PXE

PXE is basically a "Preboot Execution Environment". It is used to create an environment for systems to boot into and use it for several purposes like:

1. OS installation
2. OS boot which is also called as etherboot, netboot or disk less booting
3. Boot into a minimal OS environment

Using PXE you can overcome the haedache of OS installation using CD-ROM and the installation is more faster when compared to CD installation.

To enable PXE in your test system:
1. Enable PXE in your system BIOS. To do that

• Press F2/DEL key when the system starts up. This takes you to the system BIOS. Here enable PXE capability. In Advanced tab search for an option to enable pxe. And in boot order place your respective network controller to boot as the first device.
• Enable PXE in your device controller if needed.

2. Save changes and reboot the system.
3. Press F12 for network boot /F11 for Boot device order and select your network card
These keyboard shortcuts are supported in the few machines only. If your test system does not suport, then make sure that your system directly boots to your network device

The network device gets an IP address from the DHCP server and boots through TFTP server provided boot file and gives you PXE menu. Here select the option that you want and complete OS boot/installation.

A PXE menu looks similar to :




Recent trend is using gpXE and ipXE. The reason behind replacing pxe with gPXE or iPXE is "gPXE is an open source (GPL) network bootloader. It provides a direct replacement for proprietary PXE ROMs, with many extra features such as DNS, HTTP, iSCSI, etc. " and similar is iPXE.