PXE Glossary

Contents 1 Glossary 1.1 BootP 1.2 DHCP 1.3 NBP 1.4 PXE 1.5 PXE-Capable Hardware 1.6 TFTP 1.7 NFS

Glossary

BootP

Acronym, stands for "Bootstrap Protocol". Predecessor to DHCP. Can be configured to allow PXE booting, but that is not covered here.

DHCP

Acronym, stands for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol". DHCP is a service provided in many networks as a method of obtaining an IP address on a network. When the DHCP server sends the client the IP address, it may also send the IP address of a TFTP server and a file to download from the TFTP server that the client should download an run.

NBP

Acronym, stands for "Network Bootstrap Program". This is the file initially downloaded by the PXE client, and then executed to take over booting the computer from there.

PXE

Acronym, stands for "Pre-boot eXecution Enviroment". PXE is a method for booting a computer over the network, without touching any physical storage on the computer (less RAM).

PXE-Capable Hardware

PXE-Capable Hardware is simply a device that services DHCP with the needed options to PXE boot. This is specially mentioned because not many consumer-level devices support this. Your average Linksys home router will not support PXE booting, and you must either purchase a device that supports PXE booting, or run a DHCP daemon that supports these options in place of the router.

TFTP

Acronym, stands for "Trivial FTP" (server). Trivial FTP is a scaled-down version of FTP that uses UDP packets instead of TCP packets. TFTP is used in PXE booting to obtain an NBP to run upon boot, and more often than not, additional files that the NBP would need.

NFS

Acronym, stands for Network File System