God help you if you actually want to install an operating system.
PXE is such a vital capability for working with on-prem servers. But it's ten different things which all have to play nicely together. Every time I build a PXE system I feel like I'm reinventing the universe in my tiny subnet.
"but muh competitive advantage??"
its literally a for loop that reads sectors from disk/network into memory and jumps to the start address.
if a local build of the (vendor provided source code) firmware doesn't match the checksum of the build thats flashed on the actual mobo, you get sent to a cobalt mine.
Thankfully modern BIOSes tend to implement HTTP boot option, where you can point to any HTTP or HTTPS URL (as long as the URL ends with ".efi", which is a pretty dumb limitation if you ask me).
theandrewbailey•3h ago
I work in the refurb division of an ewaste recycling company[0]. To prepare a machine for sale, the drive needs to be wiped, and (optionally) an OS loaded. Wiping happens in WipeOS[1], which loads when you PXE boot on the internal company network. To install an OS, I have a separate network on my desk that will load iVentoy[2] when PXE booted, where I can further boot from ISOs I have on my server, but I almost always install Linux Mint. With those 2 things, I can largely do my job without fumbling with and losing USB drives.
I have 2 16 port switches on my desk, with over a dozen ethernet cables plugged into each. The yellow cables will PXE boot WipeOS, and the black ones PXE boot iVentoy.
[0] https://www.ebay.com/str/evolutionecycling
[1] https://www.wipeos.com/
[2] https://www.iventoy.com/en/index.html