I have a 43p 120 (7248-120) which I am trying to install AIX 5.2 on. I have built a Nimol server on a Linux PC running SUSE LES 10. I have setup the 43p to perfom a network boot (BOOTP) and all the addresses in the network settings under SMS are set to 0.0.0.0. When I power up the 43p it immediately finds the Nimol TFTP boot area and traffic starts to flow between the two machines.
However the 43p never actaully starts to build an operating system and the output from the DHCP log is as follows:
Jul 16 15:24:33 rs6000 dhcpd: BOOTREQUEST from 00:06:29:84:2b:36 via eth0
Jul 16 15:24:33 rs6000 dhcpd: BOOTREPLY for 192.168.0.5 to alter (00:06:29:84:2b:36) via eth0
It never gets any further!
Anyone any ideas?
I have not upgraded the firmware on the network adapter.
I have not checked the bootparams as the NIMOL system should take care of all the necessary NFS stuff. However NFS will not activate as the 43p has not accepted the BOOTP answer and the network adapter has not been allocated an address, that is the problem.
The Linux server is setup as a DHCP server and the AIX machine is defined in the DHCPD.CONF file with correct MAC address and the designated IP address. So I am expecting the clinet to have its IP address allocated by the DHCP system on the Linux server. By what is written in the DHCP logs the request is being answered but the client is not adopting the address.
a 43p-120 is a POWER3 machine (PPC604e) and hence only AIX-versions up to 5.1 are supported. As 5.1 is already out of service (and 5.2 will be in near future) you either get another machine (have a look at the IntelliStation POWER 185, for instance) or install 5.1 and live with the fact that you won't get any fix for it.
And the 43p still will not respond to the dhcp address allocation and start the TFTP boot. I have even tried hard coding an IP address in the SMS menu together with turning of DHCP on the Linux server. This way results in no replies to the BOOTP request from the Linux server.
1) NIM is utilizing the bootp protocol and hence, if the NIM server and the client are on different networks, the router/bridge/switch must be able to forward bootp requests. Is that the case?
2) NIM uses the MAC adress of the client as identification. To make the server not ignore the clients request you have to pre-define the client on the server. Have you checked this definition?
3) has nothing to do with the NIM installation but:
You *are* aware that you can alter this boot list in the SMS menu, aren't you? If you are not: this is hard to explain over the internet, but there is a redbook for the 43P and the process of how to alter the bootlist is described there. If you just want to install the machine and do not care if it is done via NIM or any other means, this should solve your problem.
The problem is this is NIMOL not normal NIM and behaves differently. Yes the MAC address has been defined to the NIMOL server and a DHCP address allocation handshake takes place again and again. Looking in the DHCP log on the SUSE linux server shows multiple attempts at address allocation with no effect.
I am interested in the redbook, do you know off hand what it is called as the IBM site is not that good at searching for specific redbooks as I am suer you are well aware.