diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub
index 07ce948a9..a2e70caff 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/modifygrub
@@ -13,11 +13,12 @@ use Socket;
 my $HELP;
 my $VERBOSE;
 my $WAITTIME;
+my $PROVMETHOD;
 my $XCATNETBOOTTITLE = 'xCAT network boot kernel and initrd';
 
 my $usage = sub {
    	my $exitcode = shift @_;
-   	print "Usage: modifygrub [-?|-h|--help] [-v|--verbose] [-w <waittime>] <kernel-path> <initrd-path> <kernel-parms> <mn-ip>\n\n";
+   	print "Usage: modifygrub [-?|-h|--help] [-v|--verbose] [-w <waittime>] [-p <provmethod] <kernel-path> <initrd-path> <kernel-parms> <mn-ip>\n\n";
    	if (!$exitcode) {
    		print "Modify the grub config file on the node to boot the specified kernel and initrd.\n";
    	}
@@ -30,7 +31,7 @@ if (-f '/etc/os-release') { die "This script doesn't support ubuntu yet.\n"; }
 Getopt::Long::Configure("bundling");
 #Getopt::Long::Configure("pass_through");
 Getopt::Long::Configure("no_pass_through");
-if (!GetOptions('h|?|help'  => \$HELP, 'v|verbose' => \$VERBOSE, 'w|waittime=s' => \$WAITTIME)) { $usage->(1); }
+if (!GetOptions('h|?|help'  => \$HELP, 'v|verbose' => \$VERBOSE, 'w|waittime=s' => \$WAITTIME, 'p|provmethod=s' => \$PROVMETHOD)) { $usage->(1); }
 
 if ($HELP) { $usage->(0); }
 if (scalar(@ARGV) != 4) { $usage->(1); }
@@ -60,7 +61,7 @@ sub addKernelParms {
 	$args->{kernelparms} =~ s/<nodename>/$nodename/g;
 
 	# get node ip and add it to the kernel parms
-	my ($nic, $ip, $netmask, $gateway, $mac) = getNodeIpInfo($args);
+	my ($nic, $ip, $netmask, $network, $broadcast, $gateway, $mac) = getNodeIpInfo($args);
 	if (!$ip) { die "Error: could not find the NIC that would connect to the xCAT mgmt node's IP (".$args->{mnip}.").\n"; }
 	# if we are booting genesis, need to add the BOOTIF parm
 	my $bootif;
@@ -69,7 +70,16 @@ sub addKernelParms {
 		$bootif =~ s/:/-/g;
 		$bootif = "BOOTIF=01-$bootif";
 	}
-	$args->{kernelparms} .= " $bootif hostip=$ip netmask=$netmask gateway=$gateway dns=$mnip hostname=$nodename netdevice=$nic netwait=$WAITTIME textmode=1";
+
+	if (defined($PROVMETHOD) && $PROVMETHOD eq 'sysclone') {
+		# add additional parms for sysclone
+		# DEVICE=eth0 IPADDR=10.0.0.99 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=10.0.0.0 BROADCAST=10.0.0.255 GATEWAY=10.0.0.1 GATEWAYDEV=eth0
+		#todo:  should we also add ETHER_SLEEP=$WAITTIME textmode=1 dns=$mnip ?
+		$args->{kernelparms} .= " $bootif IPADDR=$ip NETMASK=$netmask NETWORK=$network BROADCAST=$broadcast GATEWAY=$gateway HOSTNAME=$nodename DEVICE=$nic GATEWAYDEV=$nic";
+	}
+	else {			# scripted install or genesis shell
+		$args->{kernelparms} .= " $bootif hostip=$ip netmask=$netmask gateway=$gateway dns=$mnip hostname=$nodename netdevice=$nic netwait=$WAITTIME textmode=1";
+	}
 }
 
 
@@ -88,7 +98,7 @@ sub getNodeIpInfo {
 		if (($mactmp) = $line=~m|^\s+link/ether\s+(\S+) |) { $mac = $mactmp; }		# got mac, remember it
 		if (($iptmp) = $line=~m/^\s+inet\s+($ipprefix\S+) /) { $ipandmask = $iptmp; last; }		# got ip, we are done
 	}
-	my ($ip, $netmask) = convertIpAndMask($ipandmask);
+	my ($ip, $netmask, $network, $broadcast) = convertIpAndMask($ipandmask);
 
