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Once all desktop management agents complete execution the PC continues booting as usual 
from its local hard drive. No user awareness or intervention is required. 

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In the past, client PCs using remoteboot ROMs could boot in only one of two ways: from a 
server-based boot image file or from their hard drives. The Pre-OS approach is a hybrid; the 
centrally-booted operating system is not the ultimate operating system but rather a 
temporary environment created for executing management applications. Ultimately, clients 
exit the Pre-OS environment and continue to boot from their local hard drive. Exiting the 
Pre-OS environment is similar to executing a very soft Ctrl+Alt+Del where the PC continues 
to load the OS on the hard disk. 

This entire concept, which we call “Pre-OS managed booting”, or simply “Pre-OS”, is based 
on existing MBA firmware capabilities, extended by any desktop management agents 
contained in a special boot image file. 

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The Pre-OS framework is essentially a DOS client with optional network connectivity. The 
Pre-OS boot image is executed as a drive A: RAM disk residing in extended memory. 

Most Pre-OS environments use a network connection to map network drives. Regular 
network drivers may be loaded from the Pre-OS image, and this in no way affects the Pre-OS 
environment or RAM drive operation. 

If any network login is needed during the Pre-OS phase, it is typically as a guest user, so 
that the user is not prompted to provide login name or password information. 

Summary of Contents for e-PC c10/s10

Page 1: ...2 1 Edition ...

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Page 3: ...ation 5400 Bayfront Plaza Santa Clara California 95052 8145 For civilian agencies Restricted Rights Legend Use reproduction or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in subparagraph a through d of the Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights clause at 48 C F R 52 227 19 and the limitations set forth in 3Com Corporation s standard commercial agreement for the software Unpublished rig...

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Page 5: ... on nf fi ig gu ur ri in ng g M MB BA A 1 11 1 Programming Your MBA ROM Using MBAFLASH 11 MBA Base Code and UNDI Components 12 Setting the Boot Order on PCs with BBS BIOS 13 Configuring MBA s Options 14 Configuration Tables 15 Changing the Options 24 Using the MBA Based Configuration 24 Using the MBACFG Utility 25 Changing Configuration Options Using a Configuration File 26 Changing Configuration ...

Page 6: ... NetWare Pre OS Sample 44 Technical Information 45 C Ch ha ap pt te er r 6 6 U Us si in ng g M MB BA A i in n T TC CP P I IP P E En nv vi ir ro on nm me en nt ts s 4 47 7 Introduction 47 TCP IP Specific Features 47 Network Requirements 47 Quick Setup 48 Setting Up the Server 50 BOOTP Service 50 DHCP Service 50 TFTP Service 50 Setting Up the PC 50 Creating a Boot Diskette 51 Creating a Boot Image F...

Page 7: ...Image Files 68 Creating and Editing the BOOTCONF SYS Boot Index File 68 Avoiding AUTOEXEC BAT Conflicts in SYS LOGIN 70 Using Boot Image Editor to Create Additional Boot Image Files 70 Selecting Different Images at Boot Time 70 Multiple Servers How the MSD NLM Can Help 71 Installing MSD 72 MSD Command Line Options 72 NODEFAULT Mode 73 MSD Console Display 73 MSD PC Messages 73 Other Tools 74 CHKID ...

Page 8: ...ck and Configurations for NICs 84 Troubleshooting 85 A Ap pp pe en nd di ix x A A T Te ec ch hn ni ic ca al l S Su up pp po or rt t 8 87 7 Online Technical Services 87 3Com World Wide Web Site 87 3Com FTP Site 87 3Com Bulletin Board Service 88 3ComFacts Automated Fax Service 88 Support from Your Network Supplier 89 Support from 3Com 89 Returning Products for Repair 93 3 3C Co om m C Co or rp po or...

Page 9: ...ing MBA in a Wired for Management environment using PXE Chapter 8 Using MBA on a Novell NetWare LAN Chapter 9 Using MBA on RPL LANs including Microsoft Windows NT Microsoft LAN Manager IBM LAN Server IBM Warp Server Digital Pathworks and Artisoft LANtastic Appendix A Technical support Glossary A list of preboot technology terms At the beginning of most chapters you can find a Quick Setup list of i...

Page 10: ...re handling etc The UNDI handles the interface with the specific NIC If your MBA is integrated into your PC s BIOS then it may have been integrated using the new split ROM format This means that the MBA base code is available in the BIOS and is separate from the UNDI This allows another UNDI e g existing on another NIC to use the MBA base code from the BIOS and take advantage of MBA s functionalit...

Page 11: ... where the client PC normally boots from its local hard disk but must on occasion boot from the network server Refer to Table 5 Startup Options for more information The following options are now available if PXE is the selected boot method Default Boot Method Enable Disable Local Booting Message Timeout Boot Failure Prompt Boot Failure Boot Messages Refer to Table 2 PXE Configuration Options for m...

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Page 13: ...hardware While some features are applicable only to newer PCs many can be implemented on existing PCs through a software download flash ROM update or ROM upgrade In selecting management ready PC NICs companies can smooth the transition to a centrally managed environment by choosing products that support the widest range of industry standard protocols existing network administration services and to...

Page 14: ...management control also protects PCs when they are most vulnerable to boot sector viruses In addition MBA improves IS productivity by enabling administrators to configure or update any number of PCs very efficiently by making changes to a single image on a network server H Ho ow w M MB BA A W Wo or rk ks s PCs can be configured to boot from a server using a combination of configuration files boot ...

