topic Re: itanium and instl_bootd in Operating System - HP-UX

itanium and instl_bootd

RASHMI MYSORE — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:05:00 GMT

Hi ,
I have an issue, I ahve an Itanium client which sends a bootp packet out , and in the inetd.conf file we have commented out bootps and added new boopts (listeneing on port 67) which will re-direct the packet to the instl_bootd as follows

bootps dgram udp wait root /opt/ignite/lbin/instl_bootd instl_bootd

as recommended by IOgnite admin guide.

Now when any cleint does network boot , it sends a bootp packet , now instl_bootd will pick up that request and then assign an ip to the client, however we have made modification to allocate ips to more than one subnet by having multiple NIC card, but instl_bootd does not understand about client subnet and llocates some free ip not belonging to clients subnet in the /etc/opt/ignite/instl_boottab file.

how to solve this problem (setup_server)???

In case of pa since we specify the ignite server ip , instl-bootd understand the clients subent and allocates ip from proepr subnet ,m unlike IA which cannot specify the Ignite server ip.

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

Scot Bean — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:38:23 GMT

It is true that the Itanium bootp protocol is not specific. The first responder is used.

A good way to get around this. See if your Itanium machine supports the 'dbprofile' command in the EFI firmware.

This command allows your to specify an exact Ignite server to boot from. See this section of the Ignite User guide for instructions:
http://docs.hp.com/en/5991-7999/ch06s06.html

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

Tim Nelson — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:58:21 GMT

dbprofile is the way to go. if you type in dbprofile from the fs0 prompt and it does not recognize the command then you need to update the servers firmware.

You will spin yourself in circles trying to get the Ignite dhcp to work right. I kept running into an issue where a different dhcp server kept responding first.

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

RASHMI MYSORE — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:29:21 GMT

Thanks a lot for quick replies,

However it is not mentioned that all IA servers supports dbprofile, it clear;ly mentions about partiitonable machines and blades, and unfortunately we do not use either of those in our environment.

Notes about dbprofile"
"All partitionable Itanium-based systems allow the definition of direct boot profiles (this may require firmware updates). Some other Itanium-based systems such as the Itanium-based blades in an HP Integrity BL60p blade server also provide this EFI functionality.

The dbprofile command allows you to create direct boot profiles that can be used in conjunction with the lanboot EFI command. A direct boot profile contains information needed to talk over the network to an installation server."

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

RASHMI MYSORE — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:41:49 GMT

Also on one of our subnet, I tried going into fs0 via shell and when I typed dbprofile it does nto show me any information, this goes to say that dbprofile is not enabled on this IA box, now my question is any IA box???

EFI details are:

Hewlett-Packard Integrated Lights-Out HP Integrity and HP 9000

(c) Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company 1999-2004. All Rights Reserved.

MP Host Name: ketu-c

Revision E.03.15

AND MY EFI BOOT MANAGER VERSION IS:
EFI Boot Manager ver 1.10 [14.60] Firmware ver 1.82 [4306]

Loading device drivers

MY HOST IS RUNNING ON BOX

ia64 hp server rx2600

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

Torsten. — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:10:48 GMT

Regarding the dbprofile:

"All partitionable Itanium-based systems allow the definition of direct boot profiles (this may require firmware updates). Some other Itanium-based systems such as the Itanium-based blades in an HP Integrity BL60p blade server also provide this EFI functionality."

http://docs.hp.com/en/5991-7999/ch06s06.html

It does not work (yet?) on your server.

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

RASHMI MYSORE — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:06:00 GMT

Torsten,

MY IA box is not partitionable.. can you kindly let me know if this efi firwmware upgrade is also applicable for rx2600 and all rx family machines.

Re: itanium and instl_bootd

Sameer_Nirmal — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:09:52 GMT

To answer the question as per your last post, I see the Directed Lan boot support (dbprofile)is available on non-partitionable Integrity servers rx1600,rx1620, rx2620, rx4640,rx3600,rx6600.

For servers rx1600/rx1620,rx2620,rx4640, the support was added. I don't see the support added for rx2600.