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Broadcom Boot Agent Driver Software: Broadcom NetXtreme II™ Network Adapter User Guide

Overview

Setting Up MBA in a Client Environment

Setting Up MBA in a Server Environment

Overview

Broadcom NetXtreme II adapters support Preboot Execution Environment (PXE), Remote Program Load (RPL), iSCSI, and Bootstrap Protocol (BootP). Multi-Boot Agent (MBA) is a software module that allows your network computer to boot with the images provided by remote servers across the network. The Broadcom MBA driver complies with the PXE 2.1 specification and is released with both monolithic and split binary images. This provides flexibility to users in different environments where the motherboard may or may not have built-in base code.

The MBA module operates in a client/server environment. A network consists of one or more boot servers that provide boot images to multiple computers through the network. The Broadcom implementation of the MBA module has been tested successfully in the following environments:

Setting Up MBA in a Client Environment

Setting up MBA in a client environment involves the following steps:

  1. Enabling the MBA driver.
  2. Configuring the MBA driver.
  3. Setting up the BIOS for the boot order.

Enabling the MBA Driver

To enable or disable the MBA driver:

  1. Insert the installation CD in the CD-ROM drive and boot up in DOS mode.
  2. NOTE: The uxdiag.exe file is on the installation CD.

  3. Type:
  4. uxdiag -mba [ 0-disable | 1-enable ] -c devnum

    where

    devnum is the specific device(s) number (0,1,2, ...) to be programmed.

Configuring the MBA Driver

This section pertains to configuring the MBA driver on add-in NIC models of the Broadcom network adapter. For configuring the MBA driver on LOM models of the Broadcom network adapter, check your system documentation.

NOTE: You can use the MBA Configuration Menu to configure the MBA driver one adapter at a time as described below, or you can use the Broadcom NetXtreme II User Diagnostics MS-DOS based application to simultaneously configure the MBA driver for multiple adapters.

  1. Restart your system.
  2. Press CTRL+S within 4 seconds after you are prompted to do so.
  3. NOTE: The message prompting you to press CTRL+S is displayed once for each Broadcom NetXtreme II adapter you have in your system that has MBA enabled. The messages are displayed in the same order as the assigned adapter device number.

  4. Use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to move to the Boot Protocol menu item. Then use the RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW key to select the boot protocol of choice if other boot protocols besides Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) are available. If available, other boot protocols include Remote Program Load (RPL), and Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP).

NOTE: If you have multiple adapters in your system and you are unsure which adapter you are configuring, press CTRL+F6, which causes the port LEDs on the adapter to start blinking.

  1. Use the UP ARROW, DOWN ARROW, LEFT ARROW, and RIGHT ARROW keys to move to and change the values for other menu items, as desired.
  2. Press F4 to save your settings.
  3. Press ESC when you are finished.

Setting Up the BIOS

To boot from the network with the MBA, make the MBA enabled adapter the first bootable device under the BIOS. This procedure depends on the system BIOS implementation. Refer to the user manual for the system for instructions.

Setting Up MBA in a Server Environment

Red Hat Linux PXE Server

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution has PXE Server support. It allows users to remotely perform a complete Linux installation over the network. The distribution comes with the boot images boot kernel (vmlinuz) and initial ram disk (initrd), which are located on the Red Hat disk#1:

/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
/images/pxeboot/initrd.img


 

Refer to the Red Hat documentation for instructions on how to install PXE Server on Linux.

The Initrd.img file distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, however, does not have a Linux network driver for the Broadcom NetXtreme II adapters. This version requires a driver disk for drivers that are not part of the standard distribution. You can create a driver disk for the Broadcom NetXtreme II adapter from the image distributed with the installation CD. Refer to the Linux Readme.txt file for more information.

MS-DOS UNDI/Intel APITEST

To boot in MS-DOS mode and connect to a network for the MS-DOS environment, download the Intel PXE PDK from the Intel website. This PXE PDK comes with a TFTP/ProxyDHCP/Boot server. The PXE PDK can be downloaded from Intel at http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Network+Connectivity&ProductLine=Boot+Agent+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Boot+Agent.


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