Re: booting a sun diskless, remotely?

From: Dan Stromberg (strombrg_at_dcs.nac.uci.edu)
Date: 08/02/05 

Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 22:37:22 GMT

On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 22:02:12 +0000, Dan Foster wrote:

> In article <pan.2005.08.01.21.27.09.758454@dcs.nac.uci.edu>, Dan Stromberg <strombrg@dcs.nac.uci.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Did you have to forward two protocols: dhcp and tftp?
>
> Yes. On the Cisco, we had .. hmm.. I can't quite find my notes, but I
> know we had a helper on the IOS side for at least one or two protocols.
>
> Simple one-line statement that included the IP address of the Jumpstart
> server.
>
> I *think* the two protocols were indeed DHCP and TFTP?

Good to know.

>> What boot command did you use to initiate it?
>
> x86 or SPARC? ;)

Sparc :)

> SPARC: boot net:dhcp - install

This is great, but is there no way of getting these protocols transported
across n subnets by just specifying some IP addresses in the boot command?

> x86: For a V20Z, esc-shift-@ on a U.S. keyboard -- @ is above the '2' key.

Cool, but I won't need for this for at least a little while yet. :)

> (This keystroke combination is the equivalent of the F12 key via serial.)
>
> This is done at power-on while BIOS memory tests are running, to start a
> netboot. It does PXE stuff which is basically DHCP + TFTP.
>
> The F12 equiv is because by default, we have them set to boot from disk.
>
> Similar reason why we don't just do 'boot' for SPARC; also set to boot
> from disk by default.
>
> But if you normally wanted to netboot the client, can make it boot off
> network by default.
>
> The hardest part of it all was to set up the DHCP server with the
> options and macros, and debug that. But once we got the hang of it, it's
> pretty much been mostly 'hands-free' in running it day to day. We got
> that fully working in a (long) day.

Sweet! I don't suppose you'd have a moment to cut and paste one of your
working DHCP entries for a net-bootable host?

> We still use sysidcfg, use sysidcfg, but due to use of DHCP/PXE, you no
> longer use
> /etc/ethers or /etc/bootparams. Instead, that stuff is done via DHCP
> server options and macros.

I suppose that makes sense.

> (If it's important, existing ethers/bootparams can be converted to a
> DHCP style setup, though you'd either have to do it manually or write a
> script to do so.)

We already have a python program that makes it easy to set this up for
rarp+bootparams+tftp - I'll probably just make it set up both for all new
hosts.

> DHCP server side is set up with 'dhtadm' commands. Then to define
> specific hosts with their IP (if not using dynamic DHCP) and MAC
> address, the 'pntadm' command.

Sigh. Interactive stuff, eh?

I really believe that the very best an OS can do is to:

1) Be able to do -everything- via a CLI or config file method
2) Be able to do -everything- via some sort of interactive program, GUI,
curses, whatever
3) Be able to easily map between between the two methods, via some sort
of pair of long strings that uniquely identifies each

> At least the DHCP server stuff is reasonably well
documented. There's
> the usual docs on Sunsolve, man pages, as well as a BluePrint or two,
> IIRC?
>
> A tip: it's very helpful to have snoop running for these protocols on
> the Jumpstart server to debug problems seen during setup.

Been there, done that, but thanks!

> We also got this stuff working with multiple Sun models (both SPARC and
> x86), and even with Linux netinstalls via the Solaris DHCP server. ;)

Cool. :)

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  • Re: booting a sun diskless, remotely?
    ... know we had a helper on the IOS side for at least one or two protocols. ... I *think* the two protocols were indeed DHCP and TFTP? ... The F12 equiv is because by default, we have them set to boot from disk. ... DHCP server side is set up with 'dhtadm' commands. ...
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