Method and apparatus for a secure network install

A data processing system, comprising:

• a bus,
• a storage device, wherein the storage device contains computer usable program code;
• a communications unit connected to the bus;
• and
• a processing unit connected to the bus that executes the computer usable program code, wherein the processing unit receives a request for a boot image file from a client at a proxy server to form a received request, wherein the proxy server is a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) server, wherein the request is for a secure network install by using a modified client remote boot control code, wherein the modified client remote boot control code places the client in a Secure Bootfile Download Discovery (SBDD) mode, wherein the request for the boot image file includes a location of the boot image file and a client Internet Protocol address, and wherein the proxy server and the client are on a same subnet;
• wherein the processing unit locates a boot image file server from a list of servers and corresponding boot image files for the boot image file by performing a lookup of the boot image file in a mapping file to form a located boot image file, wherein the mapping file includes the list of servers and corresponding boot image files;
• wherein the processing unit identifies an Internet Protocol address of the boot image file server for the boot image file;
• wherein the processing unit retrieves the located boot image file from the boot image file server using a secure file transfer protocol to form a retrieved boot image file, wherein the secure file transfer protocol includes at least one of file encryption and checksum verification;
• and wherein the processing unit sends the retrieved boot image file to the client, wherein the client receives the client Internet Protocol address, the location of the boot image file, and an Internet Protocol address of the proxy server from a dynamic host configuration protocol server.