Verifying WAN Boot Support on the Client (Solaris Express Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations)

Solaris Express Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations

Verifying WAN Boot Support on the Client

To perform an unattended WAN boot installation, the client system's OpenBoot PROM (OBP) must support WAN boot. If the client's OBP does not support WAN boot, you can perform a WAN boot installation by providing the necessary programs on a local CD.

You can determine if the client supports WAN boot by checking the client's OBP configuration variables. Perform the following procedure to check the client for WAN boot support.

To Check the Client OBP for WAN Boot Support

This procedure describes how to determine if the client OBP supports WAN boot.

Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

Check the OBP configuration variables for WAN boot support.
# eeprom | grep network-boot-arguments
- If the variable network-boot-arguments is displayed, or if the previous command returns the output network-boot-arguments: data not available, the OBP supports WAN boot installations. You do not need to update the OBP before you perform your WAN boot installation.
- If the previous command does not return any output, the OBP does not support WAN boot installations. You must perform one of the following tasks.
  - Update the client OBP. For those clients who do have an OBP that is capable of supporting WAN boot installations, see your system documentation for information about how to update the OBP.
    
    Note –
    Not all client OBPs support WAN Boot. For those clients use the next option.
  - After you complete the preparation tasks and are ready to install the client, perform the WAN boot installation from the Solaris Software CD1 or DVD. This option works in all cases when the current OBP does not provide WAN Boot support.
    
    For instructions about how to boot the client from CD1, see To Perform a WAN Boot Installation With Local CD Media. To continue preparing for the WAN boot installation, see Creating the /etc/netboot Hierarchy on the WAN Boot Server.

Example 11–2 Verifying OBP Support for WAN Boot on the Client

The following command shows how to check the client OBP for WAN boot support.

# eeprom | grep network-boot-arguments
network-boot-arguments: data not available

In this example, the output network-boot-arguments: data not available indicates that the client OBP supports WAN boot.

Continuing the WAN Boot Installation

After you verify that the client OBP supports WAN boot, you must copy the wanboot program to the WAN boot server. For instructions, see Installing the wanboot Program on the WAN Boot Server.

If the client OBP does not support WAN boot, you do not need to copy the wanboot program to the WAN boot server. You must provide the wanboot program to the client on a local CD. To continue the installation, see Creating the /etc/netboot Hierarchy on the WAN Boot Server.