From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 14 13:24:11 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C519116A4CF for ; Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:24:11 -0800 (PST) Received: from odin.ac.hmc.edu (Odin.AC.HMC.Edu [134.173.32.75]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4A8F43D48 for ; Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:24:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brdavis@odin.ac.hmc.edu) Received: from odin.ac.hmc.edu (IDENT:brdavis@localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by odin.ac.hmc.edu (8.12.10/8.12.3) with ESMTP id i0ELO6aT009311; Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:24:06 -0800 Received: (from brdavis@localhost) by odin.ac.hmc.edu (8.12.10/8.12.3/Submit) id i0ELO6X8009310; Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:24:06 -0800 Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:24:06 -0800 From: Brooks Davis To: Steve Watt Message-ID: <20040114212405.GD4974@Odin.AC.HMC.Edu> References: <200401142116.i0ELG1RX088594@wattres.Watt.COM> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="qGV0fN9tzfkG3CxV" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200401142116.i0ELG1RX088594@wattres.Watt.COM> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-milter (http://amavis.org/) on odin.ac.hmc.edu cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: kernel environment between reboots, diskless X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:24:11 -0000 --qGV0fN9tzfkG3CxV Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 01:16:01PM -0800, Steve Watt wrote: > On Jan 14, 13:11, Brooks Davis wrote: > } On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 12:55:49PM -0800, Steve Watt wrote: > } > I'm working on a dataless system that will be booting and rooting > } > from flash for some environmental chamber (thermal) tests, and > } > logging the results to an NFS server outside the chamber. > }=20 > } I've got to ask, if you're in an NFS environment, why boot from flash at > } all? Why not PXE boot or use etherboot? >=20 > I'm attempting to minimize reboot cycle time, since part of the test > suite involves 50 reboots per card, and with 5 cards in the system, > a minute extra boot time is suddenly four hours. Hmm, that might be an issue. If your network is reliable (and you configure your switches so you don't get screwed by spanning tree), PXE boots are quite fast, probably not more then a few seconds longer then booting from local media (possiably less since you could disabling BIOS probing of the media which takes forever.) > But I'll admit to not having gathered the data on that one, so I'll > give it a closer look. If I PXE or etherboot, how would the kernel > environment get populated then? =46rom the server. The advantage of this is that it would be easy to script changes on the server as opposed to changes on the flash card. You also don't need to worry about wearing out the server's disks. -- Brooks --=20 Any statement of the form "X is the one, true Y" is FALSE. PGP fingerprint 655D 519C 26A7 82E7 2529 9BF0 5D8E 8BE9 F238 1AD4 --qGV0fN9tzfkG3CxV Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFABbN0XY6L6fI4GtQRAruvAJ42qzyjYty7jaQt0pNurHr64o8oyQCfW1zi jzJXPkLYyWc+yyYnkV5dA4U= =mMqw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --qGV0fN9tzfkG3CxV--