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DISKLESS(8)

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NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     diskless - booting a system over the network

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The ability to boot a machine over the network is useful for
diskless or
     dataless machines, or as a temporary measure while repairing
or re-installing
 filesystems on a local disk.  This file provides  a
general description
 of the interactions between a client and its server when a
     client is booting over the network.  The general description
is followed
     by  specific instructions for configuring a server for diskless Sun
     clients.

OPERATION    [Toc]    [Back]

     When booting a system over  the  network,  there  are  three
phases of interaction
 between client and server:

     1.   The PROM (or stage-1 bootstrap) loads a boot program.
     2.   The boot program loads a kernel.
     3.   The kernel does NFS mounts for root and swap.

     Each  of these phases are described in further detail below.

     In phase 1, the PROM loads a  boot  program.   PROM  designs
vary widely, so
     this phase is inherently machine-specific.  Sun and Motorola
machines use
     RARP to determine the client's IP address and then use  TFTP
to download a
     boot  program  from whoever sent the RARP reply.  HP 300-series machines
     use the HP Remote Maintenance Protocol to  download  a  boot
program.  Other
     machines  may  load  a  network  boot  program  either  from
diskette or using a
     special PROM on the network card.

     In phase 2, the boot program loads a kernel.   Operation  in
this phase depends
 on the design of the boot program.  The boot program:

     2.1  gets the client IP address using RARP.
     2.2   gets  the  client name and server IP address by broadcasting an RPC /
          BOOTPARAMS / WHOAMI request with the client IP address.
     2.3   gets  the  server path for this client's root using an
RPC /
          BOOTPARAMS / GETFILE request with the client name.
     2.4  gets the root file handle by calling mountd(8) with the
server path
          for the client root.
     2.5   gets  the  kernel file handle by calling NFS lookup on
the root file
          handle.
     2.6  loads the kernel using NFS read  calls  on  the  kernel
file handle.
     2.7  transfers control to the kernel entry point.

     In  phase  3,  the kernel does NFS mounts for root and swap.
The kernel repeats
 much of the work done  by  the  boot  program  because
there is no standard
  way  for  the  boot program to pass the information it
gathered on to
     the kernel.  The procedure used by the kernel is as follows:

     3.1  The kernel finds a boot server using the same procedure
as described
          in steps 2.1 and 2.2 above.
     3.2  The kernel gets the NFS file handle for root using  the
same procedure
 as described in steps 2.3 through 2.5 above.
     3.3   The  kernel  calls the NFS getattr function to get the
last-modified
          time of the root directory, and uses it  to  check  the
system clock.
     3.4   If  the  kernel is configured for swap on NFS, it uses
the same mechanism
 as for root, but uses the NFS getattr function  to
determine the
          size of the swap area.

CONFIGURATION    [Toc]    [Back]

     Before  a  client can boot over the network, its server must
be configured
     correctly.  This example will demonstrate how a  Sun  client
might be configured
 -- other clients should be similar.

     Assuming the client's hostname is to be "myclient",

     1.    Add  an  entry  to  /etc/ethers  corresponding  to the
client's ethernet
          address:

                8:0:20:7:c5:c7          myclient

          This will be used by rarpd(8).

     2.   Assign an IP address for myclient in your /etc/hosts or
DNS
          database:

                192.197.96.12           myclient

     3.    If  booting  a  Sun  or  Motorola  client, ensure that
/etc/inetd.conf is
          configured to run tftpd(8) in the directory  /tftpboot.

          If  booting  an  HP  300-series  machine,  ensure  that
/etc/rbootd.conf is
          configured properly to transfer the boot program to the
client.  An
          entry might look like this:

                08:00:09:01:23:E6         SYS_UBOOT        #  myclient

          See the rbootd(8) manual page for more information.

     4.   If booting a Sun or Motorola client, install a copy  of
the appropriate
  diskless  boot  loader  (such as boot.net from the
root directory
          of the OpenBSD sparc tree) in the /tftpboot  directory.
Make a link
          such that the boot program is accessible by a file name
composed of
          the client's IP address in HEX, a dot, and  the  architecture name
          (all upper case).  For example:

                # cd /tftpboot
                # ln -s boot.net C0C5600C.SUN4

          Some architectures, such as the Sun3 and Ultrasparc machines, do not
          append the architecture name.  It this case,  the  name
would be just
          C0C5600C.   The name used is architecture dependent, it
simply has to
          match what the booting client's PROM wishes  to  it  to
be.  If the
          client's  PROM  fails  to fetch the expected file, tcpdump(8) can be
          used to discover which filename the client is trying to
read.

          If  booting  an  HP 300-series machine, ensure that the
general purpose
          boot program SYS_UBOOT (which may be called netboot.lif
before installation)
    is    installed    in    the   directory
/usr/mdec/rbootd.

     5.     Add   myclient    to    the    bootparams    database
/etc/bootparams:

                myclient        root=server:/export/myclient/root
swap=server:/export/myclient/swap

          Note that some bootparam servers  are  somewhat  sensitive.  Some require
  fully qualified hostnames or partially qualified
hostnames
          (which can be solved by having both fully and partially
qualified
          entries).  Other servers are case sensitive.

     6.   Build the swap file for myclient:

                # mkdir /export/myclient
                # cd /export/myclient
                # dd if=/dev/zero of=swap bs=1m count=120

          This creates a 120 Megabyte swap file.

     7.    Populate  myclient's  / filesystem on the server.  How
this is done
          depends on the client architecture and the  version  of
the OpenBSD
          distribution.  It can be as simple as copying and modifying the
          server's root filesystem, or perhaps you  need  to  get
those files out
          of the standard binary distribution.

     8.   Export the required filesystems in /etc/exports:

                /usr -ro myclient
                # for SunOS:
                # /export/myclient -rw=myclient,root=myclient
                # for OpenBSD:
                /export/myclient -maproot=root -alldirs myclient

          If  the server and client are of the same architecture,
then the
          client can share the server's /usr  filesystem  (as  is
done above).
          If not, you must build a properly fleshed out /usr partition for the
          client in some other place.

          If your server was a sparc, and your client a sun3, you
might create
          and  fill  /export/usr.sun3  and then use the following
/etc/exports
          lines:

                /export/usr.sun3 -ro myclient
                /export/myclient -rw=myclient,root=myclient

     9.   Copy and customize at least the following files in
          /export/myclient/root:

                # cd /export/myclient/root/etc
                # cp fstab.nfs fstab
                # cp /etc/hosts hosts
                # echo myclient > myname
                # echo inet 192.197.96.12 > hostname.le0

          Note that "le0" above should be replaced with the  name
of the network
 interface that the client will use for booting.

     10.   Correct  the  critical  mount  points  in the client's
/etc/fstab (which
          will be /export/myclient/root/etc/fstab) i.e.,

                myserver:/export/myclient/root / nfs rw 0 0
                myserver:/usr /usr nfs rw 0 0

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /etc/ethers       Ethernet addresses of known clients
     /etc/bootparams   client root and swap pathnames
     /etc/exports      exported NFS mount points
     /etc/rbootd.conf  configuration file for HP Remote Boot Daemon
     /tftpboot          location  of  boot programs loaded by the
Sun PROM
     /usr/mdec/rbootd  location of boot programs loaded by the HP
Boot ROM

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

      
      
     bootparams(5),  ethers(5),  exports(5),  mountd(8), nfsd(8),
rarpd(8),
     rbootd(8), reboot(8), rpc.bootparamd(8), tftpd(8)

OpenBSD     3.6                         October      2,      1994
[ Back ]
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