Connect the USB drive to your local machine and format it with FAT32 or MS-DOS file system using the Windows Operating System or Apple MAC Disk Utility.

Copy the compressed boot file to the USB drive.

Verify that the copy operation is successful. To verify, compare the file size at source and destination. Additionally, verify the MD5 checksum value.

Extract the content of the compressed boot file by unzipping it inside the USB drive. This converts the USB drive to a bootable drive.

Eject the USB drive from your local machine.

Use one of the two methods to boot the router from USB:

• From Admin EXEC mode - Use this method if Admin LXC is up and Admin Exec prompt is accessible:

  1. Run show controller card-mgr inventory summary command and get the RP with mastership.

  2. Insert the USB drive to the active RP.

  3. Run hw-module location {<loc> | all} bootmedia usb reload . The RP boots the image from USB and installs the image onto the hard disk. The router boots from the hard disk after installation.

• From RP BIOS boot manager menu - Use this method if Admin LXC is not running:

  Note	Use this procedure only on active RP; the standby RP must either be powered OFF or removed from the chassis. After the active RP is installed with images from USB, insert or power ON the standby RP as appropriate.

  1. Insert the USB drive.

  2. Connect to the console.

  3. Power the router.

  4. Press Esc or Del to pause the boot process and get the RP to BIOS menu.

  5. Select the USB from the boot menu on the RP to which the USB is connected to. The RP boot the image from USB and installs the image onto the hard disk. The router boots from the hard disk after installation.

Create the dhcpd.conf file (for IPv4, IPv6 or both communication protocols), dhcpv6.conf file (for IPv6) or both in the /etc/ or /etc/dhcp directory. This configuration file stores the network information such as the path to the script, location of the ISO install file, location of the provisioning configuration file, serial number, MAC address of the router.

Test the server once the DHCP server is running. For example, for IPv4:

• Use MAC address of the router:

  Note	Using the host statement provides a fixed address that is used for DNS, however, verify that option 77 is set to iPXE in the request. This option is used to provide the bootfile to the system when required.

  host ncs5500 
  {
  hardware ethernet <router-mac-address>;
  if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {
  	filename = "http://<httpserver-address>/<path-to-image>/ncs5500-mini-x.iso";
  }
  

  Ensure that the above configuration is successful.
• Use serial number of the router:

  host ncs5500 
  {
  option dhcp-client-identifier "<router-serial-number>";
    filename "http://<IP-address>/<path-to-image>/ncs5500-mini-x.iso";
    fixed-address <IP-address>;
  }

  The serial number of the router is derived from the BIOS and is used as an identifier.

Restart DHCP.

killall dhcpd
/usr/sbin/dhcpd -f -q -4 -pf /run/dhcp-server/dhcpd.pid 
-cf /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf ztp-mgmt &

Edit the dhcpd.conf file to utilize the capabilities of ZTP.

host <host-name>
{
hardware ethernet <router-serial-number or mac-id>;
fixed-address <ip-address>;
  if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {
  # Image request, so provide ISO image
  filename "http://<ip-address>/<directory>/ncs5500-mini-x.iso";
  } else 
{
  # Auto-provision request, so provide ZTP script or configuration
  filename "http://<ip-address>/<script-directory-path>/ncs5500-ztp.script";
  #filename "http://<ip-address>/<script-directory-path>/ncs5500-ztp.cfg
  }
}