[PATCH] patch to speed up bootpc queries

[Geert Stappers]

At 16:41 +0100 1/3/02, Phil wrote:
>On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Thomas Lange wrote:
>
>> >>>>> On Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:11:23 +0100 (CET), Phil <pbi at cartel-info.fr>
>>said:
>>
>>     > Hi, When rcS_fai tries to get bootp parameters, it does a query
>>     > on every interface the machine has. This can take a lot of time
>>     > for nothing.
>>
>> This could be made much simpler. If the variable $netdevices is
>> defined, then only this list of interfaces is used and not all
>> available ethernet devices. Define this variable in /etc/fai.conf (the
>> next fai version will use /etc/fai/fai.conf) and rebuild the nfsroot
>> or copy trhis file to $NFSROOT/etc/fai.conf. Here's an example
>>
>> /etc/fai.conf:
>> netdevices=eth0
>
>This is not so easy as you can't be sure about which interface will become
>eth0 or eth1. For example, the machine I'm using has a dual eepro100. I've
>pluged the wire on LAN1 and it became eth1 (and LAN2 is eth0).
>So if I want to carry on using LAN1, I must put netdevices=eth1. But I
>won't be able to install machines with only one NIC.
The kernel gets from its BOOTP-reqeust info which NFS filesystem to mount.

>
>Moreover,
>I don't see why every NIC in $netdevices should query a bootp server.
>One answered query should be enough.

Even a single NIC computer does three(3) BOOTP-requests:
- BootROM "where to get my kernel-image" request
- Kernel "where to get my NFS root" request
- FAI "where is the FAI info" request

On a multi NIC computer, FAI has to check every netdevice,
because the BOOTP server could anywhere.

>
>I agree we should test if the query is correctly answerd (ie with T17?
>options) to stop asking bootp servers.
>I also agree that, with my patch, you can query twice on the same NIC.
>
>Am I broken ? ;)
Not complete aware doesn't mean been broken.

Please reconsider

>> If the variable $netdevices is
>> defined, then only this list of interfaces is used and not all
>> available ethernet devices. Define this variable in /etc/fai.conf (the
>> next fai version will use /etc/fai/fai.conf) and rebuild the nfsroot
>> or copy trhis file to $NFSROOT/etc/fai.conf. Here's an example
>>
>> /etc/fai.conf:
>> netdevices=eth0

Geert