry-supported effort to make Intel* architecture-based systems universally manageable and universally managed, without sacrificing agility or performance. Through the WfM Initiative, Intel has worked with others in the industry to develop guidelines for a new generation of platforms that can be centrally managed over networks, thereby reducing the cost of ownership.
The PXE process consists of the client workstation notifying the server that it uses PXE. If the server supports PXE, it sends the client workstation a list of boot servers that contain the available operating systems. The client workstation finds the boot server it needs and receives the name of the file to download. Using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), the client workstation then downloads the file and executes it. This loads the operating system. If a client workstation is equipped with PXE and the server is not, the server ignores the PXE code, preventing disruption in the DHCP and Bootstrap Protocol operations.
There are several advantages to using PXE:
PXE-on-Disk Setup helps you create a 1.44 MB floppy diskette that contains all of the files needed to allow a PXE-compatible network adapter on a Windows* workstation communicate with a ZfD 3.2 Preboot Services server. When you boot a workstation with a PXE-on-Disk diskette in the floppy drive, it is as if that workstation had a PXE-enabled network adapter.
The PXE-on-Disk Setup program runs on the following operating systems:
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