Page 15: ...ous environments with or without local hard drives Available as a network interface card NIC ROM also available as a BIOS update for motherboards which contain network interface hardware Can be in BIOS even if the PC has a separate NIC Supports flash ROM configuration and update changes locally or over the network depending on the NIC ROM or BIOS version Supports multiple boot protocols and networ...

Page 16: ...t diskettes Create a menu boot file and designate a list of boot options from which end users can choose at boot time Create special Pre OS boot image files that can execute third party desktop management agents on the client PC before it boots from the local drive Configure boot image file options such as whether they are read only or writeable or have extended or normal capacity Convert boot ima...

Page 17: ... settings Q Qu ui ic ck k S St ta ar rt t These abbreviated instructions are for those who are experienced with general MBA installation Procedure If you are installing an MBA ROM on the NIC start at step 1 If MBA is integrated into the PC system BIOS or if the ROM is pre installed in the NIC start at step 4 1 Install the MBA ROM on the NIC making sure the ROM is not damaged by static discharge Be...

Page 18: ... T Ty yp pe es s o of f M MB BA A I In ns st ta al ll la at ti io on n MBA is available on a PC in one of the following ways MBA Type Installation Additional Steps Required Integrated into the PC BIOS by the PC manufacturer Not needed Go to Chapter 3 Configuring MBA Contained in a ROM that is pre installed on the PC s NIC Not needed Go to Chapter 3 Configuring MBA Contained in a ROM that must be i...

Page 19: ...r instructions 2 Locate the boot ROM socket on your NIC You may need to refer to the NIC s user guide to locate the correct ROM socket 3 Depending on your NIC you may have either a DIP socket rectangular socket with two rows of pins or a PLCC socket small square socket with pins on all sides Follow the applicable procedure for either the DIP Socket Installation or the PLCC Socket Installation then...

Page 20: ...estroy it Make sure the notch in the socket is lined up with the notch in the MBA ROM before doing anything else 3 Align the pins on the ROM with the pin receptacles in the ROM socket Press down gently and evenly on the ROM to ensure that it is seated correctly in the socket PLCC Socket Installation The PLCC socket has three square corners and one angled corner The angled corner of the ROM must be...

Page 21: ...and size B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e E Ed di it to or r I In ns st ta al ll la at ti io on n The Boot Image Editor software can be found on the MBA Utility Disk or on the MBA subdirectory on the EtherCD To install Boot Image Editor 1 On the PC on which you want to use the Boot Image Editor such as a server a network administration PC or any network client create a directory for example IMGEDIT 2 ...

Page 22: ...1 10 0 C Ch ha ap pt te er r 2 2 ...

Page 23: ...splays three prompts Use the following steps to respond to these prompts Step 1 Read the License Agreement MBAFLASH asks if you agree with the License Agreement If you have not reviewed the License Agreement we recommend that you do so 1 To view the License Agreement press R to exit the program and return to DOS Next run the BWVIEW utility found in the root directory on the MBA Utility Disk or on ...

Page 24: ...f current ROM contents M MB BA A B Ba as se e C Co od de e a an nd d U UN ND DI I C Co om mp po on ne en nt ts s MBA 4 x is comprised of two components the MBA base code and the Universal Network Device Interface UNDI The MBA base code handles all the core functionality of MBA such as protocol handling network boot failure handling etc It is independent of the type of NIC being used The UNDI handl...

Page 25: ...ies boot devices in a PC allows the user to select the boot order of these devices and then sequentially attempts to boot from each device in the specified order N NO OT TE E PC manufacturers may call their BBS support by other names such as Multiboot PCs that are Plug and Play BBS BIOS compatible allow you to specify the boot order in the PC s BBS BIOS Setup menus Because these BIOSs can detect t...

Page 26: ...bdirectory in the Installation directory of the EtherCD You can view them with the BWVIEW utility If there is no Configuration Supplement for your NIC then there are no exceptions or additions In this case use the options exactly as listed in this guide With few exceptions the current settings for the options are stored in the NIC s soft setup storage area EEPROM or they may be stored in the PC s ...

Page 27: ...ed at boot time Not available with BBS BIOS Local Local Boot Enabled Disabled Choose between allowing or disallowing a local boot from a hard disk or diskette When local booting is disabled the PC is forced to boot from the network even if a bootable diskette is inserted in drive A or if the local hard disk contains an active partition Not available with BBS BIOS Enabled Config Menu Enabled Disabl...

Page 28: ... option Wait for Timeout Boot Failure Next Boot Device Reboot If a network boot cannot be completed choose whether MBA will reboot the PC or allow the PC to boot from the next boot device On a PC with a BBS compliant BIOS the next boot device is the next device in the boot order list On a PC that does not have a BBS compliant BIOS the next boot device is normally the hard disk Next Boot Device TFT...

Page 29: ... Enabled Disabled Choose whether to display or hide the message the MBA displays indicating to the user which hot keys to press to enter the MBA Configuration Screen i e Press Ctrl Alt B to configure You may want to hide this message so users do not know how to change MBA options possibly making MBA function incorrectly in your environment When the message is hidden the hot keys can still be press...

