Pre-execution environment compliant dynamic host configuration protocol relay agent

A method to enable remote booting of a diskless computing device by utilizing a pre-booting server address relay agent, comprising:

• relaying packets, the packets including an address of an address allocation server in a destination address field, from the diskless computing device to an address allocation server to discover available network addresses without changing the address in the destination address field;
• receiving offer packets from the address allocation server offering a network address;
• generating modified packets by modifying each of the offer packets received from the address allocation server to include a pre-boot network address for the relay agent in a source network address field to enable remote booting;
• transmitting the modified packets to the diskless computing device;
• relaying request packets from the diskless computing device to the address allocation server to request the network address;
• receiving acknowledgement packets from the address allocation server acknowledging request of the network address;
• generating modified acknowledgment packets by modifying each of the acknowledgment packets from the address allocation server to include the pre-boot network address for the relay agent in a source network field to enable remote booting;
• and
• transmitting the modified acknowledgement packets to the diskless computing device.

A program code storage device, comprising:

• a machine-readable storage medium;
• and
• machine-readable program code, stored on the machine-readable storage medium, the machine-readable program code having instructions, which when executed cause a computing device to
• relay packets, the packets including an address of an address allocation server in a destination address field, from the diskless computing device through a pre-booting server address relay agent to an address allocation server to discover available network addresses without changing the address in the destination address field;
• receive offer packets from the address allocation server offering a network address;
• generate modified packets by modifying each of the offer packets from the address allocation server to include a pre-boot network address for the relay agent in a source network address field to enable remote booting;
• transmit the modified packets to the diskless computing device;
• relay request packets from the diskless computing device to the address allocation server to request the network address;
• receive acknowledgment packets from the address allocation server acknowledging request of the network address;
• generate modified acknowledgment packets by modifying each of the acknowledgment packets from the address allocation server to include the pre-boot network address for the relay agent in a source network field to enable remote booting;
• and
• transmit the modified acknowledgement packets to the diskless computing device.

A pre-boot execution environment (PXE)-compliant dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) relay device, comprising:

• a DHCP discovery module to relay packets from a diskless computing device to a DHCP server to discover an available Internet Protocol (IP) address without changing a destination address in a destination address field of the packets;
• a packet modification module to modify offer packets sent from the DHCP server to offer an IP address by placing a PXE-compliant DHCP relay device's IP address in a source IP address field of the offer packets, and to add PXE tags into a field of the offer packets;
• and
• a DHCP request module to relay request packets from the diskless computing device to the DHCP server to request the IP address, wherein the packet modification module modifies acknowledgment packets sent from the DHCP server acknowledging the IP address by placing the PXE-compliant DHCP relay device's IP address in a source IP address field of the acknowledgment packets and adding the PXE tags into a field of the acknowledgment packets.

A remote booting computing system, comprising:

• a diskless computing device to request an Internet Protocol (IP) address;
• a dynamic host configuration parameter (DHCP) server to provide the IP address;
• and
• a pre-boot execution environment (PXE)-compliant dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) relay device, including
• a DHCP discovery module to relay packets from the diskless computing device to the DHCP server to discover an available Internet Protocol (IP) address without changing a destination address in a destination address field of the packets;
• a packet modification module to modify offer packets sent from the DHCP server to offer the IP address by placing the PXE-compliant DHCP relay device's IP address in a source IP address field of the offer packets and to add PXE tags into a field of the offer packets;
• and
• a DHCP request module to relay request packets from the diskless computing device to the DHCP server to request the IP address, wherein the packet modification module modifies acknowledgment packets sent from the DHCP server acknowledging the IP address by placing the DHCP relay device's IP address in a source IP address field of the acknowledgment packets and by adding the PXE tags into a field of the acknowledgment packets.