The 'identical' boxes recommendation really means 'family' of computers. The way Ignite works is to backup vg00 plus create a bootable kernel, either for the tape or for a network backup. The issue with unlike families such as A/L/N class and a G30 or D270 is hardware, pure and simple. The disks are VERY different (Ultra FWD-LV versus FWD-HV and plain old SCSI-2), as well as the backplanes (the D-class may have EISA, the others do not, etc).
So if you put *every* driver and hardware support module into the kernel, along with all the correct patches (assuming you could build a kernel successfully) then the image would probably work. But each kernel would carry an awful lot of junk that would be unnecessary and run the risk of untested combinations of kernel modules trying to work/fit together.
So for a family of K-class boxes, you might create a 32-bit and a 64-bit Golden Image. Then, if you want optional LAN interfaces to work out of the box, you'll need to add Token Ring, Gigabit, maybe SNA and X.25, and so on. And then there are different disk: internal external, arrays, SCSI versus fibre. Now memory and processor count won't have an effect, but vg00's with very different disks will require hand-work to make a one-size-fits-all solution.
Now you see how important an inventory is for each machine. You can then develop a class of Ignite images as desired.
As mentioned, net_recovery is no problem at all as long as there is a boot helper on the same subnet *OR* just use any Ignite tape and make sure you get to the Selection menu--you've now loaded a memory-based kernel which can be configred to talk over a WAN to the Ignite server. All you need is to get a boot kernel into memory and then choose the server.
Bill Hassell, sysadmin
