Syslinux - Oct 2006 - Client-identifier option in PXE search order

Hello,
 
Is there any plan to use the client identifier field as part of the PXE
search order ?
This will be helpful when using PXELINUX on Infiniband network which do
not have 6 byte Ethernet MAC address.
 
Thanks,
_________________________________________________

Nir Gal   |  +972-9-9717685 (o)   |   +972-54-499-6633 (m)

Manager, Customer Support

Voltaire - The Grid Backbone

www.voltaire.com <http://www.voltaire.com/>

Nir Gal wrote:
> Hello,
>  
> Is there any plan to use the client identifier field as part of the PXE
> search order ?
> This will be helpful when using PXELINUX on Infiniband network which do
> not have 6 byte Ethernet MAC address.
>  
There is nothing in PXELINUX which makes the hardware address limited to 
six bytes.  The "hardware address" in PXELINUX is ARP type followed by
however many bytes the hardware address happens to be (as reported by 
the PXE stack.)

The problem with Infinibad is that its native address size is too large 
for DHCP and PXE (20 bytes as opposed to 16 bytes available), so it 
doesn't use the standard mechanism for reporting that.

It might be useful to detect the special case of hlen == 0 and pull the 
local address out of the ClientIdentifier in that case.

	-hpa

Hello,

I am not sure I follow, are these changes can be done in the PXELINUX
code ?
I have a setup with DHCP which can assign IP address to servers based on
their client-identifier , but my problem is that the PXELINUX search
order ( MAC , IP ... ) doesn't try to mach the client identifier.

Can you add this request to the TODO list of PXELINUX ?

Regards,
_________________________________________________

Nir Gal   |  +972-9-9717685 (o)   |   +972-54-499-6633 (m)

Manager, Customer Support

Voltaire - The Grid Backbone

www.voltaire.com


-----Original Message-----
From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] 
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:29 PM
To: Nir Gal
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com
Subject: Re: [syslinux] Client-identifier option in PXE search order

Nir Gal wrote:
> Hello,
>  
> Is there any plan to use the client identifier field as part of the 
> PXE search order ?
> This will be helpful when using PXELINUX on Infiniband network which 
> do not have 6 byte Ethernet MAC address.
>  
There is nothing in PXELINUX which makes the hardware address limited to
six bytes.  The "hardware address" in PXELINUX is ARP type followed by
however many bytes the hardware address happens to be (as reported by
the PXE stack.)

The problem with Infinibad is that its native address size is too large
for DHCP and PXE (20 bytes as opposed to 16 bytes available), so it
doesn't use the standard mechanism for reporting that.

It might be useful to detect the special case of hlen == 0 and pull the
local address out of the ClientIdentifier in that case.

	-hpa

Nir Gal wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am not sure I follow, are these changes can be done in the PXELINUX
> code ?
> I have a setup with DHCP which can assign IP address to servers based on
> their client-identifier , but my problem is that the PXELINUX search
> order ( MAC , IP ... ) doesn't try to mach the client identifier.
> 
> Can you add this request to the TODO list of PXELINUX ?
> 
I can, but you can use option 209 in the DHCP server to produce the same 
result, too.

See pxelinux.doc.

	-hpa

Thanks,

Will try that 


_________________________________________________

Nir Gal   |  +972-9-9717685 (o)   |   +972-54-499-6633 (m)

Manager, Customer Support

Voltaire - The Grid Backbone

www.voltaire.com


-----Original Message-----
From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 8:46 AM
To: Nir Gal
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com; Moni Levy
Subject: Re: [syslinux] Client-identifier option in PXE search order

Nir Gal wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am not sure I follow, are these changes can be done in the PXELINUX 
> code ?
> I have a setup with DHCP which can assign IP address to servers based 
> on their client-identifier , but my problem is that the PXELINUX 
> search order ( MAC , IP ... ) doesn't try to mach the client
identifier.
> 
> Can you add this request to the TODO list of PXELINUX ?
> 
I can, but you can use option 209 in the DHCP server to produce the same
result, too.

See pxelinux.doc.

	-hpa

Hello,

I am trying the DHCP 209 option however I understood there is an option
to use UUID.
My question is the UUID part of the PXELINUX search order ?

According to my knowledge the search is :
MAC
IP ( with all class option )
Default

Is there anything else ?

_________________________________________________

Nir Gal   |  +972-9-9717685 (o)   |   +972-54-499-6633 (m)

Manager, Customer Support

Voltaire - The Grid Backbone

www.voltaire.com


-----Original Message-----
From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 8:46 AM
To: Nir Gal
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com; Moni Levy
Subject: Re: [syslinux] Client-identifier option in PXE search order

Nir Gal wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am not sure I follow, are these changes can be done in the PXELINUX 
> code ?
> I have a setup with DHCP which can assign IP address to servers based 
> on their client-identifier , but my problem is that the PXELINUX 
> search order ( MAC , IP ... ) doesn't try to mach the client
identifier.
> 
> Can you add this request to the TODO list of PXELINUX ?
> 
I can, but you can use option 209 in the DHCP server to produce the same
result, too.

See pxelinux.doc.

	-hpa

Nir Gal wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am trying the DHCP 209 option however I understood there is an option
> to use UUID.
> My question is the UUID part of the PXELINUX search order ?
> According to my knowledge the search is :
> MAC
> IP ( with all class option )
> Default
> 
> Is there anything else ?
No, and if there was, it would be in the documentation.

	-hpa