Hardware diagnostics can be performed on all NIM clients using a diagnostic boot image from a NIM server, rather than booting from removable media or hard disk. This is useful for standalone clients, because the diagnostics do not have to be installed on the local hardfile. Diagnostic support comes from a SPOT resource.
In addition, diskless and dataless clients have another way of loading diagnostics from the network. You can boot a diskless or dataless client from the network the same way you do for normal use, but with the machine's key mode switch in the Service position. If the client's key mode switch is in the Service position at the end of the boot process, hardware diagnostics from the server's SPOT are loaded. If a standalone client boots with the key in the Service position, the diagnostics (if installed) are loaded from the hard disk.
Running diagnostics in a NIM environment is very similar to running in Standalone mode.
See the Network Installation Management Guide and Reference for more information on the NIM environment.