Page 30: ...on Default Protocol 802 2 802 3 Ethernet II Choose the specific frame type for NetWare boot methods 802 3 Default Boot Network Local Choose whether MBA will perform a network boot or a local hard disk boot by default If Network boot is chosen as the default the Local Boot Message is displayed at boot time if a bootable device exists and Local Boot is enabled If Local boot is chosen as the default ...

Page 31: ...ot Failure Prompt The Forever setting only applies to the Local and Network Boot Messages If Forever is selected the other messages default to 3 seconds This setting takes affect the next time the PC is booted 3 Boot Failure Prompt Wait for Timeout Wait for Key If a network boot cannot be completed choose whether MBA displays a message and then waits for the user to press a key before continuing o...

Page 32: ...m Hard Disk Press N to boot from Network ABLE ONFIGURATION PTIONS Option Name Possible Values Description Default Default Boot Network Local Choose whether MBA will perform a network boot or a local hard disk boot by default If Network boot is chosen as the default the Local Boot Message is displayed at boot time if a bootable device exists and Local Boot is enabled If Local boot is chosen as the ...

Page 33: ...d Network Boot Messages If Forever is selected the other messages default to 3 seconds This setting takes affect the next time the PC is booted 3 Boot Failure Prompt Wait for Timeout Wait for Key If a network boot cannot be completed choose whether MBA displays a message and then waits for the user to press a key before continuing or waits for 3 seconds before continuing MBA continues by following...

Page 34: ...8 or Interrupt 19 to have MBA take control of these settings This may be necessary if MBA UNDI incorrectly detects that the PC has a BBS BIOS when in fact it does not If either of these interrupts is selected on a PC that has a BBS BIOS the BBS boot order is ignored and the PC is always booted using MBA UNDI MBA behavior and options are present as though the PC does not have a BBS BIOS Choose the ...

Page 35: ...normally boots from the network anyway On a non BBS PC this option isn t applicable because Network booting and Local booting are controlled by the Default Boot and Local Boot options in MBA On non BBS PCs this option is ignored Some BIOSs have their own implementation of NSB If these BIOSs are compliant with the System Management BIOS SMBIOS Reference Specification v2 3 they have an indication wh...

Page 36: ... Initializing MBA Press Ctrl Alt B to configure If you press the hot keys while the message is displayed you enter the MBA based Configuration Screen You can specify the amount of time that the configuration message is displayed whether the message should not be displayed and whether access to the MBA based configuration should be disabled IGURE ASED ONFIGURATION CREEN For security reasons not all...

Page 37: ...ou are using Windows MBACFG operates only in MS DOS real mode not from a DOS window MBACFG syntax Usage mbacfg x i sX configuration file parameter list options show this help x reboot the PC after configuring with the new settings I display ROM information sX if multiple NICs with MBA are in the PC select MBA number X in the list When you execute MBACFG on a PC containing more than one NIC with MB...

Page 38: ...g g a a C Co on nf fi ig gu ur ra at ti io on n F Fi il le e MBACFG can create a CFG file that lists all configurable options and their possible settings supported by MBA The CFG file named MBA CFG is NIC specific The following is an example of the format of the configuration file To select an option remove the comment symbol at the start of the line When the CFG file is created the current settin...

Page 39: ...re Next Boot Device Boot Failure Reboot Config Menu Enabled Config Menu Disabled Config Message Enabled Config Message Disabled Message Timeout Forever Message Timeout 3 seconds Message Timeout 6 seconds Message Timeout 12 seconds Boot Failure Prompt Wait for Timeout Boot Failure Prompt Wait for Key Netware Options MSD Enabled MSD Disabled Scan BOOTCONF SYS Enabled Scan BOOTCONF SYS Disabled TCP I...

Page 40: ...nd line a convenience if you need to change only a few values The option name is the same as shown in the previous sample configuration file When typing the option on the command line change all spaces to an underscore character or enclose the option in quotes For example the default boot device could be entered as either of the following default boot network or default_boot network U Up pd da at ...

Page 41: ...n the PC select MBA number X in the list N NO OT TE E If you are using Windows MBAFLASH operates only in MS DOS real mode not from a DOS window If your NIC does not support updateable ROMs you must remove the NIC from the PC and replace the ROM chip with a newer version When you execute MBAFLASH on a PC containing more than one NIC MBAFLASH will display a selection menu which lists the NICs that i...

Page 42: ...our ROM before it programs your ROM with a different version If you answer Yes to this prompt MBAFLASH creates a ROM file that contains the backup version If you wish to go back to the backup version you simply run MBAFLASH and specify the backup ROM file that MBAFLASH created ...

Page 43: ...di in ng g R RO OM M F Fi il le e N Na am me es s MBA ROM filenames used by MBAFLASH are in the following format xyyyzzz ROM Where x is the protocol 7 Tri protocol 8 MBA yyy is the unique MBA type number corresponding to the PC s NIC zzz is the MBA version number ...

Page 44: ......

Page 45: ...isk present in the PC You have a period of time based on the Message Timeout option to press the appropriate key before the default boot device is selected automatically At this point you can press any key other than H or N to tell MBA to boot from the default boot device without waiting the full time period If the hard disk is chosen as the boot device MBA removes itself from the system memory If...

Page 46: ...e is normally the hard disk D Di is sp pl la ay yi in ng g V Ve er rb bo os se e S St ta at tu us s I In nf fo or rm ma at ti io on n v v o or r C Ct tr rl l A Al lt t During a normal boot MBA displays minimal information on the screen If an error occurs during the boot process an error message is displayed However if you wish to see more status information during the boot process you can set MBA ...

