NAME

dms − diskless management services utility

SYNTAX

/etc/dms

DESCRIPTION

The dms utility is a menu-based interactive utility that performs diskless management services. The dms utility allows you to set up your processor as a diskless server. With dms you can install diskless product environments and register diskless clients from a common server machine.

To setup a diskless server, the following software should already be installed: Local Area Network (LAN), Network File System (NFS), and the Maintenance Operations Protocol (MOP). 

When setting up the server, do all the diskless installations at one time, if possible. 

To initially install a diskless server, select the following dms menus in order:

1.Configure the Server / Set up Disk Partitions (c,d)

This will set up the disk partitions needed for the two diskless file systems, /var/diskless/dlenv? and /var/diskless/dlclient?. (There can be more than one file system, where "?" represents a unique number assigned by dms.) The diskless environment, dlenv?, contains the common root file systems and the shared usr area. The diskless client area, dlclient?, contains the root file system and swap file for each registered diskless client.

2.Configure the Server / Install Environment (c,i)

This will install the media to the dlenv? area.  It will also configure and optionally build kernels for the default diskless processor types.

3.Configure the Server / Set up Server Defaults (c,s)

This will set up the defaults used when adding a client. 

To register a diskless client, select the Add Client Processor option (a). 

This will register the diskless client with MOP,  the Maintenance Operations Protocol.  This allows the diskless client to do remote boot and crash operations.  Selecting this menu option also copies a root area from the diskless common root area to the diskless client area (for example, /var/diskless/dlenv0/root1.vax to /var/diskless/dlclient5/machine.root). The server’s /etc/exports file is updated to allow the client to mount the dlclient? directory. Finally a swap file is created, /var/diskless/dlclient?/machine.swap.

The dms utility also allows you to modify, remove, and list the attributes of diskless clients.

Important directories are kept under /usr/var/diskless.

Note: /usr/var will be /var if you have chosen the advanced installation.

If you use dms to set up your system as a diskless server before running the nfssetup utility, dms will automatically call nfssetup to set up a default NFS server environment.

If you use dms to register diskless clients, and your system is running Yellow Pages (YP), dms automatically calls the ypsetup utility and sets up a default YP environment for each client.

FILES

/usr/var/diskless/clientsContains the MOP down-line load files. 
/usr/var/diskless/dmsContains client parameter files. 
/usr/var/diskless/binContains executables used by dms. 
/usr/var/diskless/defsContains default setup files. 

SEE ALSO

exports(5nfs), addnode(8), setld(8), nfssetup(8nfs), ypsetup(8yp)
Guide to Diskless Management Services