The bootparams table stores configuration information about every diskless workstation in a domain. A diskless workstation is a workstation that is connected to a network, but has no hard disk. Since it has no internal storage capacity, a diskless workstation stores its files and programs in the file system of a server on the network. It also stores its configuration information--or boot parameters --on a server.
Because of this arrangement, every diskless workstation has an initialization program that knows where this information is stored. If the network has no name service, the program looks for this information in the server's /etc/bootparams file. If the network uses the NIS+ name service, the program looks for it in the bootparams table, instead.
The bootparams table can store any configuration information about diskless workstations. It has two columns: one for the configuration key, another for its value. By default, it is set up to store the location of each workstation's root, swap, and dump partitions.
The default bootparams table has only two columns that provide the following items of information:
| Column | Content | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Key | Hostname | The diskless workstation's official host name, as specified in the hosts table |
| Value | Configuration | Root partition: the location (server name and path) of the workstation's root partition |
| Swap partition: the location (server name and path) of the workstation's swap partition | ||
| Dump partition: the location (server name and path) of the workstation's dump partition | ||
| Install partition. | ||
| Domain. |
The columns are separated with a TAB character. Backslashes (\) are used to break a line within an entry. The entries for root, swap, and dump partitions have the following format:
client-name root=server:path \
swap=server:path \
dump=server:path \
install=server:path \
domain=domainname
Here is an example:
buckarooroot=bigriver:/export/root1/buckaroo \ swap=bigriver:/export/swap1/buckaroo \ dump=bigriver:/export/dump/buckaroo \ install=bigriver:/export/install/buckaroo \ domain=sales.wiz.com