Chapter 5 Configuring TFTP and BOOTP Servers

The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a simple protocol used to read and write files to or from a remote system.

The Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) allows certain systems to discover network configuration information (such as an IP address and a subnet mask) and boot information automatically.

Together, TFTP and BOOTP allow a system to provide boot information for client systems that support BOOTP, such as HP's 700/X terminal. These protocols are implemented on top of the Internet User Datagram Protocol (UDP), so they can be used across networks that support UDP.

This chapter explains how to configure BOOTP and TFTP servers for your network manually from the shell prompt. Examples are provided to help you configure the servers. (You can also use SAM, the online configuration interface, to configure BOOTP and TFTP servers.) A troubleshooting section is also provided to help you recover from problems that may occur while using the BOOTP and TFTP servers.

	NOTE: BOOTP is not supported over the X.25 link product or networks using the PPL (SLIP) product.As of Release 10.02, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is available for advanced IP address allocation and management of TCP/IP LAN computing environments. DHCP is a superset of BOOTP and can be used with the SAM graphical interface. See the DHCP chapter for more information.