Scalable life-cycle maintenance of hardware

A system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor;
• and
• one or more software modules that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, execute a software-defined Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) server to
• receive a request from a hardware device over at least one network, wherein the request comprises an identifier associated with the hardware device,
• compare the identifier to a plurality of attribute sets stored in memory,
• when the identifier does not match any of the plurality of attribute sets,
• generate a task graph for a PXE process for the hardware device, wherein the task graph comprises a plurality of stages, and wherein each of the plurality of stages comprises one or more tasks, and
• initiate an initial stage in the generated task graph, and,
• when the identifier matches one of the plurality of attribute sets,
• retrieve a task graph associated with the one attribute set, and
• initiate a next stage in the retrieved task graph;
• receive a result of at least one stage, executed on the hardware device, from the hardware device;
• store the received result of the at least one stage in association with an attribute set, within the plurality of attribute sets stored in the memory, that is associated with the hardware device;
• transmit the attribute set associated with hardware device and at least a portion of the result of one or more stages performed by the hardware device, over at least one external network, to an external platform for sharing across PXE servers.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a software-defined Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) server to:

• receive a request from a hardware device over at least one network, wherein the request comprises an identifier associated with the hardware device;
• compare the identifier to a plurality of attribute sets stored in memory;
• when the identifier does not match any of the plurality of attribute sets,
• generate a task graph for a PXE process for the hardware device, wherein the task graph comprises a plurality of stages, and wherein each of the plurality of stages comprises one or more tasks, and
• initiate an initial stage in the generated task graph;
• and,
• when the identifier matches one of the plurality of attribute sets,
• retrieve a task graph associated with the one attribute set, and
• initiate a next stage in the retrieved task graph;
• receive a result of at least one stage, executed on the hardware device, from the hardware device;
• store the received result of the at least one stage in association with an attribute set, within the plurality of attribute sets stored in the memory, that is associated with the hardware device;
• transmit the attribute set associated with hardware device and at least a portion of the result of one or more stages performed by the hardware device, over at least one external network, to an external platform for sharing across PXE servers.