Page 47: ... is not a problem for PCs with a BBS compatible BIOS Selecting Interrupt 19 or Interrupt 18 boot control may solve these problems Refer to Table 5 Startup Options for more information U Us si in ng g R RO OM MS SC CA AN N f fo or r T Tr ro ou ub bl le es sh ho oo ot ti in ng g a an nd d D Di ia ag gn no os st ti ic cs s The ROMSCAN utility is valuable when troubleshooting MBA installations By usin...

Page 48: ...he MBA ROM s pins are securely installed in the ROM socket Sometimes one or more of the pins is bent in or out and does not make a good connection with the socket If any pins are bent remove the ROM carefully straighten the pins and insert the MBA ROM into the socket once again Memory conflict It could be that you have set up your NIC memory base to conflict with another option in your system or y...

Page 49: ...top management applications could perform a variety of tasks including Initial installation of the operating system and applications to the PC hard drive including initial formatting and partitioning if required Scanning for and eradicating local hard disk viruses Searching the hard disk for file system inconsistencies If critical components are missing or damaged they can be retrieved and replace...

Page 50: ... to executing a very soft Ctrl Alt Del where the PC continues to load the OS on the hard disk This entire concept which we call Pre OS managed booting or simply Pre OS is based on existing MBA firmware capabilities extended by any desktop management agents contained in a special boot image file P Pr re e O OS S F Fr ra am me ew wo or rk k The Pre OS framework is essentially a DOS client with optio...

Page 51: ...g from a floppy drive removing the boot floppy and then rebooting from a hard drive From the user s point of view the sequence is as follows 1 The end user powers on or restarts the client PC 2 A Pre OS connection is created by the boot image file on the server No end user intervention or awareness is required 3 The specified desktop maintenance applications are executed and the required actions c...

Page 52: ...f fi in ni in ng g B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e C Co on nt te en nt t Pre OS Boot Image is based on a DOS boot disk Within the Pre OS environment you may load memory managers network drivers virus checkers backup routines software updating agents and other executables You may also map network resources and execute any of this software from the network N NO OT TE E When loading HIMEM SYS be sure to...

Page 53: ...ould be built using NFS servers and DOS client software that usually consists of TCP IP based TSRs and packet drivers Examples of these clients are PC TCP IP from FTP software URL http www netmanage com products pctcp5 NFS Maestro from Hummingbird Communications URL http www hummingbird com products maestro C Cr re ea at ti in ng g T TC CP P I IP P o or r P PX XE E P Pr re e O OS S B Bo oo ot t I ...

Page 54: ... to load network drivers run Pre OS applications and finally terminate the Pre OS phase In the following examples the Pre OS framework is used to detect and correct differences in a critical file on the PC s hard drive T TC CP P I IP P o or r P PX XE E P Pr re e O OS S S Sa am mp pl le e CONFIG SYS device himem sys TESTMEM OFF device emm386 exe noems dos high umb files 60 device net ifshlp sys las...

Page 55: ... Client for MS DOS v3 0 SYSTEM INI network sizworkbuf 1498 filesharing no printsharing no autologon yes computername PREOS lanroot A username PREOS workgroup WORKGROUP reconnect yes dospophotkey N lmlogon 0 logondomain WORKGROUP preferredredir basic autostart basic maxconnections 8 network drivers netcard el90x dos transport tcpdrv dos nemm dos devdir A LoadRMDrivers yes 386enh TimerCriticalSectio...

Page 56: ...M OFF device emm386 exe noems dos high umb files 60 buffers 20 0 lastdrive z AUTOEXEC BAT set NWLANGUAGE English lsl com 3c90x com ipxodi com vlm exe fc b c windows system dat f login critical systems dat c temp compare txt find i no difference encountered c temp compare txt nul if errorlevel 2 echo Error in string search Cannot report if matches found if errorlevel 1 goto CriticalFilesDifferent i...

Page 57: ...T_802 2 NetWare DOS Requester FIRST NETWORK DRIVE F NETWARE PROTOCOL NDS BIND PREFERRED SERVER LANTECH 1 T Te ec ch hn ni ic ca al l I In nf fo or rm ma at ti io on n The following specification applies to the Pre OS phase only Memory requirements Available conventional memory is reduced by 3 KB and available extended memory is reduced by the size of the boot image ...

Page 58: ...4 46 6 C Ch ha ap pt te er r 5 5 ...

Page 59: ... systems such as DOS and Windows from any TCP IP network which has a BOOTP or DHCP and a TFTP service Includes Boot Image Editor and other utilities for creating examining and editing boot image files on the server Includes BPPATCH utility to insert BOOTPTAB or DHCP fields into text and batch files N Ne et tw wo or rk k R Re eq qu ui ir re em me en nt ts s MBA requires that a BOOTP or DHCP Service...

Page 60: ...the server to transfer a copy of the boot image file This image file is stored in the PC s memory as a RAM disk When the entire file is received MBA passes control over to the downloaded file The PC boots just as it would from a diskette After the PC has fully booted and connected to the network the FREEMEM utility can be used to remove the boot RAM disk and restore drive A to the local floppy dri...

Page 61: ... or group of PCs 1 Create a boot diskette that is capable of booting a PC including DOS system files memory managers and network drivers The only compatible memory manager is EMM386 If you are using it with Windows 3 x be sure to add the y parameter to specify a network path to EMM386 EXE When using the DOS 6 2 or higher HIMEM SYS driver specify the TESTMEM OFF parameter A skeletal BAT file follow...

