Addressing Hardware Differences Between a Master System and Managed Hosts

The master system might not match the hardware configuration of the other systems on which the Solaris Flash archive might be deployed. In such cases, ensure that the master system includes software to support all hardware. To support all hardware, install the Entire Distribution plus OEM Support package cluster (SUNWCXall) on the master system. You must also install any third-party drivers or specialized device drivers on the master system.

For example, you select a PCI-based master system to create software stacks. Driver software for other buses, such as SBUS, are not installed by default if a package cluster other than SUNWCXall is installed. Consequently, software stacks you build on this master system will not have the SBUS drivers available. As a result, managed hosts that have SBUS hardware will not have the appropriate software available to support the hardware.

To avoid this situation, do one or more of the following:

• Choose a master system that is identical or almost identical to the managed hosts.

• Include all possible Solaris driver software on the master system by installing all of the Solaris software.

• Select the required hardware support while installing Solaris software. Use either the custom JumpStart package add keywords or use the interactive installer's package customization feature.

• Add any missing software to the master system by using a custom JumpStart finish script after Solaris software is installed.