BMR unix boot server requirements

[Mohmec]

We are planning secondary data center and I need some clarity on implementing BMR.

1. Can the Solaris boot server be located in an isolated vLAN with.  Is it feasible, for the servers to be restored to be allocated to the isolated vlan with the boot server.  Restored.  Then placed into it's destination vlan upon restoration.  For example, say the boot server is in vLan A.  The server to be restored is in vLan B.  Can the server be placed in vLan A, restored, and moved back to vLan B on its completion.

2.   If the Solaris boot server is on vlan A, does it have to have multiple NIC ports to physically connect to vLan B, vLan C, and vLan D?  
 

[Jaime_Vazquez · Accepted solution]

For purposes of network boot, BMR Boot Servers emulate the native network boot protocols of the OS they are booting. Based on your information requests, this looks to be Solaris so I will focus on that.

Solaris Sparc makes use of  JumpStart.  JumpStart network boot requests are not routable. As such the booting client and the BMR Boot Server must exist on the same subnet.  There exists Boot Relay servers to overcome some of this. They are outside the scope of BMR.

For #1:

Yes this is a feasible scenario. Make a copy of the restore configuration and modify the "Network Interfaces" section.  Change the boot IP address to one on the same subnet as the Boot Server. Create a temporary entry in the /etc/hosts of the Master Server, any Media Server needed for the restore, and the BMR Boot Server such that the IP address resolves back to the client's hostname.  Perform a normal "Prepare To Restore" and then network boot the client. Once the client is restored, you can change its IP address to any on the orignal  VLAN and move it back to that VLAN.

For #2, I would say yes, you need to have multiple NICs to service across multiple VLANs.

Once thing that helps you overcome this is the use of BMR media boot SRT.  When booting from a CD/CD SRT image BMR does not make use of a Boot Server, as the media itself acts as the Boot Server.  The process will query, from the console, for hostname, network interface information, and IP/host name of the Master Server. The interface can operate across subnets for the restore.  The client does not need to be moved to a new VLAN.

Boot Server information is covered in this TECH article:

Requirements for Bare Metal Restore (BMR) Boot Servers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH87607
 

[Mohmec]

Thank you Jaime.

Will there be any security breach if multiple NIC are used across different vLANS?

[Jaime_Vazquez]

I do not understand the gist of your question.  It is normal for any given server to have multiple NIC adapter across multiple VLANS. I do not see this as a security breach.