Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!linus!philabs!sbcs!root
From: root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: BOOTP vendor support
Keywords: network bootstrap protocols
Message-ID: <1425@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 2 Aug 88 14:08:48 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Lines: 24

I am in the midst of implementing network bootstrap code for
our Amiga NFS product.  I have the new Sun bootparams bootstrapper
stuff going, but it seems to fall short of what is really needed.
In particular we're a bit worried that Sun requires use of RARP
in bootstrapping and that casual perusal of vendor glossies shows
not much support for RARP by vendors other than Sun (and NFS licensees).  

BOOTP seems to be a whole notch better in the sense that it is
a simpler protocol, it supplies HDW -> Internet address translation
without using RARP, and using the vendor specific field (RFC-1048)
seems to provide everything a booting machine needs eg subnet mask,
UTC time offset, name server locn, etc.  Since BOOTP doesn't use
RARP we can provide portable source to our customers who do not 
have it.  Now, the question: who else is/will support BOOTP?  The
only other vendor I've seen supporting BOOTP is SGI.  Is BOOTP
a dead end in light of Sun ASI, etc?

While I've got your attention, is anyone aware of any efforts towards
automating IP address generation?  It would seem a natural extentsion
to either RARP or BOOTP, modulo the usual database consistency 
problems.

					Rick Spanbauer
					Ameristar