A control protocol is used to deploy and install an operating system image on a client. The data structure of the control protocol includes an operation code corresponding to an operation associated with the deployment and installation of the operating system image on the client. When a server receives a request packet from the client, the server parses the request packet and sends the parsed request packet to a provider. The provider then executes the operation associated with the operation code and generates a return value. The return value is sent to the server. The server then composes a reply packet including the return value and transmits the reply packet to the client.