Page 62: ... a file normally called BOOTPTAB which contains information for all PCs This file must contain at least the IP address and boot image file name for each PC D DH HC CP P S Se er rv vi ic ce e A DHCP service may have been provided with your server software Servers providing this MBA compatible service include Sun Solaris Windows NT Server OS 2 Warp Server and Red Hat Linux T TF FT TP P S Se er rv vi...

Page 63: ...s second BAT file should change the DOS COMSPEC variable so that DOS can find a copy of COMMAND COM after the image is released from memory The FREEMEM program is then executed to release all the memory used during booting and to restore drive A as a local drive FREEMEM must be run from a network drive For additional information see FREEMEM Free RAM Disk Memory under Other Tools set comspec e dos ...

Page 64: ... place it may be required at a later date The PC can now be booted using MBA You have now created a single boot image file that any PC with MBA can load and boot from the network assuming the PCs are using the same type of NIC If there are PCs on your LAN using MBA that require different boot configurations e g different NICs different CONFIG SYS options you will need to create additional boot ima...

Page 65: ...use FREEMEM you must change your DOS COMSPEC variable to a DOS directory on the network otherwise you will get an error when DOS tries to reload COMMAND COM after FREEMEM terminates FREEMEM can not be included in the image file it must be executed from a network drive or local hard drive After using FREEMEM you should have about 2 KB less memory available than you have when you boot from the diske...

Page 66: ... enough to contain all the characters that may be in the field If the field is smaller than the tag length the field is padded with spaces If the field is larger than the tag length then it is truncated For definitions of tags that can be used with BPPATCH view the file BPPATCH TXT on the MBA Utility Disk or in the MBA subdirectory on the EtherCD The test file BPTEST TXT found on the MBA Utility D...

Page 67: ...ing the service in stand alone mode to see if it is getting the request from the PC The service should also have a debug mode where it displays information on the screen for each request it gets and replies to Transferring boot image file x y only in verbose mode The two numbers in the brackets x and y indicate retries and packet number respectively During a normal transfer the first number the re...

Page 68: ...on This message may also occur if you are running the TFTP service in secure mode File transfer error Image file too large While downloading the boot image file from the server the image file has filled all the available conventional memory in the PC The only way to correct this is to decrease the size of the image file or use an extended memory image This can be done using the new Boot Image Edit...

Page 69: ...M V2 0 and Microsoft PC 98 and PC 99 guidelines PXE software allows PCs to communicate with server based workstation management applications which adhere to WfM specifications to perform such tasks as Software installation Configuration Administration Problem diagnostics and resolution The PCs can be normal legacy PCs upgraded with MBA ROMs new Managed PCs or Net PCs ...

Page 70: ...ill respond to the PC with the IP address of the Boot Server The PC then sends a special DHCP request to the Boot Image Negotiation Layer BINL service running on the Boot Server to get the filename of the network bootstrap program The BINL Service replies with the filename The PC then sends a TFTP request to the Boot Server to transfer a copy of the bootstrap file that is stored in the PC s memory...

Page 71: ...e DHCP proxy and BINL Services In this case the WfM transaction is the same as that of traditional TCP IP using DHCP Q Qu ui ic ck k S Se et tu up p When configured for PXE MBA should be used in conjunction with a workstation management application such as ON Command CCM from ON Technology Unicenter TNG from Computer Associates International Inc LANDesk Configuration Manager from Intel Corporation...

Page 72: ...Us si in ng g B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e E Ed di it to or r To create a PXE boot image file using the Boot Image Editor see Working with Boot Images for Wired for Management Environments in the Boot Image Editor online help To install Boot Image Editor see Boot Image Editor Installation in Chapter 2 Installing MBA ...

Page 73: ...nd editing boot image files on the server N Ne et tw wo or rk k R Re eq qu ui ir re em me en nt ts s MBA supports all current versions of NetWare using NCP IPX protocol and transport layers Unlike RPL style ROMs MBA for NetWare communicates using native routable NetWare protocols and does not require any NLMs to be loaded at the server to support network booting This ensures complete compatibility...

Page 74: ...nted later in this chapter for more detailed instructions Complete the steps under Quick Start in Chapter 2 before moving on to this section Step 1 Create a boot image file 1 Format a bootable diskette and copy to it all the files needed to make a boot diskette Alternatively you may copy an existing boot image file and modify it using the Boot Image Editor utility found on the MBA Utility Disk or ...

Page 75: ...that is later mapped to the DOS directory by the PC Do not place a backslash after the drive letter X Avoid explicit references to drive A anywhere within the boot diskette 6 Using Boot Image Editor located on the MBA Utility Disk or MBA subdirectory on the EtherCD or Novell s DOSGEN EXE create a boot image file in the SYS LOGIN directory If using DOSGEN copy the BAT file that invokes the network ...

Page 76: ...g g a a B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e F Fi il le e U Us si in ng g B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e E Ed di it to or r The first step in creating a boot image file is to create a regular boot diskette much the same as you would to boot the PC from a floppy drive The next step involves taking a snapshot of the boot diskette capturing its contents and creating an image file that will reside on the file s...

