nat firewall and tftpboot

I am having a very hard time getting my diskless servers to
boot off the 
network. It use to work, but unfortunately, a bunch of
things have 
changed, and it was impossible to change things one at a
time, so I 
don't know where the problem lies. (All IPs changed, the
firewall 
changed, the DHCP server changed, and I'm now using NAT,
where I wasn't 
before.) I am looking for a good tutorial or how-to on
setting up a 
tftpboot server, which at least mentions doing this on a
network where 
there is one-to-one NAT. Anyone know of one? I've tried
googling, but 
mostly get stuff for macs and bsd. I'm using debian
(although anything 
based on linux would be helpful).

thanks,
maria

In case someone is an expert:

Using ethereal, I see that the client starts to receive the
kernel 
packages, but after a large chunk, the tftp server requests
repeatedly 
to know who has the client's ip, but the client does not
appear to 
answer, and then the client boot fails with the message
"Too many packages"
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On 2/7/07, Maria McKinley <mariashadlen.org> wrote:
> I am having a very hard time getting my diskless
servers to boot off the
> network. It use to work, but unfortunately, a bunch of
things have
> changed, and it was impossible to change things one at
a time, so I
> don't know where the problem lies. (All IPs changed,
the firewall
> changed, the DHCP server changed, and I'm now using
NAT, where I wasn't
> before.) I am looking for a good tutorial or how-to on
setting up a
> tftpboot server, which at least mentions doing this on
a network where
> there is one-to-one NAT. Anyone know of one? I've tried
googling, but
> mostly get stuff for macs and bsd. I'm using debian
(although anything
> based on linux would be helpful).
>
> In case someone is an expert:
>
> Using ethereal, I see that the client starts to receive
the kernel
> packages, but after a large chunk, the tftp server
requests repeatedly
> to know who has the client's ip, but the client does
not appear to
> answer, and then the client boot fails with the message
"Too many packages"

In this case, are we talking about the client ip, or the
translated
client ip? i.e. is the server somehow aware of the client IP
behind
the NAT and is it requesting the mac address for the wrong
IP?

greets,
Wim
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Wim De Smet wrote:
> On 2/7/07, Maria McKinley <mariashadlen.org> wrote:
>> I am having a very hard time getting my diskless
servers to boot off the
>> network. It use to work, but unfortunately, a bunch
of things have
>> changed, and it was impossible to change things one
at a time, so I
>> don't know where the problem lies. (All IPs
changed, the firewall
>> changed, the DHCP server changed, and I'm now using
NAT, where I wasn't
>> before.) I am looking for a good tutorial or how-to
on setting up a
>> tftpboot server, which at least mentions doing this
on a network where
>> there is one-to-one NAT. Anyone know of one? I've
tried googling, but
>> mostly get stuff for macs and bsd. I'm using debian
(although anything
>> based on linux would be helpful).
>>
>> In case someone is an expert:
>>
>> Using ethereal, I see that the client starts to
receive the kernel
>> packages, but after a large chunk, the tftp server
requests repeatedly
>> to know who has the client's ip, but the client
does not appear to
>> answer, and then the client boot fails with the
message "Too many 
>> packages"
> 
> In this case, are we talking about the client ip, or
the translated
> client ip? i.e. is the server somehow aware of the
client IP behind
> the NAT and is it requesting the mac address for the
wrong IP?
> 
> greets,
> Wim

Hi Wim,

Everything is done using the local ips, and as far as I can
tell using 
NAT should have absolutely no effect; this *should* be all
direct 
communication behind the firewall. The network configuration
and the 
host files are all using local ips, and the machines are set
to use 
their own host files before any dns. The communication I am
looking at 
using ethereal is all using the local ips.

thanks,
maria
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Hi Maria,

From a short google:

When using BOOTP / TFTP to download an image, you are
limited to 640k real 
mode memory. The Boot Agent needs 128K, so you will receive
this error 
message if the image is greater than 512K. Either reduce the
size of the 
image you are trying to download or use a PXE service
instead.

