Need help with a school project: Client-Management System with linux for both, Server and Clients

We are trying to accomplish the following:

Server:

1. serves the installation image for the clients to boot from (over PXE)

2. distributes updates to the client

3. installs specified software on the clients belonging to a specified group

4. DHCP server for the clients

Client:

1. boots the installation image from the server (over PXE)

2. obtains it's hostname from the server (based on its MAC addr.)

3. some kind of group policy (nothing fancy, just smth. like min password length)

Now I need help finding out what tools and services I need, to do this. As this is just an exercise, I don't really care what distro to use on both ends. Would be great if someone could give me a few recommendations, to start from. Thanks!