The auto-provisioning process starts by going through interfaces with a port configuration and no IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) one by one.
The first interface that matches triggers the DHCP client process. See Auto-provisioning DHCP Rules.
A static route is automatically configured with the default gateway received by DHCP offer (Option 3 "Router" in DHCP offer).
Option 67 points to the location of a provisioning file. This is a URL in FTP or HTTP format.
The node downloads this provisioning file and places it on compact flash or RAM (configurable). The URL is in IP format and there is no need for DNS.
The node uses the primary-image/cfg-download parameters of the provisioning file to download the image and config file and places them at the destination dictated by the provisioning file. Only compact flash is supported.
If the primary-image/cfg-download server times out, two more redundant servers can be configured using secondary and tertiary options.
The node goes through the config file primary, secondary, and tertiary server first.
Then the node goes through the image primary, secondary, and tertiary server.
If the node fails to download the image or config, then the auto-provisioning process considers this interface unusable and moves to the next interface. The auto-provisioning also informs the DHCP task of the failure so DHCP releases the IP and sends a DHCP release.
The node loads the bof part of the provisioning file into the bof and save the bof. The bof must point to compact flash.
The user can force a reboot after successful execution or choose to clear the force reboot option and reboot the node manually.
After the reboot, the node boots from compact flash and comes back up with an operational bof.cfg
Any further image or config updates are done using a console.