How do machines decide where to get the WIM image?

[JimmyJ]

I understand the boot process does a bunch of handshakes with the DHCP/PXE server, but after it loads into the WinPE environment, how does it know to grab the image file? Is there intelligence in the pxe boot file that tells it to grab it locally?

 

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dominikheinz/archive/2011/03/18/sccm-pxe-network-boot-process.aspx

 

[Peter van der Woude]

The image file it should get is specified in the task sequence that the machine should start.

[JimmyJ]

I know "which" image it gets (from the TS), but I am wondering from what location?

 

Ie. Machine A, Site 1 and Site 2 (both sites are PXE capable and have the bootfile, WinPE and WIM image).

Machine A Pxe boots at Site 1. What intelligence tells the machine to load the image (WIM) from Site 1, and not Site 2 (that's over the WAN, for instance).

[SCCMentor]

Whatever is set for the IP Helper address for that part of the network or set for the scope in the DHCP boot options.

[JimmyJ]

I wasn't sure if there was more intelligence than that ... So what you're saying is, if a machine receives the bootfile across the WAN (via IP helpers to a DHCP server), but the image is in the LAN, it will grab the image file from inside that LAN because of the IP Helpers setup?