Configuring Existing Environments

You can use the OS provisioning plug-in to provision the OS in an existing server and network environment. The following paragraphs describe in detail how you could use the plug-in in an existing environment

Hardware and Software Configuration

Ensure that you have hardware to support the N1 Grid SPS Master Server, OS provisioning server, Solaris boot and install server, Linux boot and install server, and Windows boot and install server. See Supported Systems for information about appropriate systems.

Network Environment

Verify that the Master Server, OS provisioning server, and boot and install servers are able to connect with each other through an IP network.

Ensure that you have enough bandwidth to provision the servers simultaneously. The bandwidth requirements vary depending on how many simultaneous provisioning operations you intend to perform.

Simultaneous OS installations require lot of bandwidth and might experience failures or timeouts if the bandwidth is not available. To avoid problems, either physically separate the traffic or deploy more boot and install servers.

DHCP Services

The OS provisioning server uses its own DHCP service. The DHCP service is used during the provisioning operation to provide install time parameters and install time IP addresses to targets. The DHCP service does not respond to clients that are not being provisioned. Therefore, if you have other DHCP services serving in this subnet, ensure that these services are not responding to the targets during the provisioning operation. Once the OS has been provisioned, you can reactivate DHCP to respond to the targets. Ensure that the target DHCP packets can reach the OS provisioning server by either locating the OS provisioning server in the same subnet or through routing.

Target Hosts

The OS provisioning plug-in can automate the power off and power on cycles during provisioning. Enable the remote management interfaces (if any) of the targets. If the target does not support remote management, use the generic target. For more information about target hosts, see Chapter 8, Target Hosts for OS Provisioning

N1 Grid Service Provisioning System Software

Ensure that the N1 Grid SPS software is version 5.0 or later.

Existing Solaris JET Environments

If you are running the JumpStart Enterprise Toolkit (JET) technology, that product must be uninstalled before you can use the OS provisioning plug-in. For more information , see Setting up the Solaris JET Server

The default base directory of the SUNWjet package that ships with the OS provisioning plug-in is /opt/SUNWjet. Earlier versions of SUNWjet used the /opt/jet default base directory.

If you are using an existing JET package, uninstall the existing package, then create the JET server, as explained in Setting up the Solaris JET Server. This process performs the following tasks:

1. Installs the version of SUNWjet included with the OS provisioning plug-in at /opt/SUNWjet.

2. Creates symbolic links between any pre-existing JET product modules in /opt/jet/Products over to the /opt/SUNWjet/Products location.

Once the process completes, when you use the OS provisioning plug-in to create new Solaris profiles, you can include by name any JET product modules that were installed previously on the server.

The previous /opt/jet/Templates and /opt/jet/Clients areas are left untouched. You can then refer to those areas as needed, in case some of their values are helpful for creating new Solaris profiles with the OS provisioning plug-in.