Network boot

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Consider the following network boot example and limitations while installing AIX onto IBM Hyperconverged Systems.

Limitations of network boot and installation

If you are using a static IP address for the client virtual machine (VM), the client and server must be on the same subnet when booting a VM across the network. You cannot specify a subnet mask in the boot command as shown in the following example.

Network boot example

To boot from the network, the client VM must be started or rebooted and then stopped at the OpenFirmware Prompt.

To stop the client VM at the OpenFirmware prompt, press ‘s’ in the virtual network computing (VNC) console connection of the client VM. You must press ‘s’ immediately after the client VM is started. The VNC console connection can be opened from the VM view in the PRISM management graphical user interface (GUI).
Note: The client VM will stop automatically at the OpenFirmware Prompt when booting a newly created VM with no operating system (OS).
To boot the client from the network install manager (NIM) master at the OpenFirmware prompt, use the following command template:
0> boot <NIC-device>:<nim-server-ip>,<\path\to\client\bootfile>,<clientip>,<gateway-ip>
You must replace the following items in the command template:
<NIC-device>
To obtain the NIC-device details, run the devalias command from the OpenFirmware prompt. Identify the Ethernet device alias name. For example, the Ethernet device alias in the following output has an alias of net:
0 > devalias
net : /pci@800000020000000/ethernet@1
scsi : /pci@800000020000000/scsi@2
disk : /pci@800000020000000/scsi@2/disk@100000000000000
usb0 : /pci@800000020000000/usb@3
nvram : /vdevice/nvram@71000000
hvterm : /vdevice/vty@30000000 ok
<nim-server-ip>
Enter the IP address of the NIM server.
<\path\to\client\bootfile>
After the installation has started, you can identify the name of the client boot file from the /etc/bootptab file on the NIM server.
<clientip>
Enter the IP address of the client VM.
<gateway-ip>
Enter the gateway’s IP address for the client VM.
The following commands boots the client VM from the network install manager (NIM) master at the OpenFirmware prompt:
0> boot net:9.3.94.78,\tftpboot\client-vm.ibm.com,9.3.94.217,9.3.94.1

After the AIX operating system has loaded, the COM1 console connection opened by using the PRISM GUI is used to interact with the AIX operating system.