Page 77: ...h set comspec x command com where X is the drive letter that is mapped to a server DOS directory during login This ensures that COMMAND COM will be accessed correctly while loading VLM with DOS 6 x 6 When using the VLM client for your network shell verify that your AUTOEXEC BAT file on the boot disk looks similar to the following Comments lsl rplodi must be used with all odi drivers fasteth or wha...

Page 78: ...ity 2 Check to make sure the boot image file exists in the SYS LOGIN directory 3 The BAT file that loads VLM EXE or NETX EXE must be copied from the diskette to the LOGIN directory If not copied you will see a Batch File Missing message as VLM or NETX transfers from drive A to SYS LOGIN but does not find the BAT file that was running on drive A IGURE OPYING ATCH ILES TO THE OGIN IRECTORY If you se...

Page 79: ...he CHKID and ROMTYPE utilities provided with MBA which allow you to load drivers conditionally based on node address or NIC type You may have to create additional boot image files if different operating systems are used See Supporting Different PCs with One Boot Image and Creating Additional Boot Image Files S Su up pp po or rt ti in ng g D Di if ff fe er re en nt t P PC Cs s w wi it th h O On ne ...

Page 80: ...edited in the following ways Using the BOOTEDIT utility provided with MBA ensures correct syntax offers search sort capabilities and other helpful features BOOTEDIT must be used when loading the optional MSD NLM See Multiple Servers How the MSD NLM Can Help Using an ASCII editor such as the MS DOS editor EDIT This is recommended only in emergencies or when BOOTCONF SYS contains only a few entries ...

Page 81: ...or the node address This allows several workstations to use the same image file A common use of wildcards in the node address is to use question marks for the last 6 characters of the address This will allow all NICs from the same manufacturer to use the same image the first 6 characters of the node address indicate the NIC manufacturer The placement of the wild card entries is important they shou...

Page 82: ...this uniquely named BAT file Refer to Figure 22 IGURE SING UNIQUE BATCH FILES When VLM or NETX is loaded from IMAGE1 BAT in the image file it continues executing from IMAGE1 BAT in SYS LOGIN Each image disk can have its own batch file name to avoid conflicts in SYS LOGIN U Us si in ng g B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e E Ed di it to or r t to o C Cr re ea at te e A Ad dd di it ti io on na al l B Bo oo...

Page 83: ...n your internetwork Failure to do so may cause MBA to occasionally issue an Error Opening Boot File message as it connects to a server that doesn t contain the required boot image files With the MSD NLM option you can specify the file server s from which an MBA equipped PC will boot and maintain boot image files only on the designated servers A full featured MSD NLM is provided with MBA This versi...

Page 84: ...e max nodefault log options max sets the maximum number of workstations which MSD will accept when processing BOOTCONF SYS The default number is 512 Each entry requires about 100 bytes of server memory so the more entries you allow the more memory MSD will require nodefault tells MSD not to reply to any workstations that are found in the BOOTCONF SYS file log tells MSD to create a log file of all ...

Page 85: ...A Utility Disk or MBA subdirectory on the EtherCD M MS SD D P PC C M Me es ss sa ag ge es s There are several messages related to MSD operation that may appear at an MBA equipped PC MSD no reply only in verbose mode The MBA ROM in the PC has broadcast a message in an attempt to communicate with MSD but no reply was received This message occurs only in cases where MSD is not installed on at least o...

Page 86: ... node address of the local PC If the local address matches the address on the command line the next line in the CONFIG SYS file is executed If the address does not match the next line is not executed Copy the file CHKID EXE from the MBA Utility Disk or MBA subdirectory on the EtherCD into the boot image file s which require it The command syntax for CHKID is Usage device chkid exe v x id options v...

Page 87: ... this condition N NO OT TE E When using CHKID you must ensure that you do not use the Loader option when creating your boot image in the Boot Image Editor B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e E Ed di it to or r E Ed di it t a an nd d V Vi ie ew w B Bo oo ot t I Im ma ag ge e F Fi il le es s Boot Image Editor allows you to examine or edit the contents of DOS boot image files For details see the Boot Image ...

Page 88: ...ble from Lanworks or 3Com When loading Windows 3 x NIOS EXE attempts to reload itself from the default boot drive In MBA s case this is drive A and since the boot image no longer exists an error message is displayed preventing Windows from loading in enhanced mode Unlike EMM386 NIOS does not support an optional path parameter to facilitate the reload process One solution is to map a network drive ...

Page 89: ...r or shortly afterwards Check that the Ethernet frame type configured in MBA is the frame type that is loaded at the file server Within an image file check for explicit references to drive A within any pathname avoid explicit drive A references DOS 6 x sets COMSPEC to A COMMAND COM and may set PATH to A Just before loading VLM clear PATH and change the COMSPEC variable to the DOS search drive that...

Page 90: ... a heavily congested network There is no cause for alarm if you see several of these messages in a row but if many of them appear consecutively it usually indicates a network problem Rx2 indicates that MBA timed out while waiting for a packet If you have an Ethernet version of MBA this message may appear continuously indicating that the Ethernet frame type MBA is using to communicate is not suppor...

Page 91: ...rectory You can avoid this problem by leaving the first network drive mapped to SYS LOGIN throughout the entire LOGIN script The LOGIN script supports a command called EXIT which can be used to run a BAT file upon exiting from the LOGIN script If you are running the LOGIN command from a BAT file in SYS LOGIN and there are further command lines in this file then you EXIT from your login script with...

