The Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 will automatically search for several boot configuration files as it boots up. It will look for several files in a specific order;

1. /pcmcia/pcmboot.cfg
2. /flash/boot.cfg
3. /pcmcia/boot.cfg

The file /pcmcia/pcmboot.cfg is designed to allow network engineers to deploy the ERS 8600 remotely instructing local site personnel to simply copy a file (pcmboot.cfg) that could be emailed to them to the PCMCIA flash card, inserted it into the switch and the switch booted up. I’ve never personally used this feature but I have remotely installed several ERS 8600s by having a modem attached to the console port.

What would a normal boot.cfg file look like?

Here’s the current standard that I’m using on the 37 ERS 8600 switches that I maintain.

#
# TUE JUL 22 07:25:38 2008 EDT
# box type : 8k boot configuration file
#
flags daylight-saving-time true
flags ftpd true
flags savetostandby true
flags telnetd true
flags tftpd true
flags verify-config false
tz dst-end M11.1.0/0200
tz dst-name "EDT"
tz dst-start M3.2.0/0200
tz name "EST"
tz offset-from-utc 300
choice primary image-file "/flash/p80a4163.img"

The commands should be self explanatory for the most part. The last line of the file instructs the switch which agent code it should boot, in this example I’m running 4.1.6.3 software so we’ll boot /flash/p80a4163.img.

Cheers!