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If you have multiple VLANs and require diskless booting of OS X based clients, then you will need to complete the following.
Note: dataJAR does not provide support for configuring network hardware. Refer to the hardware manufacturer for assistance with configuring your router or switch.
It is important to note that the Apple NetBoot service (required to network deploy client workstations) uses the BSDP protocol (similar to DHCP). Due to its nature, BSDP packets do not traverse different subnets. This means that without any additional configuration, Mac clients would not be able to communicate with the NetBoot server.
To circumvent this issue, we would require modifications to the network configuration. For this to work you will need to turn on the "ip-helper X.X.X.X" under the Vlan interface. This turns a DHCP broadcast request into unicast to the ip address specified by the IP helper.
The IP address should be the address of the NetBoot server.
Because NetBoot discovery requests are sent from the client using DHCP, packets from the client must be forwarded on to the server. If you have Cisco equipment, you must use the ip helper-address statement in your router configuration to forward the packets.
For example, if your server is on VLAN 10 with IP address 172.16.10.100 and your client is on VLAN 20, your configuration should look something like this:
interface Vlan10
description Server VLAN
ip address 172.16.10.1
interface Vlan20
description Client VLAN
ip address 172.16.20.1
ip helper-address 172.16.10.100
This tells the router to forward broadcast packets across VLANs to the address you specify. By default, DHCP packets are forwarded, along with other common broadcast traffic. See your network equipment manuals for more information on the default forwarded ports.
Additionally, you must ensure that you are not blocking any traffic between the clients and the server. NetBoot images are served using the following protocols: TFTP, AFP & NFS, so these ports (and any "return" ports for protocols such as NFS) must be open.
If you require assistance with the following article, please e-mail support@datajar.co.uk