IBM RS/6000 - Manual (Page 181)

Chapter 9. Network Installation Management (NIM) Support
The PCI-based RS/6000 servers are powerful servers which can be used to install
other machines in the network. In this chapter, we explain the steps you require to
configure your PCI-based RS/6000 server as a Network Installation Management
(NIM) Master.
We will also explain the steps involved in configuring the PCI-based RS/6000
server as a NIM Client and how it can be installed over the network. This
procedure is similar to the one for installing PCI-based RS/6000 workstations,
which is described in the
Managing AIX V4 on PCI-Based RS/6000 Workstations
redbook. We have included it here for completeness.
Note
Only the NIM pull function is supported when a PCI-based RS/6000 server is
used as a NIM Master.
9.1 NIM Concepts
Before describing the procedure to set up a NIM environment, we want to discuss
some concepts required for understanding Network Installation Management (NIM).
NIM uses the AIX Version 4.1 installation process to install systems by using the
network.
This section describes the following topics:
NIM environment
NIM objects
9.1.1 NIM Environment
The NIM environment is composed of two basic machine roles: Master and Client.
NIM Master There is only one NIM Master machine per NIM environment. It must
be set up and functional before you can perform any NIM operations.
The Master manages the NIM configuration database and provides the
central point of administration for the NIM environment.
If you set up more than one NIM environment, each comprised of a
Master and one or more Clients on a network, these environments are
independent of each other. No configuration information is shared
between the different Masters.
NIM Client NIM Clients can have the following configurations:
Stand-alone
Diskless
Dataless
Stand-alone Clients have all the required file systems on a local disk
after installation. Diskless Clients access all their resources from
servers in the network. Dataless Clients have a combination of local
and remote resources.
 Copyright IBM Corp. 1996 157