After being placed on the network and turned on, the machine's PXE logic broadcasts its MAC address and a request to be discovered.

If a static IP address is not being used, the DHCP server recognizes the discovery request and extends an offer of network information needed for the new machine to boot. This includes an IP address, the default gateway to be used, the netmask of the network, the IP address of the TFTP or HTTP server holding the bootloader program, and the full path and file name of that program (relative to the server's root).

The machine applies the networking information and initiates a session with the server to request the bootloader program.

The bootloader, once loaded, searches for its configuration file on the server from which it was itself loaded. This file dictates which kernel and kernel options, such as the initial RAM disk (initrd) image, should be executed on the booting machine. Assuming the bootloader program is SYSLINUX, this file is located in the pxelinux.cfg directory on the server and named the hexadecimal equivalent of the new machine's IP address. For example, a bootloader configuration file for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1 should contain:

               port 0 prompt 0 timeout 1 default My_Label label My_Label kernel vmlinuz append ks=http://myrhnsatellite/ initrd=initrd.img network apic 
            

The machine accepts and uncompresses the init image and kernel, boots the kernel, and initiates a kickstart installation with the options supplied in the bootloader configuration file, including the server containing the kickstart configuration file.

This kickstart configuration file in turn directs the machine to the location of the installation files.

The new machine is built based upon the parameters established within the kickstart configuration file.