 	# if the nic is a bonded nic (common on sl), then find the 1st real nic that is part of it
 	my $realnic = $nic;
@@ -117,18 +127,36 @@ sub getNodeIpInfo {
 	}
 
 	verbose("IP info: realnic=$realnic, ip=$ip, netmask=$netmask, gateway=$gateway, mac=$mac");
-	return ($realnic, $ip, $netmask, $gateway, $mac);
+	return ($realnic, $ip, $netmask, $network, $broadcast, $gateway, $mac);
 }
 
 
-# Convert an ip/mask in slash notation (like 10.0.0.1/26) to separate ip and netmask like 10.0.0.1 and 255.255.255.192
+# Convert an ip/mask in slash notation (like 10.1.1.1/26) to separate ip, netmask, network, and broadcast values,
+# like: 10.1.1.1, 255.255.255.192, 10.1.1.0, 10.1.1.63
 sub convertIpAndMask {
 	my $ipandmask = shift @_;
 	my ($ip, $masknum) = split('/', $ipandmask);
-	my $netbin = oct("0b" . '1' x $masknum . '0' x (32-$masknum));	# create a str like '1111100', then convert to binary
-	my @netarr=unpack('C4',pack('N',$netbin));		# separate into the 4 octets
-	my $netmask=join('.',@netarr);			# put them together into the normal looking netmask
-	return ($ip, $netmask);
+
+	# build the netmask
+	my $nmbin = oct("0b" . '1' x $masknum . '0' x (32-$masknum));	# create a str like '1111100', then convert to binary
+	my @nmarr=unpack('C4',pack('N',$nmbin));		# separate into the 4 octets
+	my $netmask=join('.',@nmarr);			# put them together into the normal looking netmask
+
+	# create binary form of ip
+	my @iparr=split(/\./,$ip);
+	my ( $ipbin ) = unpack('N', pack('C4',@iparr ) );
+
+	# Calculate network address by logical AND operation of ip & netmask and convert network address to IP address format
+	my $netbin = ( $ipbin & $nmbin );
+	my @netarr=unpack('C4', pack('N',$netbin ) );
+	my $network=join(".",@netarr);
+
+	# Calculate broadcast address by inverting the netmask and adding it to the network address
+	my $bcbin = ( $ipbin & $nmbin ) + ( ~ $nmbin );
+	my @bcarr=unpack('C4', pack('N',$bcbin ) ) ;
+	my $broadcast=join(".",@bcarr);
+
+	return ($ip, $netmask, $network, $broadcast);
 }
 
 
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd
index b454a1f77..bcad30198 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/pushinitrd
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ updateGrubOnNodes($noderange, \%bootparms);
 
 if ($bootparms{osimageprovmethod} eq 'install' && !$NOAUTOINST) { modifyAutoinstFiles($noderange, \%bootparms); }
 
+if ($bootparms{osimageprovmethod} eq 'sysclone') { copySyscloneFiles(); }
+
 exit(0);
 
 
@@ -118,7 +120,7 @@ sub updateGrubOnNodes {
 	my @output = runcmd('which modifygrub');
 	my $modifygrub = $output[0];
 	chomp($modifygrub);
-	my $cmd = "xdsh $nr -e $modifygrub $vtxt -w $WAITTIME " . remoteFilename($bootparms->{kernel}) . ' ' . remoteFilename($bootparms->{initrd}) . ' ';
+	my $cmd = "xdsh $nr -e $modifygrub $vtxt -w $WAITTIME -p " . $bootparms->{osimageprovmethod} . ' ' . remoteFilename($bootparms->{kernel}) . ' ' . remoteFilename($bootparms->{initrd}) . ' ';
 	# we need to quote the kernel parms, both here when passing it to xdsh, and on the node
 	# when xdsh is passing it to modifygrub. The way to get single quotes inside single quotes
 	# is to quote each of the outer single quotes with double quotes.
@@ -143,15 +145,55 @@ sub modifyAutoinstFiles {
 	# Edit each file to have chroot.sles insert a wait at the end of /etc/init.d/network
 	# this finds the end of boot.sh script (which is chroot.sles)
 	my $search = '\n\]\]>\s*</source>\s*</script>\s*</chroot-scripts>';
+
+	# hack the /etc/init.d/network script to put a wait in it
 	my $file = '/mnt/etc/init.d/network';			# at this point in the installation, the permanent file system is just mounted
 	#my $waitstring = 'echo Sleeping for 55s;sleep 55';
-	# this is the string to insert in the nodes /etc/init.d/network script.  It is a while loop pinging the mn, but some of the chars need to be escape for sed
-	my $waitstring = 'echo Waiting to reach xCAT mgmt node...;while \[ \$\(\(xcati+=1\)\) -le 60 \] \&\& ! ping -c2 -w3 ' . $bootparms->{mnip} .'; do echo i=\$xcati ; done; sleep 10';
+	# this is the string to insert in the nodes /etc/init.d/network script.  It is a while loop pinging the mn, but some of the chars need to be escaped for sed
+	my $waitstring = 'echo -n Waiting to reach xCAT mgmt node ' . $bootparms->{mnip} . '.;xcatretries=60;while \[ \$\(\(xcati+=1\)\) -le \$xcatretries \] \&\& ! ping -c2 -w3 ' . $bootparms->{mnip} .' \>\/dev\/null 2\>\&1; do echo -n .; done; if \[ \$xcati -le \$xcatretries \]; then echo success; else echo failed; fi; sleep 3';
 	# this crazy sed string is from google.  It gathers up the whole file into the hold buffer, and then the substitution is done on the whole file
 	my $sedstring = q|sed -n '1h;1!H;${;g;s/\(\t\treload_firewall\n\)\n/\1\t\t| . $waitstring . q(\n\n/g;p;}') . " $file  > $file.new";
 	# finally create the perl replace string that will be used to modify the autoinst file
 	my $replace = "$sedstring\nchmod 755 $file.new; mv -f $file.new $file";
 
