Changes to the Network Boot Server Setup Process

The network boot server setup process has been modified. The boot server now serves a bootstrap program, as well as the ramdisk, which is downloaded and booted as a single miniroot for all installations, whether booting from CD/DVD or performing a network installation by using NFS or HTTP. The administration of a network boot server for a network boot over both NFS or the wanboot program (HTTP) remains the same. However, the internal implementation of the network boot process has been modified as follows:

1. The boot server transfers a bootstrap in the form of a boot archive to the target system.

2. The target system unpacks the boot archive in a ramdisk.

3. The boot archive is then mounted as the initial read-only root device.

For more information about booting a SPARC based system, see Booting a SPARC Based System (Task Map).