required information for the PC (PC's IP address and boot image file name). The
response from the server provides the PC with its IP address, the name of the
boot image file and the IP address of the server that has the image file.
The PC then sends a TFTP request to 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
drive, if it exists.
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Before a PC can use MBA for network booting, you must set up a server to provide
the PC with the information it needs.
If there are multiple servers on the network, only one of them needs to be set up
for remote booting. This server must have the following services installed:
BOOTP or DHCP service
TFTP service
The BOOTP or DHCP service provides the PC with its IP address and the name of
the image file to boot. The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) service is used
during the transfer of the boot file to the PC.
BOOTP Service
The BOOTP service may be included with the server TCP/IP package; check your
documentation.
If you do not have the service, contact technical support for your
operating system to see if it is available.
The BOOTP service uses 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.
DHCP Service
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.
TFTP Service
The boot image file is transferred to the PC using TFTP. The TFTP service should
be included with your TCP/IP package, but may be disabled; see your TCP/IP
documentation for information.
When setting up TFTP you should create a directory for all of the image files.
The
suggested directory name is TFTPBOOT.
Creating a Boot Diskette
17.
Format a diskette as a DOS system diskette.
•
Copy all the files to the boot diskette that are needed to connect the PC to the
network.
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