+	# Now instead we add a script that gets invoked by the OS after the nic is brought up
+    # these are specific to SLES
+    #my $netdir = '/etc/sysconfig/network';
+    #my $filename = '/etc/sysconfig/network/if-up.d/xcat-sl-wait';
+    #my $mnip = $bootparms->{mnip};
+    #todo: to support rhel, use these values instead
+    #my $netdir='/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts';
+    #my $filename='/sbin/ifup-local';
+
+    # this does not work, because midway thru the autoyast process, the if-up.d scripts do not seem to get invoked
+    # so autoyast fails to get he media
+	#my $replace = qq(
+#FILENAME=$filename
+#NETDIR=$netdir
+#MNIP=$mnip
+#);
+#	$replace .= q(
+#cat >$FILENAME << EOF1
+#MNIP=$MNIP
+#NETDIR=$NETDIR
+#EOF1
+#
+# this part of the file we do NOT want to expand the variables in the content
+#cat >>$FILENAME << 'EOF2'
+#NIC="$1"
+# look in this ifcfg script to get the nics ip to see if this is the one we should be waiting on
+#NICIP=`awk -F= '/^IPADDR/ {print $2}' $NETDIR/ifcfg-$NIC | tr -d \' `
+#if [ "${NICIP%.*.*}" != "${MNIP%.*.*}" ]; then exit; fi     # hack: compare the 1st 2 octets
+#echo -n Waiting to reach xCAT mgmt node $MNIP.
+#xcatretries=60
+#while [ $((xcati+=1)) -le $xcatretries ] && ! ping -c2 -w3 $MNIP >/dev/null 2>&1; do echo -n .; done
+#if [ $xcati -le $xcatretries ]; then echo " success"; else echo " failed"; fi
+#sleep 3
+#EOF2
+#
+#chmod +x $FILENAME
+#);
+
 	# now actually update the file
 	print "Updating /install/autoinst files.\n";
 	foreach my $n (@nodes) {
@@ -162,6 +204,15 @@ sub modifyAutoinstFiles {
 }
 
