Annotation of www/diskless-8.html, Revision 1.1
1.1 ! kstailey 1: <TITLE>UNIX Manual Page: man diskless</TITLE>
! 2:
! 3: <BODY>
! 4: <PRE WIDTH=80>
! 5: DISKLESS(8) OpenBSD System Manager's Manual DISKLESS(8)
! 6:
! 7: <B>NAME
! 8: diskless </B>- booting a system over the network
! 9:
! 10: <B>DESCRIPTION
! 11: </B>The ability to boot a machine over the network is useful for diskless or
! 12: dataless machines, or as a temporary measure while repairing or re-
! 13: installing filesystems on a local disk. This file provides a general de-
! 14: scription of the interactions between a client and its server when a
! 15: client is booting over the network. The general description is followed
! 16: by specific instructions for configuring a server for diskless Sun
! 17: clients.
! 18:
! 19: <B>OPERATION
! 20: </B>When booting a system over the network, there are three phases of inter-
! 21: action between client and server:
! 22:
! 23: 1. The PROM (or stage-1 bootstrap) loads a boot program.
! 24: 2. The boot program loads a kernel.
! 25: 3. The kernel does NFS mounts for root and swap.
! 26:
! 27: Each of these phases are described in further detail below.
! 28:
! 29: In phase 1, the PROM loads a boot program. PROM designs vary widely, so
! 30: this phase is inherently machine-specific. Sun and Motorola machines use
! 31: RARP to determine the client's IP address and then use TFTP to download a
! 32: boot program from whoever sent the RARP reply. HP 300-series machines
! 33: use the HP Remote Maintenance Protocol to download a boot program. Other
! 34: machines may load a network boot program either from diskette or using a
! 35: special PROM on the network card.
! 36:
! 37: In phase 2, the boot program loads a kernel. Operation in this phase de-
! 38: pends on the design of the boot program. The boot program:
! 39:
! 40: 2.1 gets the client IP address using RARP.
! 41: 2.2 gets the client name and server IP address by broadcasting an RPC /
! 42: BOOTPARAMS / WHOAMI request with the client IP address.
! 43: 2.3 gets the server path for this client's root using an RPC /
! 44: BOOTPARAMS / GETFILE request with the client name.
! 45: 2.4 gets the root file handle by calling <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+mountd">mountd(8)</A> with the server path
! 46: for the client root.
! 47: 2.5 gets the kernel file handle by calling NFS lookup on the root file
! 48: handle.
! 49: 2.6 loads the kernel using NFS read calls on the kernel file handle.
! 50: 2.7 transfers control to the kernel entry point.
! 51:
! 52: In phase 3, the kernel does NFS mounts for root and swap. The kernel re-
! 53: peats much of the work done by the boot program because there is no stan-
! 54: dard way for the boot program to pass the information it gathered on to
! 55: the kernel. The procedure used by the kernel is as follows:
! 56:
! 57: 3.1 The kernel finds a boot server using the same procedure as described
! 58: in steps 2.1 and 2.2 above.
! 59: 3.2 The kernel gets the NFS file handle for root using the same proce-
! 60: dure as described in steps 2.3 through 2.5 above.
! 61: 3.3 The kernel calls the NFS getattr function to get the last-modified
! 62: time of the root directory, and uses it to check the system clock.
! 63: 3.4 If the kernel is configured for swap on NFS, it uses the same mecha-
! 64: nism as for root, but uses the NFS getattr function to determine the
! 65: size of the swap area.
! 66:
! 67: <B>CONFIGURATION
! 68: </B>Before a client can boot over the network, its server must be configured
! 69: correctly. This example will demonstrate how a Sun client might be con-
! 70: figured -- other clients should be similar.
! 71:
! 72: Assuming the client's hostname is to be "myclient",
! 73:
! 74: 1. Add an entry to <I>/etc/ethers </I>corresponding to the client's ethernet
! 75: address:
! 76: 8:0:20:7:c5:c7 myclient
! 77: This will be used by <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+rarpd">rarpd(8)</A>.
! 78:
! 79: 2. Assign an IP address for myclient in your <I>/etc/hosts </I>or DNS
! 80: database:
! 81: 192.197.96.12 myclient
! 82:
! 83: 3. If booting a Sun or Motorola client, ensure that <I>/etc/inetd.conf </I>is
! 84: configured to run <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+tftpd">tftpd(8)</A> in the directory <I>/tftpboot</I>.
! 85:
! 86: If booting an HP 300-series machine, ensure that <I>/etc/rbootd.conf </I>is
! 87: configured properly to transfer the boot program to the client. An
! 88: entry might look like this:
! 89: 08:00:09:01:23:E6 SYS_NBOOT # myclient
! 90:
! 91: See the <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+rbootd">rbootd(8)</A> manual page for more information.
