Preboot Execution Environment Proxy DHCP daemon

The PXE Proxy DHCP server behaves much like a DHCP server by listening for ordinary DHCP client traffic and responding to certain client requests. However, unlike the DHCP server, the PXE Proxy DHCP server does not administer network addresses, and it only responds to clients that identify themselves as PXE clients.

The responses given by the PXE Proxy DHCP server contain the mechanism by which the client locates the boot servers or the network addresses and descriptions of the supported, compatible boot servers.

Using a PXE Proxy DHCP server in addition to a DHCP server provides three key features. First, you can separate the administration of network addresses from the administration of boot images. Using two different processes on the same system, you can configure the boot information managed by the PXE Proxy DHCP server without disturbing or requiring access to the DHCP server configuration. Second, you can define multiple boot servers and let the PXE client select a particular server during boot time. Each boot server can, for example, offer a different type of operating system or system configuration. Finally, using the proxy server offers the ability to configure the PXE client to use multicast IP addressing to discover the location of the compatible boot servers.

The PXE Proxy DHCP server can be configured to run on the same system that is running the DHCP server or on a different system. Also, it can be configured to run on the same system that is also running the boot server daemon or on a different system.