Cisco "ip-helper" relayof bootp in place of Ignite boot-helpers

[David Libby_4]

Hi,

We have a large network with multiple VLAN's and HP machines distributed widely. I'm looking into workarounds for the boot-helper setup (it's a lot lighter in principal).

Has anyone out there used Cisco relays of bootp with the ip-helper command? If so does it work with Ignite servers?

Best regards,
David

[Bill Hassell]

Yes, this will work OK. The bootp ip-helper can echo the UDP requests onto other networks. Normally, UDP packets are considered to be noise and left on the local subnet. I would add it to one router, then use a test machine to see if it can boot and install across the router.

[David Libby_4]

Fantastic, thanks for the fast reply!!! I'm just co-ordinating with the network team to make this happen. Hopefully should have a test completed by close of business CEST.

[David Libby_4]

Well, this still isn't going as well as expected... we can see the bootp packets arriving on the ignite server when we run boot lan but it just doesn't get any further than that.

[David Libby_4]

I'm gonna open a support call with HP because if Microsoft can manage it with RIS the HP have gotta be able to do it. I mean HP-UX is an "enterprise" OS, is it not?

[Bill Hassell]

It sounds like a config issue with Ignite/UX, possibly the setup of 'spare' IP addresses needed by Ignite when booting a remote system.

[David Libby_4]

When xou say spare IP addresses... what *exactly* do you mean? We have set the IP address and mac address of the test client in /etc/opt/ignite/instl_boottab... if that's what you mean?

[Bill Hassell]

COrrect. When you setup the Ignite network server, you setup IP and MAC addresses used to get the remote system to complete the boot process. Check syslog to see if there are any boot error messages and also the Ignite logfiles in /var/opt/ignite.