Boot Lan Install on rp7420

[Brian King]

I know that we can issue the following when trying to boot over lan to hit an Ignite server to build this rp7420:

bo lan install
bo lan.xx.xx.xx.xx install

Is there a way to specify the hardware path of a particular lan interface? I know that this was possible on the older model 700s, but I don't believe that it is an option on newer PA-RISC boxes like the rp7420.

This question stems from timeout issues seen.

This is a shared server for building images under a DR scenario. It has 20 NICs - all attached to various vlans (lan0 thru lan19). The NIC that we are using is lan15, so the boot process timeout before broadcasting the bootp request over lan15.

The assumption is that the bootp request goes out over one NIC at a time, timesout and moves on the next NIC.

When we place lan0 in the same vlan as lan15, for a test, the bootp request is immediately satisfied.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

These boxes will only boot lan off their built in NIC card. Since there is only one of them, there is no option to specify hardware path.

This NIC needs to be on the same subnet as the Ignite server.

SEP

[Mel Burslan]

I did not know if you can specify anything other than built-in LAN for LAN booting. At the time bootstrap is in control, it does not see anything but what is on the main board.

On other servers, likes of IBM P-Series, there is a conversational process, selecting which LAN interface to boot from but I am not aware of such things before Integrity. On Rx servers, at efi shell, you issue the lanboot select command and it lets you select which LAN interface you want to use for ignition. RPs do not have that luxury

[Ismail Azad]

Hi,

> On other servers, likes of IBM P-Series, there is a conversational process, selecting which LAN interface to boot from but I am not aware of such things before Integrity.

Well there is an rp3410 server I constantly do installations on via Ignite and it does give me an *option* to boot off any of all the 5 nics available.

Regards
Ismail Azad

[Brian King]

Actually, and this is from 2005, the rp7420 is capable of performing LAN boots over other LAN interfaces besides the "built-in" interface:

2 slots; depending on what cells are in the PDE, the two slots can vary:

Cell 0: slots 0_1 and 0_2
- or -
Cell 1: slots 1_7 and 1_8
- or -
Cell 0: slot 0_1 and Cell 1: slot 1_8

More recent firmware may have allowed for additional slots to be used as well. I will look into changing the Boot Timeout value, which looks to allow for a maximum value of 200 seconds, which I don't think it long enough - but worth investigating.

[Brian King]

Moving active lan connection to one of the cards in slot 1 or 2 in cell 0.