From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 25 09:49:13 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B877716A4CE for ; Tue, 25 Nov 2003 09:49:13 -0800 (PST) Received: from sabre.velocet.net (sabre.velocet.net [216.138.209.205]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E92D43FAF for ; Tue, 25 Nov 2003 09:49:12 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from steve@nomad.tor.lets.net) Received: from nomad.lets.net (H74.C220.tor.velocet.net [216.138.220.74]) by sabre.velocet.net (Postfix) with SMTP id A84BE1381D2 for ; Tue, 25 Nov 2003 12:49:11 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 19891 invoked by uid 1008); 25 Nov 2003 18:09:36 -0000 Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:09:36 -0500 From: Steve Shorter To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20031125180936.GA19879@nomad.lets.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Subject: kern/54383: NFS root configuration without dynamic protocols: dhcp, bootp, etc ... X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 17:49:13 -0000 Howdy! I only boot from Intel cards that support PXE. This greatly simplifies the administration of large numbers of diskless machines. It makes kernel changes trivial. If your going to go diskless you may as well go all the way for the base/root system and kernel. If you need RAID disks for data then you can throw some swap on them, but otherwise with memory cheap you can usually get away without swap. The problem with hardrives isn't cost. Its a source of failure and administrative overhead. Avoid them. If you can't, then use RAID for data and still PXE boot over the network. Upgrading kernel on each machine is a major drag if there are lots of machines. In general a solution that is not scalable is not a good one. -steve