Digital Equipment Digital NetRider, Owner'S Manual

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Using a BOOTP/TFTP Server
4-10 Managing Load Hosts
Using a BOOTP/TFTP Server
Introduction
A BOOTP/TFTP server is a UNIX host that downloads the access server software
using the BOOTP and TFTP protocols. The BOOTP/TFTP server stores the
information necessary to downline load the access server software in the /etc/bootptab
file.
Reference
For information about installing and configuring a BOOTP/TFTP server refer to the
DECserver Network Access Software Installation guide.
IP Address Configuration Via BOOTP
The DECserver Network Access Software contains enhanced BOOTP functionality.
The DECserver stores several important Internet parameters from the BOOTP server.
This ability to store data for future use may be used whether the DECserver operating
software is loading from FLASH RAM, or via a load host using the MOP protocol. The
factory default settings for this feature now send a BOOTP request on the network in
order to obtain one if the DECserver unit does not have an IP address defined in
NVRAM. Customers who do not wish to run IP on their DECserver, and, therefore,
may wish to disable this feature, may issue the DEFINE INTERNET DISABLE
command to explicitly disable it.
The parameters that the DECserver unit can obtain from the BOOTP server include the
Internet (IP) address, subnet mask, default gateway address, and domain name server
address. The BOOTP server stores the information for the default domain only; it will
always store the IP address. The other parameters are BOOTP vendor extensions and
may or may not be learned, depending on the capabilities of the BOOTP server used,
and the configuration of data in the BOOTP server database.