Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) is an industry-standard protocol that allows a workstation to boot up and execute a program from the network before the workstation operating system starts. PXE uses DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol). The PXE environment is loaded from either the NIC in flash memory or read-only memory, or in the same memory as the system BIOS.
Desktop Management Preboot Services uses PXE to find out if there is imaging work specified for a workstation and to provide the workstation with the files necessary to boot to the Desktop Management imaging environment.
Before you can use Preboot Services, you need to do the following:
Install the Desktop Management Imaging and Preboot Services (PXE Support) components on your ZENworks Imaging server.
Enable PXE on the workstation.
Have a standard DHCP server, either on your ZENworks Imaging server or on another network server.
For information about the requirements and installation of Preboot Services, see the Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Installation Guide. For information about deployment and administration of Preboot Services, see Section 56.0, Using ZENworks Desktop Management Preboot Services.
An existing partition is not updated when a ZENworks support pack is applied.
If you decide to use Preboot Services but have previously installed a ZENworks partition on the workstation, you can disable or delete the partition.
You can disable (and enable) the ZENworks partition when you boot to Linux using any imaging boot device or method.
You can delete the ZENworks partition only when you boot the workstation from an imaging boot method other than the ZENworks partition.
For more information on disabling or deleting a partition, see Step 9 in Creating a Workstation Image Object.
IMPORTANT:After you have deleted the ZENworks partition, you need to make sure that the image you put on the workstation was made on a workstation without a ZENworks partition. Otherwise, the wrong MBR (Master Boot Record) is restored, and the workstation fails to boot. In addition, if you remove the ZENworks partition from a Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP machine, Windows is not able to boot. You should only remove the ZENworks partition if you are going to restore an image to the workstation.