Using rpcinfo to locate boot servers in your subnet

Asset ID:	1-71-1008845.1
Update Date:	2011-11-23
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 1008845.1 : Using rpcinfo to locate boot servers in your subnet

Applies to:

Sun Enterprise 10000 Server
Solaris SPARC Operating System - Version: 8.0 and later [Release: 8.0 and later]
Sun Fire E25K Server - Version: Not Applicable and later [Release: N/A and later]
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal

The rpcinfo(1m) command can be used to locate boot servers in your subnet as well as to verify that the machine(s) you have set up as boot servers actually will respond to a boot request. Please note a response only means the service is registered. It does not mean that there actually is a bootable image that the client (machine attempting to boot) can use.

Solution

To check if a particular machine has the boot service registered type the following:

$ rpcinfo -s  | grep bootparam

Here is an example:

$ rpcinfo -s u140-hard | grep bootparam
program version(s) netid(s) service owner
100026 1 ticots,ticotsord,ticlts,tcp,udp bootparam superuser

To see what other machines are answering boot requests

$ rpcinfo -b 100026 1

Here is a sample output

129.148.190.179.128.48 radioactive
129.148.190.100.131.19 loadme-190
129.148.190.179.128.48 radioactive
129.148.190.100.131.19 loadme-190

Check the rpcinfo(1M) manpage for further details.

Product
Solaris

Internal Section

For example, this may be very useful for Sun Enterprise[TM] 10000 netboot problems. Often the bootserver that responds is NOT the ssp and the bootimage that is found and is attempted to be used is not correct for the E10K causing panics and/or boot hangs.

In addition, N/T boxes have been know to respond, and E10Ks cannot boot from that image.

Previously Published As 42220

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