Overview of a NetBoot sequence

1. Client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message.

2. The DHCP server responds with:

- the computer IP address,
- TFTP server address (called "next-server"),
- PXE boot filename to load,
- NetBoot root-path values.

3. The client sends a TFTP request to "next-server", asking to retrieve the PXE filename.

4. The TFTP server responds and sends filename to client.

5. Many things here:

- The client executes filename, which is in PXE format.
- The PXE menu will be display so the user can choose which kernel to load
- Then PXE loads the kernel.
- When the kernel executes, the root file system specified by root-path is mounted.

  If it's a diskless workstation then the client distribution will be mounted in NFS mode.

Requirements

As you can see on the previous picture, a DHCP server + TFTP server are mandatory.

It's also good to have a DNS server to use names instead of IP @.