Many thanks to those that replied with helpful suggestions.
The problem turned out to be, believe it or not, an "NT" server configured
to do remote backups (nobody picked that as a likely cause - but then I
didn't mention we had NT boxen on the network ;-). It appears that the NT
box responds aggressively to RPC calls arising from machines it doesn't know
about, rather than just ignoring them. A colleague eventually caught it by
setting up a jumpstart client and another Solaris machine on the same hub,
using the "other" machine to snoop all ethernet activity. This very quickly
revealed the "Authorization error" being sent from the NT server. Our
"production" network is switched, so we didn't see these responses directed
toward the jumpstart client in previous uses of snoop ( e.g. on our
jumpstart server, all we could see were the broadcast requests, and the
responses from the jumpstart server).
Well there you go. A lesson learnt, and a week mostly lost, but that goes
down to "experience". Thanks again for the positive responses. Although not
useful in this instance,it was pleasing to see so many people taking the
time to respond.
Cheers, Jeff
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff.Howard@agso.gov.au [SMTP:Jeff.Howard@agso.gov.au]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 3:26 PM
> To: sun-managers@sunmanagers.ececs.uc.edu
> Subject: Q: jumpstart client: bootparam authentication error
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've been chasing this one around for a week or so with no joy so I was
> hoping that someone on the list might be able to give me some (preferably
> constructive) pointers. I have consulted sunsolve, and raised a query with
> Sun, but neither source of information has been able to help me so far.
> Read
> on if you are familiar with, or interested in, the "bootstrap" for a
> jumpstart client.
>
> We have a very low level problem with our jumpstart installation.
> Previously, the jumpstart server has reliably carried us from 2.4, through
> 2.5.1, to 2.6. Now, having already installed about five 2.6 machines, it
> is
> failing. The error message, as seen on the jumpstart client, I have
> included below.
>
> Without getting too verbose, I have run "snoop" on the jumpstart server,
> and
> can see nothing amiss. The client appears to correctly use "tftp" to load
> the bootblock, use "bootparams" to identify the "root" directory, then use
> "nfs" to access the root directory and get at "/kernel/unix" and load the
> associated modules. I'm thinking that the next stage is running "init" and
> this appears to be where it is falling over, but how that relates to the
> "bootparams" error message I haven't worked out. I see no error messages
> or
> permissions denied messages in the "snoop" log.
>
> As I write, any ideas on where to look for trouble would be helpful.
>
> Thanks for your time.
> jeff.howard@agso.gov.au
>
> Jumpstart client error:
> ----------------------------------
>
> (where "[...]" has been used to represent "uninteresting" text which has
> been removed and local "site" specific information has been removed).
>
> > Boot device: /iommu[...]
> > 2dc00
> > hostname: myhost
> > domainname: the.right.domain.name
> > root server: jumper
> > root directory: /export/install/Solaris-2.6-sparc/Solaris_2.6/Tools/Boot
> > SunOS Release 5.6 Version Generic_10518-05 [unix(R) System V Release
> 4.0]
> > Copyright [..]
> > WARNING: whoami: bootparam RPC failed: error 7 (RPC: Authentication
> error)
> > WARNING: nfsdyn_mountroot: NFS3 mount_root_failed: error 6
> > Cannot mount root on /iommu[...] fstype nfsdyn
> > panic: vfs_mountroot: cannot mount root
> > rebooting ...
> > Resetting ...
>
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