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From: darko@hpfcdc.HP.COM (David Arko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: 300/400 boot protocoll
Message-ID: <5570587@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Date: 27 Mar 91 00:09:16 GMT
References: <1991Mar22.100807.24893@ciba-geigy.ch>
Organization: HP Fort Collins, Co.
Lines: 26


I probably don't know *everything* about the network boot process
but I will take a stab at your questions.

What happens during the boot process is:

1)  When the diskless client tries to boot, it sends out a broadcast
    boot request to see if any server will boot him.

2)  If a server running rbootd(1M) has an entry in it's /etc/clusterconf
    with that clients Ethernet address, (LLA), then it will respond to
    the client saying that this server can boot him.   Rbootd then looks
    at the servers /etc/clusterconf file and translates the LLA into a 
    hostname, this hostname is now what that client will call itself 
    when it boots.

3)  After rbootd has completed the boot request and the client is starting
    up, it will run the /etc/netlinkrc script. This will run the
    ifconfig command which will set up the internet address for the
    client host by using its `hostname` value  (remember that the
    hostname was given by the clusterconf file).  So it is at this point
    that the internet address gets assigned to the client.  Up till now
    it was using the Ethernet address (LLA).

Hope this helps...
-- David Arko (darko@hpfcrn.hp.com)