The present invention relates generally to the field of file transfers, and more particularly to file transfers in large scale environments.
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a simple, lockstep, file transfer protocol that allows a client to request a file from, or transmit a file onto, a remote host. TFTP is mainly used during a device bootstrap process for downloading device OS/firmware and configuration files. TFTP is typically used for copying bootstrap and configuration files between nodes belonging to the same local area network (LAN).
TFTP is used along with boot protocols such as bootstrap protocol (BOOTP) and dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) to initialize devices. When an internet protocol (IP) enabled node boots up, the node gets an IP address and other device and network related parameters through BOOTP or DHCP. As part of these parameters, the client also receives the TFTP server address, bootstrap file and configuration file details (file name and directory location). The client then uses the TFTP protocol to download the bootstrap image and configuration files from the TFTP server.