Configuring and Managing MPE/iX Internet Services (August 2002)
Chapter 4
BOOTP Service
The bootpd Configuration File
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• Name of the client’s system.
• Type of network interface hardware (IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet).
• Client’s hardware address.
• Client’s assigned IP address.
• IP address mask that identifies the network where the client resides.
• Address of the gateway for the client’s local subnet.
• Name of the boot file that the client will retrieve using TFTP.
Collecting Relay Information
To make a relay entry for the client in the bootpd configuration file, you need to collect information such as
the following:
• Name of the client’s system.
• Type of network interface hardware (IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet).
• Client’s hardware address.
• Subnet mask used to identify the network address where the client resides.
• Address of the gateway that connects the client’s local subnet to the intended BOOTP server’s subnet.
• IP addresses of the BOOTP servers to which the local system will relay the client’s boot request.
• Threshold value, which is the number of elapsed seconds since the client’s first request.
• Maximum number of hops that the client’s boot request can be forwarded.
Syntax of bootpd Configuration Entries
An entry in the bootpd configuration file consists of a single line with the following format:
hostname:tag=value tag=value tag=value
The hostname is the actual name of a BOOTP client and the tag is a two-character case-sensitive symbol. Most
tags are followed by an equal sign and a value, as shown above, though some tags do not require a value. The
BOOTP daemon uses these tags and values to recognize a client’s boot request, supply parameters in the
bootreply to the client, or relay the boot request.
For example, here is an entry for client printer01:
printer01: ht=ether: ha=080009030166: ip=15.19.8.2:\\ sm=255.255.248.0: gw=15.19.8.1: bf=/printer01
This entry tells bootpd that the host printer01 uses an Ethernet network interface (ht=ether) whose
hardware address (ha) is 080009030166. The IP address (ip) is 15.19.8.2, the Subnet mask (sm) is
255.255.248.0, and the address of the gateway (gw) is 15.19.8.1. The bootfile that tftpd will transmit to
boot this printer (bf) is /printer01.