bootparams Database

The bootparams database contains information used by diskless clients and machines configured to boot in the network client mode. You need to edit it if your network will have network clients. (See "Configuring Network Clients" for procedures.) The database is built from information entered into the /etc/bootparams file.

The bootparams(4) man page contains complete syntax for this database. Its basic syntax is

machine-name file-key-server-name:pathname

For each diskless or network client machine, the entry might contain the following information: the name of the client, a list of keys, the names of servers, and path names.

The first item of each entry is the name of the client machine. Next is a list of keys, names of servers, and path names, separated by tab characters. All items but the first are optional. The database can contain a wildcard entry that will be matched by all clients. Here is an example:

Example 4-7 bootparams Database

myclient   root=myserver : /nfsroot/myclient  \
swap=myserver : /nfsswap//myclient \
dump=myserver : /nfsdump/myclient

In this example the term dump=: tells diskless hosts not to look for a dump file.

Wildcard Entry for bootparams

In most cases, you will want to use the wildcard entry when editing the bootparams database to support diskless clients. This entry is:

*  root=server:/path dump=:

The asterisk (*) wildcard indicates that this entry applies to all clients not specifically named within the bootparams database.