HP-UX Reference (11i v3 07/02) - 1M System Administration Commands A-M (vol 3)

auto_parms(1M) auto_parms(1M)

NAME

auto_parms - initial system conﬁguration plus DHCP support command

SYNOPSIS

auto_parms

DESCRIPTION

The auto_parms command is a system initialization command that handles ﬁrst-boot conﬁguration, that

is, the setting of unique system "initial identity parameters", and ongoing management of DHCP lease(s).

The auto_parms command is invoked at boot time by the

/sbin/rc command. Initially it loads a list

of available ethernet interfaces and requests a DHCP lease on each interface. See the rc(1M) manpage for

information about

/sbin/rc for invocation context.

While checking for availability of a lease on each interface,

auto_parms also consults

/etc/rc.config.d/netconf

and examines the variable

DHCP_ENABLE [index]. If it is set to "1",

auto_parms attempts to request a lease on the the interface designated by

index.If

DHCP_ENABLE [index] is set to "0" (the default case) or is absent from

/etc/rc.config.d/netconf

auto_parms does not attempt a DHCP request on that interface.

Once a lease is secured, the information supplied with the lease is used to initialize key networking param-

eters; see dhcpdb2conf(1M).

If auto_parms detects that the system is undergoing "ﬁrst-boot" (meaning the system’s hostname is not

yet set), it invokes set_parms to verify the DHCP-supplied parameters and to collect any parameters not

supplied by DHCP.

For all subsequent boots, the data supplied by a DHCP lease is assumed by

auto_parms to be correct.

Note that in a (non-mobile) environment where DHCP is used for IP address management, under normal

conditions the lease information should not change between reboots. This is accomplished by

auto_parms placing dhcpclient in "lease maintenance mode" prior to exiting.

FILES

/sbin/auto_parms

The command itself.

/sbin/set_parms.util

Common subroutines used by auto_parms, set_parms, and set_parms

sub-area commands.

Log ﬁles written and saved by auto_parms :

/etc/auto_parms.log

/etc/auto_parms.log.old

AUTHOR

The auto_parms command was developed by HP.