Hope this helps,

Phil

On Wednesday 07 February 2007 15:32, Maria McKinley wrote:
> I am having a very hard time getting my diskless
servers to boot off the
> network. It use to work, but unfortunately, a bunch of
things have
> changed, and it was impossible to change things one at
a time, so I
> don't know where the problem lies. (All IPs changed,
the firewall
> changed, the DHCP server changed, and I'm now using
NAT, where I wasn't
> before.) I am looking for a good tutorial or how-to on
setting up a
> tftpboot server, which at least mentions doing this on
a network where
> there is one-to-one NAT. Anyone know of one? I've tried
googling, but
> mostly get stuff for macs and bsd. I'm using debian
(although anything
> based on linux would be helpful).
>
> thanks,
> maria
>
> In case someone is an expert:
>
> Using ethereal, I see that the client starts to receive
the kernel
> packages, but after a large chunk, the tftp server
requests repeatedly
> to know who has the client's ip, but the client does
not appear to
> answer, and then the client boot fails with the message
"Too many packages"
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalklinuxchix.org
> http:/
/linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk

-- 
Phil Savoie
Sun Training Consultant :: ExitCertified

Sun Certified Instructor :: Sun Certified System
Administrator

85 Albert Street, Suite 1200
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6A4

[e] Phil.Savoieexitcertified.com
[p] 613.232.3948 x225
[f] 613.232.3949
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I don't remember ever posting the solution, so thought I
should. The 
problem was that I had a floppy drive that had destroyed my
floppy, so 
the machines weren't using the etherboot floppy at all.
However, some of 
the ethernet cards had built-in boot loaders, which were
trying to boot 
off the network, but using pxe, which would not work with my
setup. 
Since it was attempting to boot off the network, and I had
no idea what 
pxe was, I thought it was booting from the floppy and
screwing up 
somehow. Creating a new etherboot floppy, and not using the
broken 
floppy drive fixed the problem.

I have had to deal with many problems in moving my computers
recently 
(at work we moved our offices up a couple of floors), but
the most 
frustrating thing is just how much moving stuff around and
rebooting 
frequently is correlated with hardware failure. Many of the
problems I 
was originally blaming on new ips (which got switched
twice!), using nat 
for the first time, and a new firewall setup turned out to
be hardware 
problems. Too bad I couldn't have moved the hardware,
continue to use 
the old ips and old setup, and then switch over once
everything was 
stable again... Also, when one piece of hardware fails, lots
of others 
often do as well (the machine with the broken floppy drive
had already 
had its hard drive, motherboard, and graphics card
replaced).

thanks for all of your help,
maria

Phil Savoie wrote:
> Hi Maria,
> 
> From a short google:
> 
> When using BOOTP / TFTP to download an image, you are
limited to 640k real 
> mode memory. The Boot Agent needs 128K, so you will
receive this error 
> message if the image is greater than 512K. Either
reduce the size of the 
> image you are trying to download or use a PXE service
instead.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Phil
> 
> On Wednesday 07 February 2007 15:32, Maria McKinley
wrote:
>> I am having a very hard time getting my diskless
servers to boot off the
>> network. It use to work, but unfortunately, a bunch
of things have
>> changed, and it was impossible to change things one
at a time, so I
>> don't know where the problem lies. (All IPs
changed, the firewall
>> changed, the DHCP server changed, and I'm now using
NAT, where I wasn't
>> before.) I am looking for a good tutorial or how-to
on setting up a
>> tftpboot server, which at least mentions doing this
on a network where
>> there is one-to-one NAT. Anyone know of one? I've
tried googling, but
>> mostly get stuff for macs and bsd. I'm using debian
(although anything
>> based on linux would be helpful).
>>
>> thanks,
>> maria
>>
>> In case someone is an expert:
>>
>> Using ethereal, I see that the client starts to
receive the kernel
>> packages, but after a large chunk, the tftp server
requests repeatedly
>> to know who has the client's ip, but the client
does not appear to
>> answer, and then the client boot fails with the
message "Too many packages"
>> _______________________________________________
>> Techtalk mailing list
>> Techtalklinuxchix.org
>> http:/
/linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
> 
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Something else to watch for is the battery. I had some
recent hardware
issues that had nothing to do with hard drives, floppies or
video
cards... it was the real time clock battery! 

Once changed, everything started working right again, no
more errors and
segmentation faults. 

Alvin
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