PXE
“PXE is defined on a foundation of industry-standard Internet protocols and services that are widely deployed in the industry, namely TCP/IP, DHCP, and TFTP. These standardize the form of the interactions between clients and servers. . . In brief, the PXE protocol operates as follows. The client initiates the protocol by broadcasting a DHCPDISCOVER containing an extension that identifies the request as coming from a client that implements the PXE protocol. Assuming that a DHCP server or a Proxy DHCP server implementing this extended protocol is available, after several intermediate steps, the server sends the client a list of appropriate Boot Servers. The client then discovers a Boot Server of the type selected and receives the name of an executable file on the chosen Boot Server. The client uses TFTP to download the executable from the Boot Server. Finally, the client initiates execution of the downloaded image. At this point, the client’s state must meet certain requirements that provide a predictable execution environment for the image.” Source: Intel®, Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Specification. For in-depth information on PXE visit the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Specification from Intel at: ftp://download.intel.com/design/archives/wfm/downloads/pxespec.pdf.
Bootworks
Bootworks is pushed out by the PXE Server to the target client server. This allows the Altiris Deployment Solution to manage the client or target server when off-line, before it is configured with an operating system. All disk cloning requires that DOS be loaded on the target PC. Bootworks is a patented Altiris technology that provides access to the network under a DOS boot. Bootworks presents the following options for getting DOS loaded on the target PC:
•PXE — PXE requires a DOS boot image to be created and made available on a PXE Server. This process is done during the Altiris software installation, which is beyond the scope of this document. DHCP is also required. As a result, the target server connects to a PXE Server and downloads the DOS boot image. The Altiris Deployment Solution installation will walk you through creating a DOS boot image and installing the PXE and DHCP server components during the RDP application installation.
•DOS Boot Diskette — For non-PXE-enabled servers, this is an alternative option for booting to DOS. A boot diskette must be created for each NIC type. Altiris provides a boot disk wizard that takes you step-by-step through the process of building a boot diskette.
AClient
AClient agent is an Altiris application that downloads to the client server that enables it to communicate with the deployment server. It is a small utility that allows target servers to be managed by the deployment server. The AClient agent must be on the target server so that it can communicate with the deployment server. AClient agents are responsible for pre-configuring the target server prior to executing any images, as well as any post-configuration of servers after any imaging event, such as rebooting when necessary.