 
+# Copy softlayer specific systemimager post-install scripts to the systemimager location.
+# These cause si to use static ip and insert a wait into the bring up of the network.
+sub copySyscloneFiles {
+	my $cmd = "cp -f /opt/xcat/share/xcat/sysclone/post-install/* /install/sysclone/scripts/post-install";
+	print "Copying SoftLayer-specific post scripts to the SystemImager post-install directory.\n";
+	runcmd($cmd);
+}
+
+
 # this is like multi-line sed replace function
 # Args: filename, search-string, replace-string
 sub sed {
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/14all.addnetworkdelay b/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/14all.addnetworkdelay
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..a1f205dfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/14all.addnetworkdelay
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Add a script that will run when the network is brought up to wait until the
+# xcat mn can be pinged.
+
+. /tmp/post-install/variables.txt
+
+if [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/" ];then
+    #redhat
+    NETDIR=/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
+    filename=/sbin/ifup-local
+elif [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network/" ];then
+    #suse
+    NETDIR=/etc/sysconfig/network
+    filename=/etc/sysconfig/network/if-up.d/xcat-sl-wait
+else
+    #ubuntu
+    echo "Does not support ubuntu."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Create the wait script, overwriting a copy that may have come from the golden client
+# (in case the mn/image server is different).
+# this part of the file we want to expand the variables in the content
+cat >$filename << EOF1
+MNIP=$IMAGESERVER
+NETDIR=$NETDIR
+EOF1
+
+# this part of the file we do NOT want to expand the variables in the content
+cat >>$filename << 'EOF2'
+NIC="$1"
+# look in this ifcfg script to get the nics ip to see if this is the one we should be waiting on
+NICIP=`awk -F= '/^IPADDR/ {print $2}' $NETDIR/ifcfg-$NIC | tr -d \' `
+if [ "${NICIP%.*.*}" != "${MNIP%.*.*}" ]; then exit; fi     # hack: compare the 1st 2 octets
+echo -n Waiting to reach xCAT mgmt node $MNIP.
+xcatretries=60
+while [ $((xcati+=1)) -le $xcatretries ] && ! ping -c2 -w3 $MNIP >/dev/null 2>&1; do echo -n .; done
+if [ $xcati -le $xcatretries ]; then echo " success"; else echo " failed"; fi
+sleep 3
+EOF2
+
+chmod +x $filename
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork b/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..2d80690aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Configure network settings after SI has installed the OS
+
+. /tmp/post-install/variables.txt
+
+# determine if we should be using a static ip or dhcp
+staticIP () {
+    # Eventually we should use the SI variable IP_ASSIGNMENT_METHOD below to determine this.
+    # But this requires a patch in both xcat/sysclone (to set si_getimage -ip-assignment method)
+    # and SI (to set IP_ASSIGNMENT_METHOD as a result of that).  Until both of those patches
+    # are in the main releases, assume that if we have set the IPADDR kernel parm for the boot
+    # kernel to use static ip, that the final OS should use static ip too.
+    # Note: the IPADDR environment variable will be set by SI, even if it got it thru dhcp, so
+    #       that is not a reliable way to decide.
+    str=`cat /proc/cmdline`
+    #str='netmask=255.255.255.192 IPADDR=10.54.51.11 GATEWAY=10.54.51.1 dns=10.54.51.2 hostname=sap64-4 DEVICE=eth0'
+    for parm in $str; do
+        key=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $1}'`
+        value=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $2}'`
+        if [[ $key == "IPADDR" || $key == "ipaddr" ]]; then
+            return 0    # yes, we should use static ip
+        fi
+    done
+    if [[ -n $IP_ASSIGNMENT_METHOD && ${IP_ASSIGNMENT_METHOD,,} == "static" ]]; then
+        return 0    # this means yes/true
+    fi
+    return 1
+}
+
+#delete the udev rule in the image
+rule_file=`ls /etc/udev/rules.d/*net_persistent_names.rules 2>/dev/null`
+if [ -n "$rule_file" ];then
+    rm -f $rule_file
+fi
+
+hostname $HOSTNAME
+
+device_names=`ifconfig -a | grep -i hwaddr | grep -i 'Ethernet' | grep -v usb| awk '{print $1}'`
+str_cfg_file=''
+if [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/" ];then
+    #redhat
+    grep -i HOSTNAME /etc/sysconfig/network
+    if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
+        sed -i "s/HOSTNAME=.*/HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME/g" /etc/sysconfig/network
+    else
+        echo "HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
+    fi
+    if staticIP; then
+        # set static ip from variables in variables.txt
+        i="$DEVICE"
+        str_cfg_file="/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-$i"
+        echo "DEVICE=$i" > $str_cfg_file
+        echo "BOOTPROTO=static" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "ONBOOT=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "IPADDR=$IPADDR" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "NETMASK=$NETMASK" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "NETWORK=$NETWORK" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "BROADCAST=$BROADCAST" >> $str_cfg_file
+        #todo: add gateway config?  Not sure, because the boot kernels gateway might not be the final OS gateway
+    else
+        # use dhcp for all nics
+        for i in $device_names;do
+            str_cfg_file="/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-$i"
+            echo "DEVICE=$i" > $str_cfg_file
+            echo "BOOTPROTO=dhcp" >> $str_cfg_file
+            echo "NM_CONTROLLED=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
+            echo "ONBOOT=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
+        done
+    fi
+elif [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network/" ];then
+    #suse
+    echo "$HOSTNAME" > /etc/HOSTNAME
+    if staticIP; then
+        # set static ip from variables in variables.txt
+        i="$DEVICE"
+        str_cfg_file="/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-$i"
+        echo "DEVICE=$i" > $str_cfg_file
+        echo "BOOTPROTO=static" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "STARTMODE=onboot" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "IPADDR=$IPADDR" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "NETMASK=$NETMASK" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "NETWORK=$NETWORK" >> $str_cfg_file
+        echo "BROADCAST=$BROADCAST" >> $str_cfg_file
+        #todo: add gateway config?  Not sure, because the boot kernels gateway might not be the final OS gateway
+    else
+        # use dhcp for all nics
+        for i in $device_names;do
+            str_cfg_file="/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-$i"
+            echo "DEVICE=$i" > $str_cfg_file
+            echo "BOOTPROTO=dhcp" >> $str_cfg_file
+            echo "STARTMODE=onboot" >> $str_cfg_file
+            echo "DHCLIENT_PRIMARY_DEVICE=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
+        done
+    fi
+else
+    #ubuntu
+    echo "Does not support ubuntu."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec b/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec
index df514ddfb..8e4420c72 100644
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/install/postscripts
 mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/doc/packages/xCAT-SoftLayer
 mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/man/man1
 mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/doc/man1
+mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/xcat/sysclone/post-install
 
