Anyone else seen this? Is there a workaround or hack that makes this go, other than what I'm doing already?
Sun has a bug ID on this issue: 4218092, dated 14 Mar 1999. What's going on here is that that the Sun client runs /sbin/get_netmask from /etc/rcS (in the boot image). get_netmask sends an ICMP Address Mask Request to the boot server. The filer doesn't respond and get_netmask never times out, nor does it issue an explanatory message. I'm not clear on why the ping unfreezes things.
When I ran into this I came up with several possible workarounds, including
* Use a Sun box as the boot server. The install server can still be a filer.
* Hardcode the netmask into /etc/rcS and dispense with get_netmask.
* Hardcode the address of a Sun box into the get_netmask call, rather than using the boot server.
The first approach has the advantage of not having to modify the boot image. Of course, if Data ONTAP responded to address mask requests this would all be moot.
Jeff