Genius Advice

If you plan to configure certain hosts as network clients, you must configure at least one machine on your network as a network configuration server. (Refer to “Network Configuration Servers” on page 45 for an introduction.) Setting up a network configuration server involves:

   1.   Turning on the network configuration daemons:
      - in.tftpd
      - in.rarpd
      - rpc.bootparamd
   2. Editing and maintaining the network configuration files on the configuration server.

Set Up a Network Configuration Server

 1. Become superuser and change to the root directory of the prospective network configuration server.

2. Turn on the in.tftpd daemon by creating the directory /tftpboot:
      # mkdir /tftpboot
      This configures the machine as a TFTP, bootparams, and RARP server.

3. Create a symbolic link to the directory.

   # ln -s /tftpboot/. /tftpboot/tftpboot

4. Enable the tftp line in intetd.conf. Check that the /etc/inetd.conf entry reads:
    tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tftpd in.tftpd -s /tftpboot
   This prevents inettftpd() from retrieving any file other than one located in /tftpboot.

5. Edit the hosts database, and add the host names and IP addresses for every client on the network.

6. Edit the ethers database, and create entries for every host on the network to run in network client   mode.

7. Edit the bootparams database. Use the wildcard entry or create an entry for every host that run in network client mode.
8. Reboot the server.