We did something similar at Optiver.<p><pre><code>    * boot a custom live cd (a la Knoppix) over PXE
    * Live CD places node into database if it doesn&#x27;t exist yet, 
    using dmidecode to find serialnumbers and such
    * Live Cd keeps querying database for instructions
    * Engineer adds a profile to the node in the database
    * Live Cd slices up disk to match the profile
    * Live Cd fetches a tarball of the base OS from an URL 
    and throws it on the metal. Runs grub setup. Reboots.
</code></pre>
Tumblr did something like this with <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tumblr.github.io&#x2F;collins&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tumblr.github.io&#x2F;collins&#x2F;</a>.