MAC addresses



Currently, you need the MAC address of the installation ethernet adapter to install a client. There is also currently no easy way to collect the MAC address other than to power it on, and see what MAC address it's broadcasting. In future releases of LUI, we'll look at collecting the MAC address either over a serial port, or using software which collects the MAC address from the specific switch. Some manufacturers print the MAC address either on the back of the node, or on the ethernet card, so you might collect it from there.

LUI now supports the use of a file to input the MAC addresses. In order to foster some standardization in this arena we are defining this file to which various methods of MAC address collection that are forthcoming can write to. By writing to this file in the proper format, all of these tools would be compatible with LUI. Keep in mind that this is not finalized and there may be some changes in the future. The file is /etc/MAC.info and has one line per client in the following format:

{MAC_id}    {MAC Address}
The MAC id is some identification of who the MAC address belongs to. The content of this id will vary depending on the collection method used. It may be an ethernet switch port number, a tty, an ip address or some symbolic name. It really doesn't matter to LUI as it is just used as a reference into this file.

The MAC Address is the actual MAC address of the adapter. It can be specified with or without colons.

The 2 attributes are separated by some whitespace, tabs are OK. The values themselves may not contain whitespace or commas. Any blank lines or lines starting with # are ignored.

You may create this file manually as long as you stick to the standard. This file will allow you to use the new command, mklimcs, to create a bunch of clients in 1 command invocation.