! 92:
! 93: 4. If booting a Sun or Motorola client, install a copy of the appropri-
! 94: ate diskless boot loader (such as <I>boot.sun4.sunos.4.1.1 </I>from the
! 95: SunOS media) in the <I>/tftpboot </I>directory. Make a link such that the
! 96: boot program is accessible by a file name composed of the client's
! 97: IP address in HEX, a dot, and the architecture name (all upper
! 98: case). For example:
! 99: # cd /tftpboot
! 100: # ln -s boot.sun4.sunos.4.1.1 C0C5600C.SUN4
! 101:
! 102: For a Sun3 machine, the name would be just C0C5600C (the sun3 PROM
! 103: does not append the architecture name). The name used is architec-
! 104: ture dependent, it simply has to match what the booting client's
! 105: PROM wishes to it to be. If the client's PROM fails to fetch the
! 106: expected file, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+tcpdump">tcpdump(8)</A> can be used to discover which filename the
! 107: client is trying to read.
! 108:
! 109: If booting an HP 300-series machine, ensure that the network boot
! 110: program <I><B>SYS_NBOOT </B></I>(which may be called <I>netboot.lif </I>before installa-
! 111: tion) is installed in the directory <I>/usr/mdec/rbootd</I>.
! 112:
! 113: 5. Add myclient to the bootparams database <I>/etc/bootparams</I>:
! 114: myclient root=server:/export/myclient/root \
! 115: swap=server:/export/myclient/swap
! 116: Note that some bootparam servers are somewhat sensitive. Some re-
! 117: quire fully qualified hostnames or partially qualified hostnames
! 118: (which can be solved by having both fully and partially qualified
! 119: entries). Other servers are case sensitive.
! 120:
! 121: 6. Build the swap file for myclient:
! 122: # mkdir /export/myclient
! 123: # cd /export/myclient
! 124: # dd if=/dev/zero of=swap bs=16k count=1024
! 125: This creates a 16 Megabyte swap file.
! 126:
! 127: 7. Populate myclient's <I>/ </I>filesystem on the server. How this is done
! 128: depends on the client architecture and the version of the OpenBSD
! 129: distribution. It can be as simple as copying and modifying the
! 130: server's root filesystem, or perhaps you need to get those files out
! 131: of the standard binary distribution.
! 132:
! 133: 8. Export the required filesystems in <I>/etc/exports</I>:
! 134: /usr -ro myclient
! 135: # for SunOS:
! 136: # /export/myclient -rw=myclient,root=myclient
! 137: # for OpenBSD:
! 138: /export/myclient -maproot=root -alldirs myclient
! 139:
! 140: If the server and client are of the same architecture, then the
! 141: client can share the server's <I>/usr </I>filesystem (as is done above).
! 142: If not, you must build a properly fleshed out <I>/usr </I>partition for the
! 143: client in some other place.
! 144:
! 145: If your server was a sparc, and your client a sun3, you might create
! 146: and fill <I>/export/usr.sun3 </I>and then use the following <I>/etc/exports
! 147: </I>lines:
! 148: /export/usr.sun3 -ro myclient
! 149: /export/myclient -rw=myclient,root=myclient
! 150:
! 151: 9. Copy and customize at least the following files in
! 152: <I>/export/myclient/root</I>:
! 153: # cd /export/myclient/root/etc
! 154: # cp fstab.nfs fstab
! 155: # cp /etc/hosts hosts
! 156: # echo myclient > myname
! 157: # echo inet 192.197.96.12 > hostname.le0
! 158:
! 159: Note that "le0" above should be replaced with the name of the net-
! 160: work interface that the client will use for booting.
! 161:
! 162: 10. Correct the critical mount points in the client's <I>/etc/fstab </I>(which
! 163: will be <I>/export/myclient/root/etc/fstab</I>) ie.
! 164: myserver:/export/myclient/root / nfs rw 0 0
! 165: myserver:/usr /usr nfs rw 0 0
! 166:
! 167: <B>FILES
! 168: </B>/etc/ethers Ethernet addresses of known clients
! 169: /etc/bootparams client root and swap pathnames
! 170: /etc/exports exported NFS mount points
! 171: /etc/rbootd.conf configuration file for HP Remote Boot Daemon
! 172: /tftpboot location of boot programs loaded by the Sun PROM
! 173: /usr/mdec/rbootd location of boot programs loaded by the HP Boot ROM
! 174:
! 175: <B>SEE ALSO
! 176: </B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+rarpd">rarpd(8)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?5+ethers">ethers(5)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+tftpd">tftpd(8)</A>, rpc.<A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+bootparamd">bootparamd(8)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?5+bootparams">bootparams(5)</A>,
! 177: <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+mountd">mountd(8)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?5+exports">exports(5)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+nfsd">nfsd(8)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+rbootd">rbootd(8)</A>, <A HREF="/cgi-bin/manpage?8+reboot">reboot(8)</A>
! 178:
! 179: OpenBSD 2.0 October 2, 1994 3
! 180: </PRE>
! 181: </BODY>
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