 cp -p -R share/xcat/install/* $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/xcat/install/
 
@@ -56,6 +57,9 @@ chmod 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/bin/*
 cp -d postscripts/* $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/install/postscripts
 chmod 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/install/postscripts/*
 
+cp -d post-install/* $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/share/xcat/sysclone/post-install
+chmod 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/share/xcat/sysclone/post-install/*
+
 cp LICENSE.html $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/doc/packages/xCAT-SoftLayer
 chmod 644 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}/share/doc/packages/xCAT-SoftLayer/*
 
diff --git a/xCAT-genesis-scripts/bin/doxcat b/xCAT-genesis-scripts/bin/doxcat
index c66f2f412..7e8a0a2f7 100755
--- a/xCAT-genesis-scripts/bin/doxcat
+++ b/xCAT-genesis-scripts/bin/doxcat
@@ -4,11 +4,13 @@
 #     Bug reported by Jeff Lang <jrlang@uwyo.edu>.  Thanks, Jeff!
 #
 
-modprobe acpi_cpufreq
+modprobe acpi_cpufreq 2>/dev/null		# on some machines this fails
 modprobe cpufreq_ondemand
-for gov in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor; do
-	echo -n ondemand > $gov
-done
+if ls /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor &>/dev/null; then
+	for gov in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor; do
+		echo -n ondemand > $gov
+	done
+fi
 if [ ! -z "$BOOTIF" ]; then
 	BOOTIF=`echo $BOOTIF|sed -e s/01-// -e s/-/:/g`
 	echo -n "Waiting for device with address $BOOTIF to appear.."
@@ -117,14 +119,15 @@ mask2prefix() {
 # see if they specified static ip info, otherwise use dhcp
 for parm in `cat /proc/cmdline`; do
     key=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $1}'`
-    if [ "$key" = "hostip" ]; then
-        hostip=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $2}'`
-    elif [ "$key" = "netmask" ]; then
-        netmask=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $2}'`
-    elif [ "$key" = "gateway" ]; then
-        gateway=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $2}'`
-    elif [ "$key" = "netdevice" ]; then
-        netdevice=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $2}'`
+    value=`echo $parm|awk -F= '{print $2}'`
+    if [[ ${key,,} == "hostip" || ${key,,} == "ipaddr" ]]; then
+        hostip=$value
+    elif [[ ${key,,} == "netmask" ]]; then
+        netmask=$value
+    elif [[ ${key,,} == "gateway" ]]; then
+        gateway=$value
+    elif [[ ${key,,} == "netdevice" || ${key,,} == "device" ]]; then
+        netdevice=$value
     fi
 done
 if [[ -n $hostip && -n $netmask && -n $gateway && -n $netdevice ]]; then
@@ -135,6 +138,12 @@ if [[ -n $hostip && -n $netmask && -n $gateway && -n $netdevice ]]; then
 	ip addr add $hostip/$numbits broadcast $broadcast dev $netdevice scope global label $netdevice
 	ip link set $netdevice up
 	ip route replace to default via $gateway dev $netdevice
+	# in softlayer it takes up to 60 seconds for the nic to actually be able to communicate
+	echo -n Waiting to reach xCAT mgmt node $gateway.
+	xcatretries=60
+	while [ $((xcati+=1)) -le $xcatretries ] && ! ping -c2 -w3 $gateway >/dev/null 2>&1; do echo -n .; done
+	if [ $xcati -le $xcatretries ]; then echo " success"; else echo " failed"; fi
+	sleep 3
 else
 	echo "Setting IP via DHCP..."
 	dhclient -cf /etc/dhclient.conf -pf /var/run/dhclient.$bootnic.pid $bootnic &