NetBoot was a technology from
Apple which enabled
Macs with capable
firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...
(i.e.
New World ROM
New World ROM computers are Macintosh models that do not use a Macintosh Toolbox ROM on the logic board. Due to Mac OS X not requiring the availability of the Toolbox, this allowed ROM sizes to shrink dramatically (typically from to ), and facilit ...
) to
boot
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is cle ...
from a network, rather than a local
hard disk
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
or
optical disc drive
In computing, an optical disc drive is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only r ...
. NetBoot is a derived work from the
Bootstrap Protocol
The Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) is a computer networking protocol used in
Internet Protocol networks to automatically assign an IP address to network devices from a configuration server. The BOOTP was originally defined in RFC 951.
While some part ...
(BOOTP), and is similar in concept to the
Preboot Execution Environment. The technology was announced as a part of the
original version of
Mac OS X Server at
Macworld Expo on 5 January 1999. NetBoot has continued to be a core
systems management
Systems management refers to enterprise-wide administration of distributed systems including (and commonly in practice) computer systems. Systems management is strongly influenced by network management initiatives in telecommunications. The ap ...
technology for Apple, and has been adapted to support modern
Mac Intel machines. NetBoot, USB, and FireWire are some of the external volume options for operating system re-install. NetBoot is not supported on newer Macs with
T2 security chip or
Apple silicon.
Process
A
disk image with a copy of
macOS,
macOS Server,
Mac OS 9
Mac OS 9 is the ninth major release of Apple Inc., Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by macOS, Mac OS X (renamed to OS X in 2011 and macOS in 2016) in 2001. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "T ...
, or
Mac OS 8 is created using
System Image Utility and is stored on a server, typically macOS Server. Clients receive this image across a network using many popular protocols including:
HTTPS,
AFP,
TFTP,
NFS, and
multicast Apple Software Restore (ASR). Server-side NetBoot image can boot entire machines, although NetBoot is more commonly used for operating system and
software deployment, somewhat similar to
Norton Ghost.
Client machines first request network configuration information through
DHCP, then a list of boot images and servers with
BSDP and then proceed to download images with protocols mentioned above.
Both Intel and
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
-based servers can serve images for Intel and PowerPC-based clients.
NetInstall
NetInstall is a similar feature of macOS Server which utilizes NetBoot and ASR to deliver installation images to network clients (typically on first boot). Like NetBoot, NetInstall images can be created using the
System Image Utility. NetInstall performs a function for macOS similar to
Windows Deployment Services for
Microsoft clients, which depend on the Preboot Execution Environment.
Legacy
Mac OS 8.5 and Mac OS 9 use only BOOTP/DHCP to get IP information, followed by a TFTP transfer of the
Mac OS ROM file. Next, two volumes are mounted via
AppleTalk
AppleTalk is a discontinued proprietary suite of networking protocols developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh computers. AppleTalk includes a number of features that allow local area networks to be connected with no prior setup or the n ...
over
TCP
TCP may refer to:
Science and technology
* Transformer coupled plasma
* Tool Center Point, see Robot end effector
Computing
* Transmission Control Protocol, a fundamental Internet standard
* Telephony control protocol, a Bluetooth communication s ...
on which the client disk images reside. All in all, the Classic Mac OS uses three images; a System image which contains the operating system and may contain applications. Next a private image (or scratch disk) is mounted in an overlay over the read-only System image. Finally, an applications image is mounted. This image, however, may be empty.
See also
*
Remote Install Mac OS X
References
External links
Analysis of the Use of the Boot Server Discovery Protocol in NetBootApple detailed Boot Server Discovery Protocol Documentation*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Netboot
Network booting