Is it possible to boot of LAN1?

[Coolmar]

Is it possible to boot off lan1? Our ignite server was setup on another interface (lan1) and when we want to boot a server up, we have to physically unplug the lan1 cable and plug it into lan0...which is a pain. So I want to redo the ignite setup, but it would be very difficult to move the IP's around and would rather find an easier way. So would it be possible to do the following at the prompt:

bo lan1. install


Thanks!

[DCE · Accepted solution]

It has been my unfortunate experience that Ignite only works reliably off of core i/o - ususally lan0

[Pete Randall]

From the Ignite Administration Guide:

"Most clients only provide support for booting using their built-in LAN interfaces."


Pete

[Torsten.]

From the ignite admin guide:

"Most clients only provide support for booting using their built-in LAN
interfaces. Other interfaces may or may not work."

The build-in NIC is *not* always lan0!
But this means, you should use the build-in LAN interface.

But it says also

"Other LAN interfaces may not have boot support so you
might consider booting from media (CD, DVD, or tape) devices, and then
contact an Ignite-UX server over these other network interfaces."

This could be your solution.

HTH

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The general answer to this question is no but it's important that you understand why. The machine at this point in the boot process is very dumb and there is a limit to how much code can be put into firmware --- and there is no predicting what LAN cards you might choose and for that matter, your LAN card might not even have existed when your firmware was written. While I suppose that it might be possible to create custom firmware for a machine that would include LAN drivers, that would immediately impose penalties if an Ignite image were being using to bring up a replacement machine which might not have exactly the same characteristics as the original machine.

The reasonable approach is to include drivers which are known to be in the box so that really comes down to the lowest common denominator -- the built-in lan interfaces.

Given all that could go wrong by not adopting this strategy, I find that walking around to the back of a box and moving two cables to be not much of a pain. It might take as long as 30 seconds to complete this extremely difficult task. Sally, obviously you have a very low pain threshold so I suggest that you take two aspirin before you make that long, arduous journey to the back of your machine.

[Torsten.]

From the ignite admin guide:

"Most clients only provide support for booting using their built-in LAN
interfaces. Other interfaces may or may not work."

The build-in NIC is *not* always lan0!
But this means, you should use the build-in LAN interface.

But it says also

"Other LAN interfaces may not have boot support so you
might consider booting from media (CD, DVD, or tape) devices, and then
contact an Ignite-UX server over these other network interfaces."

This could be your solution.

HTH

[A. Clay Stephenson]

One approach would be to rethink the problem so that all the built-in interfaces are on the same VLAN and subnet and this is the subnet that your Ignite server is also installed on. Often, the built-in LAN's go otherwise unused (especially on older boxes where the built-in is a 10MiBit/s interface). The downside is that you may have only one interface in some boxes so in order to implement this plan you would have to install additional cards in those boxes but that's bound to be better than the difficult circumambulation of your boxes.

[Coolmar]

Thank you all for your recommendations.

Clay, your first response was very ignorant and rude...and perhaps it is you that requires the pill. I didn't feel the need to go into the long song and dance regarding our entire setup but when your datacenter is 30 miles away, yes it can be somewhat of a pain! Shall I get into traffic and all of that or can you figure it out on your own now?

I come on here in hopes to find help and to chat with others in order to improve how things are done here not to be berated by someone who thinks he is better than everyone else. So take your pill and shove it Clay.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Sally,

It's obvious that my feeble attempt at humor failed and for that, I apologize. I actually tried to explain the technical reasons that Ignite works as it does and the design decisions that were made, in my opinion, were quite sound. I admit that having to move cables at a distance (at least without psycho kinetic powers) is difficult though generally not painful. However, the need to move such cables is a direct result of less than optimal planning that could have been avoided with a careful reading of the Ignite documentation before deployment.

One could argue that make_net_recovery should be able to detect that it is not using the built-in interface and fail but that would not be in keeping with the UNIX philosophy that the assumption is that you know what you are doing.

[Coolmar]

I did not set this up, but am tasked with fixing it. So I am doing my best to find the easiest way that can be accomplished without any/little disruption to the systems.

[Coolmar]

I did not deploy this current setup, but am tasked with fixing it. So I am doing my best to find the easiest way that can be accomplished without any/little disruption to the systems.

[Torsten.]

Sally,

you should consider to either change your current LAN configuration to make the built-in NIC able to boot from the ignite server or use another source to boot the install utility as mentioned earlier. This could be a tape, a CD/DVD or even another ignte server holding only the boot data, not the archive itself.

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

I think all questions are answered by now.
A small extra information: This is a business forum, if You, Sally, a) don't get a joke and b) can't work on Your tone, it might be reasonable to find a different place for asking questions.

#hpux on ircnet - where I also am around all day - is more relaxed.

[Coolmar]

Florian....re-read his post. It didn't look like a joke to me and still doesn't frankly. Like I said, I come to this group for help - which I have got alot of in the past - not to be patronized. I will not switch groups and I have every right to be here like everyone else. When I am told to "take a pill" for a question that I ask, I am not going to take that lightly.

Thanks very much for you input though.