Reset netinstall service

Question

Hi!
I have a mac mini server running DHCP / DNS / Netinstall and for some reason after a power outage I can't netboot machines anymore. I can see the images offered by the server and I can see the server and client negotiating the connection but after being offered images, and selecting one noting happens. No spinning globe, and the client just boots from local drive instead. I'm using this to reimage computers with Netrestore. I set up a virtual machine just to test if there is something else wron on the network, DHCP and such, but the virtual server was able to reimage a computer just fine!
So is there a good way to reset the Netinstall service and presumably tftp/bootpd to get it working again WITHOUT having to reinstall the entire server? OS X server has the habit to recreate config files if needed/missing with other services if I remember correctly...
Any help on this is much appreciated!
/Hasse

Answer 1

Here's a script you can run on the server that will dump some basic configuration state:
#!/bin/sh
# netboot_service_states.sh
# Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.
httpNetBootPath="/Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/NetBoot"
nfsExportsPath="/etc/exports"
tftpNetBootPath="/private/tftpboot/NetBoot"
serviceDataPath="/Library/Server/NetInstall"
savedClientsPath="${serviceDataPath}/ClientData"
savedImagesPath="${serviceDataPath}/ImageData"
# Dump state pertaining to the bootp service
isRunning=`sudo launchctl list | grep bootpd`
serviceState="enabled"
if [ "${isRunning}" == "" ]; then
          serviceState="disabled"
fi
echo "bootp service is ${serviceState}\n"
# Dump state pertaining to the TFTP service
isRunning=`sudo launchctl list | grep tftp`
serviceState="enabled"
if [ "${isRunning}" == "" ]; then
          serviceState="disabled"
fi
echo "TFTP service is ${serviceState}"
echo "TFTP Service data folder"
if [ -d "${tftpNetBootPath}" ]; then
          ls -lsa "${tftpNetBootPath}"
fi
# Dump state pertaining to the HTTP service
echo "\nHTTP service data folder"
if [ -d "${httpNetBootPath}" ]; then
          ls -lsa "${httpNetBootPath}"
          # http is configured, lets test it
          for aFile in "${httpNetBootPath}"/*; do
                    imageDir=`basename ${aFile}`
                    curlOutput=`curl -Is http://localhost/NetBoot/${imageDir} | grep localhost`
                    echo "HTTP Status - "${curlOutput}
          done
fi
# Dump state pertaining to the NFS service
echo ""
nfsd status
if [ -e "${nfsExportsPath}" ]; then
          echo "Contents of ${nfsExportsPath} is:"
          cat "${nfsExportsPath}"
fi
# Dump state pertaining to the re-promotion data cache
if [ -e "${savedClientsPath}" ]; then
          echo "\nSaved client share points"
          cat "${savedClientsPath}"
fi
if [ -e "${savedImagesPath}" ]; then
          echo "\nSaved image share points"
          cat "${savedImagesPath}"
fi
Validating tftp is also pretty straightforward. Do the following from a client (italicised text is response). If you receive data, tftp is working.
$ tftp <your_server>
tftp> verbose
Verbose mode on.
tftp> get NetBoot/NetBootSP0/<a_served_image>.nbi/i386/booter
getting from <your_server>:NetBoot/NetBootSP0/<a_served_image>.nbi/i386/booter to booter
Received 313526 bytes in 2.6 seconds 964695 bits/sec