Page 92: ...8 80 0 C Ch ha ap pt te er r 8 8 ...

Page 93: ...otocol within MBA does not support the Novell NetWare RPL protocol NetWare users should use MBA for NetWare Throughout this chapter information is provided for using MBA in Microsoft NT Server environments the most popular RPL server For information on other RPL servers refer to documentation provided by the server vendor R RP PL L S Sp pe ec ci if fi ic c F Fe ea at tu ur re es s Supports Microso...

Page 94: ...ed later in this chapter Remember to complete the steps under Quick Start in Chapter 2 before moving on to this section S Se et tt ti in ng g U Up p t th he e N NT T S Se er rv ve er r The Windows NT Remoteboot Service supports PCs running MS DOS and Windows 3 1 clients Windows NT does not support Windows For Workgroups due to inconsistencies with Windows 3 11 networking components Windows NT Work...

Page 95: ...Remoteboot Service sends a FOUND frame containing the server s NIC ID to the MBA ROM on the client MBA accepts the first FOUND frame it receives and returns the SEND FILE REQUEST frame to the NIC ID of the server that sent it When the Remoteboot Service receives the SEND FILE REQUEST frame it uses FILE DATA RESPONSE frames to send a boot block to MBA The PC record in the remoteboot database specif...

Page 96: ...The FETH RPL script provided on the MBA Utility Disk or MBA subdirectory on the EtherCD serves as an example for creating configurations for various DOS versions The following is a sample commented section for adding a boot block Modify this sample as needed Remove comments and remove any spaces between lines Comments b boot block a add dosfeth add new BBLOCK name i e DOSFETH 002f00 1st six digits...

Page 97: ...meter You must use the RPLCMD utility to add the new VendorName the first six digits of the NIC s node ID to the NIC s profile The following example demonstrates how to add the new VendorName to an existing profile and assumes that VendorName is 002F00 Enter the correct VendorName for your NIC c winnt rpl rplcmd adapter boot config profile service vendor wksta quit b add del enum a bootname dosh v...

Page 98: ...ory to allocate to the driver For example if the original NDIS DRV entry is drv bblock ndis feth dos and the boot block reports that 5 KB of additional memory is needed change the entry to drv bblock ndis feth dos 5 Boot Block Fails to Load DOS After RPLBIND1 and RPLBIND2 are executed the boot block prints the following message Non system disk or disk error Replace and press any key when ready The...

Page 99: ... latest networking information on the 3Com Corporation World Wide Web site by entering the URL into your Internet browser http www 3com com This service provides access to online support information such as technical documentation and software library as well as support options ranging from technical education to maintenance and professional services 3 3C Co om m K Kn no ow wl le ed dg ge eb ba as...

Page 100: ...6986 6954 Germany up to 28800 bps 4989 62732 188 Hong Kong up to 14400 bps 852 2537 5601 Italy up to 14400 bps 39 2 27300680 Japan up to 14400 bps 81 3 5977 7477 Mexico up to 28800 bps 525 520 3662 P R of China up to 14400 bps 86 10 684 92351 Taiwan R O C up to 14400 bps 886 2 377 5840 U K up to 28800 bps 44 1442 438278 USA up to 28800 bps 1 847 262 6000 Venezuela 582 267 6629 Access by Digital Mo...

Page 101: ... network supplier see the following section on how to contact 3Com S Su up pp po or rt t f fr ro om m 3 3C Co om m If you are unable to obtain assistance from the 3Com online technical resources or from your network supplier 3Com offers technical telephone support services To find out more about your support options please call the 3Com technical telephone support phone number at the location near...

Page 102: ... S Korea from anywhere in S Korea From Seoul 00798 611 2230 0 2 3455 6455 Taiwan R O C 0080 611 261 Thailand 001 800 611 2000 Europe South Africa and Middle East From anywhere in Europe call 31 0 30 6029900 phone 31 0 30 6029999 fax From the following European countries you may use the toll free numbers Austria 0800 297468 Belgium 0800 71429 Denmark 800 17309 Finland 0800 113153 France 0800 917959...

Page 103: ... 966197 Latin America All Latin America except Brazil General support 800 666 5065 All Latin America except Brazil Volume support Modems Palm Pilot Support Desktop Adapters PCMCIA support 800 778 5573 Brazil General support 55 11 523 2725 phone 55 11 523 2866 fax Brazil Volume support Modems and Palm Pilot support 55 11 523 5153 Brazil Volume support Desktop Adapters PCMCIA support 0800 13 3266 Fr...

Page 104: ...0 Costa Rica 0800 0 114114 Rep Dominicana 1 800 872 2881 Ecuador 999 119 El Salvador 800 1785 Guatemala 99 99 190 Haiti 183 Honduras 800 0 123 Jamaica 0 800 872 2881 Jamaica 872 Nicaragua 174 Panama 109 Panama 281 0109 Paraguay 0800 11 800 Peru 0 800 50000 Uruguay 000 410 Venezuela 800 11 120 North America North America 1 800 TSO 3Com 1 800 876 3266 1 800 NET 3Com 1 800 638 3266 ...

Page 105: ... obtain an RMA number call or fax Country Region Telephone Number Fax Number Asia Pacific Rim 65 543 6342 65 543 6348 Europe South Africa and Middle East 31 30 6029900 31 30 6029999 From the following Asian countries you may call the following toll free numbers Country Telephone Number Fax Number Australia 00 11 800 5432 5400 New Zealand 00 800 5432 5400 Hong Kong 001 800 5432 5400 Singapore 543 6...

