HP-UX DHCP Server and Thin Client Configuration

[Kathy Kope]

We need to configure 30 Wyse thin clients to use the DHCP on HP-UX. The DHCP Server is configured and running with our different pool groups configured. Now with the addition of thin clients added to the mix, the vendor indicated that we would need to add DHCP configuration options 161 and 162 (of course they assume windows!).

What are the comparable options in HP-UX. If the thin client passes the directory and file name, do I need to add any options to DHCP as long as the directory is present on the server?

Not sure what needs to be set up for thin clients to retrieve the boot file.

Thanks!

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

From "man bootpd":

----quote----
Tnnn=generic-data

This is a generic tag where nnn is an RFC1533 option field tag number. Use this option to configure RFC1533 options not currently supported with bootpd tag names. This option allows one to immediately take advantage of future extensions to RFC1533. The generic-data data can be represented as either a stream of hexadecimal numbers or as a quoted string of ASCII characters. The length of the generic data is automatically determined and inserted into the proper fields of the RFC1541-style boot reply.
----end quote----

After a bit of Googling, it looks like option 161 is supposed to be the name or IP address of the FTP server that contains the boot files for Wyse thin clients, and option 162 is the FTP directory path to search for them.

So, the required options would be something like:
...other options...:\
T161="11.22.33.44":\
T162="/some/path"

I found the information on Wyse-specific DHCP options on pages 64-65 of ThinOS_7.0_Admin_Guide_SEP2010.pdf, which was available at support.wyse.com. The URLs at the site are horrendously long and apparently session-specific, so unfortunately I cannot give a direct link, sorry!

NOTE: The document talks about slashes "/" as pathname separators, just as normal with the FTP protocol. But all the examples actually use backslashes "\" as with Windows pathname conventions. I'd guess it actually uses forward slashes in the FTP protocol, and the examples are just dumbed down for Windows.

NOTE2: the document mentions the thin client will automatically append "/wyse/wnos" to the pathname specified with the DHCP option. This can be prevented by appending a dollar sign to the value of the option 162.

If you can provide both a DHCP server and a FTP server (which may both be located on the same HP-UX system), I think you're all set. Your FTP server must either allow anonymous access, or your Wyse ThinOS version must be 4.3 or greater; in the latter case, you can use DHCP options 184 and 185 to provide the FTP username and password, respectively. With the HP-UX DHCP server, you can specify those options the same way as the options 161 and 162 I explained above.

Pages 59-61 on the above-mentioned PDF document describe the required FTP setup. The instructions also include specific guidelines for Linux FTP servers; those should be applicable to HP-UX with minor changes only.

MK

[Kathy Kope]

Thanks for the information!! That is exactly what I needed.

I have one more question. We have TFTP configured/running on the server. Does this change the way the options are entered in the dhcptab file?

Thanks,
Kathy

[Matti_Kurkela]

As far as I understood by browsing through the ThinOS Admin Guide, the Wyse thin clients won't use a TFTP service at all.

So you don't have to specify any TFTP-related DHCP options (bf, ef, hd, sa) for them; if you do, the thin clients should just ignore them.

MK

[Kathy Kope]

Thanks for the info!

[Kathy Kope]

Thanks! Your answers have resolved my issue.