First off: The NIM boot process relies on bootp/DHCP as well as tftp. The route from your NIM server to the client(s) have to let these protocols pass and they have to be capable to act as "bootp relay agents". If these preconditions are not met you can stop right here because it will never work.

On your NIM master you have to set up a "NIM-Network" first, before you create the clients. Basically it is a definition that clients in the IP-network X will be serviced over your local IP interface Y by Gateway Z. You can do that easily on the command line but - i suppose you are not quite the NIM-expert - i suggest you use SMIT: NIM -> Administrative Tasks -> NIM-Networks (or similar - i have no AIX system at hand now and am quoting from memory). You do not need to state routing or so, that is all done quite normally via the IP stacks means (routing table, ...).

You can list the networks you have so far with

Code:

lsnim -t network

By the way: it pays off to do that for every subnet you want to serve with your NIM-server. There is also the option of entering a short description of the network you are creating. Do that, as it helps you keeping track of the NIM configuration.

In your case, where you haven't really started to do something, you are right. Still, you should be aware of the various logs in the path /var/adm/ras as well as the nim -o showlog command, which can be used to display certain logs. Both sources can be quite useful in determining why (and if) a certain NIM command went wrong. Notice that the general NIM log (/var/adm/ras/nimlog) is not a text file - use i.e.

Code:

alog -f /var/adm/ras/nimlog -o

to display failed NIM operations.

I hope this helps.

bakunin