Page 106: ...ing European countries you may use the toll free numbers select option 2 and then option 2 Country Telephone Number Fax Number Austria 06 607468 Belgium 0800 71429 Denmark 800 17309 Finland 0800 113153 France 0800 917959 Germany 0800 1821502 Hungary 00800 12813 Ireland 1 800 553117 Israel 1 800 9453794 Italy 1678 79489 Netherlands 0800 0227788 Norway 800 11376 Poland 0800 3111206 Portugal 05 05313...

Page 107: ...927 1 408 764 6883 USA and Canada 1 800 638 3266 or 1 800 876 3266 1 408 764 7120 Tech Support and RMA help desk e mail address in Europe Enterprise Products E mail Address Communications Team e mail address European_Technical_Support 3mail 3com com Logistics Team e mail address Eurosupport 3mail 3com com ...

Page 108: ...9 96 6 A Ap pp pe en nd di ix x A A ...

Page 109: ...cifications as being compatible 3Com will make reasonable efforts to provide compatibility except where the non compatibility is caused by a bug or defect in the third party s product or from use of the software product not in accordance with 3Com s published specifications or user manual YEAR 2000 WARRANTY In addition to the Hardware Warranty and Software Warranty identified above 3Com warrants t...

Page 110: ...T OR BY OPERATION OF LAW STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE INCLUDING WARRANTIES TERMS OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE SATISFACTORY QUALITY CORRESPONDENCE WITH DESCRIPTION AND NON INFRINGEMENT ALL OF WHICH ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED 3COM NEITHER ASSUMES NOR AUTHORIZES ANY OTHER PERSON TO ASSUME FOR IT ANY OTHER LIABILITY IN CONNECTION WITH THE SALE INSTALLATION MAINTENANCE OR U...

Page 111: ...be governed by the laws of the State of California U S A excluding its conflicts of laws principles and excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 3Com Corporation 5400 Bayfront Plaza Santa Clara CA 95052 8145 408 326 5000 4 15 99 ...

Page 112: ...1 10 00 0 W Wa ar rr ra an nt ty y ...

Page 113: ...pplication Programming Interface APM Advanced Power Management A programming interface API from Intel and Microsoft which defines a hardware independent interface designed to reduce power consumption in computers with power manageable hardware Asset management The process of maximizing the use of assets to produce revenue while minimizing their overall costs Manageable systems contribute to asset ...

Page 114: ...SD Bus Device A BUSD option ROM may contain code to locate and initialize devices on a bus that is not supported in the BIOS Core The BUSD API calls are used by the UNDI IPL routine and NBPs to enable and disable bus components and devices Client The Client is usually the machine receiving a boot image The client machine hosts the MBA boot ROM Common Information Model CIM An object oriented schema...

Page 115: ...ol used to get information from the configuration server DMI compliance The DMTF owns the responsibility for the definition of DMI 2 0 compliance DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Used to get information from the configuration server An industry standard Internet protocol defined by the IETF DHCP was defined to dynamically provide communications related configuration values such as network ...

Page 116: ...timizing configurations and performance levels IPL Acronym for Initial Program Load also known as the bootstrap or boot process LOM LAN on Motherboard The concept of integrating the LAN subsystem onto the motherboard Manageability The use of technologies and products to enhance the usability of desktops mobile and server platforms and thus reduce the cost of deployment ownership and administration...

Page 117: ...t Along with server and system management one of the three major components of managing a computing environment Network management includes optimizing the performance configuration security failure analysis and repair of the infrastructure components in a LAN WAN or Internet intranet Infrastructure components include items such as switches adapter cards routers bridges and gateways but not the end...

Page 118: ...f services for use by a downloaded bootstrap It also must ensure certain aspects of the client state at the point in time when the bootstrap begins executing 3Com s PXE solution is embedded in MBA Remote Procedure Call RPC An industry standard method for communication with remote networked systems DMI Version 2 0 specifies RPCs as the standard mechanism for remote access to manageable systems Remo...

Page 119: ...t computer System Management Along with network and server management one of the three major components of managing a computing environment System management refers to controlling configuring installing and monitoring the applications servers and clients in a distributed computing environment System Management SM BIOS A standard interface to management software via data structures through which sy...

Page 120: ...o reduce the complexity and costs of enterprise management by allowing administrators to use any Web browser to manage disparate systems networks and applications It envisions a common data model and Internet protocol that integrate existing standards like the DMI SNMP CMIP and HTTP Wired for Management WfM The Wired for Management WfM Initiative is an Intel led industry supported effort to make I...

Page 121: ...creen 34 ISA 5 MAPGEN 4 MBA base code 12 22 33 MBA options 14 MBA ROM Programming with MBAFLASH 11 MBA UNDI 12 22 MBACFG 25 MBAFLASH 11 MULTI_ED 4 NCP 61 NetWare 61 Online technical services 87 PBOOT 40 41 PCI 5 PLCC Socket ROM installation 8 Pre OS creating NetWare boot images 42 creating TCP IP images 41 Profile and Remoteboot Service 82 PXE 57 Returning products for repair 93 ROMSCAN 35 ROMTYPE...

Page 122: ...110 I In nd de ex x Updating with MBA ROM 28 Verbose mode 34 Wired for Management 58 ...

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