Change the boot order for NetBoot/NetInstall clients

Question

Change the boot order for NetBoot/NetInstall clients

Hello,

I am trying to get NetBoot/NetInstall working on my 10.5.7 server. The server is on a different subnet from the target client. The subnet on which the target client resides offers DHCP services, though they are not provided by the server to which I would like to connect.

Whenever I try to boot to the server, the client does not get an IP address and cannot connect to the server. If I were to boot the client, normally, DHCP gives an address as usual. Is there a way to modify the process NetBoot uses at start-up to make sure the client gets an IP address before it starts looking for the server?

Thanks

xServe, Mac OS X (10.5.7), iMac 10.4.11 Client

Posted on May 18, 2009 10:23 AM

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Answer 1

May 18, 2009 11:27 AM in response to Jason Watkins

See http://www.bombich.com/mactips/netboot.html. Specifically "Netbooting across subnets".

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Answer 2

May 18, 2009 11:41 AM in response to Brian Nesse

Hi,

I'll give this one more shot. Thanks!

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Answer 3

May 20, 2009 8:50 AM in response to Brian Nesse

It is a nice tutorial, but how does one set the boot-device option as suggested? I can't seem to do with the given commands in the Open Firmware utility?

Thanks

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Answer 4

May 20, 2009 9:53 AM in response to Jason Watkins

I'm not sure where the "boot-device" reference came from. I didn't find in on the linked page... but boot-device would most likely be set via the nvram tool (run as root)

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Answer 5

May 20, 2009 9:56 AM in response to Brian Nesse

Sure, but there is no instruction for the use of proper commands with that tool just:

nvram: (usage: no such option as -?)
nvram [-x] [-p] [-f filename] [-d name] name[=value] ...
-x use XML format for printing or reading variables
(must appear before -p or -f)
-p print all firmware variables
-f set firmware variables from a text file
-d delete the named variable
-c delete all variables
name=value set named variable
name print variable
Note that arguments and options are executed in order.

What would be the proper format for the 'file'?

Thanks

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Answer 6

May 20, 2009 10:07 AM in response to Jason Watkins

I don't know that I've ever set "boot-device", but the general use case is something like:
sudo nvram boot-args="-v srv=1"

I expect you're looking for something like:
sudo nvram boot-device="<path to server>"

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Answer 7

May 20, 2009 11:09 AM in response to Jason Watkins

If your Netboot server resides on a different subnet than your client machines, you will have to configure your network router to pass the necessary BSDP traffic between subnets. If you don't have control of the router config, talk to your Network admin. If the router is Cisco kit, the 'ip helper-address' command will be what's needed to make this work. Failing that, do the following:

On PPC machines you need to issue the following command in Terminal.app:

sudo nvram default-bootp-vexts="%00"

Then you can issue this command:

sudo nvram boot-device enet:12.34.56.78

where '12.34.56.78' is the IP address of your Netboot server. These values will stay in nvram until they are reset.

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Answer 8

Jun 4, 2009 5:53 PM in response to Jason Watkins

I had to throw in the towel on this effort. Given all of the time I have invested on trying to get this to work, it is just easier to visit every machine.

Thanks for the helpful posts!

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Answer 9

Jul 9, 2009 8:30 AM in response to Jason Watkins

This cannot be done in our current environment. Thanks to all that have offered suggestions!

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Answer 10

Aug 10, 2009 6:51 AM in response to Jason Watkins

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem just over a year ago and after all my trials and tribulations the only (& most simple) solution was to make the NetBoot/Netinstall Server the DHCP server for the appropriate subnet: worked like a dream!

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