On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Dave Miner<Dave.Miner at sun.com> wrote: > >> Why is wanboot used at all? In addition to not having support in a >> decent fraction >> of the installed base, it's simply far too slow in my experience to be >> useful. >> > > All things being equal, wanboot should be significantly faster than standard > tftp-based boots since you aren't stuck with a lock-step protocol. That > said, there are obviously bugs in some platforms that need resolution. File > bugs, as always.
But ideally the tftp (or wanboot) phase would only drag across a meg or two. Ideally you want to get out of what is essentially firmware and into something more capable as soon as possible. Which leads to another related question: why is the initial boot image so huge? > The installed base issue is a rapidly declining problem, because essentially > all of the non-wanboot-capable platforms will be out of service life by the > end of 2010, a very few outliers go into the first half of 2011. It wouldn't surprise me to still be running non-wanboot-capable platforms in production at that point. Let alone in testing - I might have been able to grab something like a 280R for testing. Sparc hardware in particular is extremely long lived, helped by a healthy 2nd-hand market and the fact that speed improvements have been - at best - modest. -- -Peter Tribble http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/
