C H A P T E R  6

Installing SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Software

This chapter describes how to install and update SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Software on Sun Fire V20 and Sun Fire V40z servers. Any differences in procedure between the two servers are noted.



Note - The system-administration procedures in this chapter are intended for users with at least basic Linux administration experience.





Note - You can use the Sun Installation Assistant CD to help you install the operating system. The assistant also takes care of upgrading the SCSI and Network drivers for your server.



This chapter is organized into the following sections.


Installing SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Software From CDs or DVD

This section describes how to install SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software using the SUSE Linux Professional 9 media set.

Installing from CDs or DVD consists of the following procedures.

1. Installing SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software. See Installing the Software from CDs or DVD.

2. Updating SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software. See Updating the Operating System and Drivers.

Required Items

The procedure for Installing the Software from CDs or DVD requires the following items.



Note - A DVD-ROM drive must be installed on the system if you are installing from DVD. You can choose to have a DVD-ROM drive installed when ordering the server.





Note - A mouse is recommended for the installation, but not required. If you are not using a mouse, you can use the Tab key to toggle the selections.

If you are using the Sun Installation Assistant CD, you must use a mouse.



Installing the Software from CDs or DVD



Note - If you are using the Sun Installation Assistant CD, you begin at Step 4.



1. Connect the keyboard and monitor to the appropriate connectors on the Sun Fire V20z or Sun Fire V40z server.

2. Insert the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 CD 1 (or the DVD) and boot the server.

When the server boots off the CD/DVD, a menu with installation options will appear.

3. Before the screen times out, select Installation from the menu of choices using the arrow keys and press Enter to proceed.



Note - You may change the video resolution of the installer by pressing the F2 key on the keyboard during the boot menu screen, and by using the up and down arrows on the keyboard to select the appropriate resolution.



4. Select the appropriate language and select Accept.

The installer will probe the server in order to obtain the recommended settings after this selection.

5. If a dialog box displays, asking whether you want to perform a new installation, select New Installation, then OK.

A recommended configuration is displayed in the Installation Setting screen.

6. If the displayed configuration is acceptable for your environment, select Accept. Otherwise, select the component you wish to change and make the appropriate changes.

For most users, the default settings will be appropriate. Refer to the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Installation Guide for more details about changing individual components.

7. Select Yes when prompted to start the installation.

The installer will install the base system first. This will take about 5 to 10 minutes.

8. For CD Installation Only: If you are prompted to switch the CD, eject the CD from the drive, insert the requested CD and press OK.

After successful installation of the base system, the system will reboot.



Note - If you are using the Sun Installation Assistant CD, the Assistant GUI reappears and automatically installs the correct drivers. Once finished, the Assistant prompts you to reboot the server.



9. When the boot menu appears, select the default option or wait for the boot menu to timeout.

After the system has rebooted, the installer will prompt you for the remaining CDs to complete the installation, if you are installing with CDs.

10. For CD Installation Only: Insert the requested CD at the appropriate time.

All of the CDs may not be required, depending upon the software selected at the beginning of the installation process.

After the installer has finished with the needed media, the installer will prompt you to enter the root password.

11. Enter a root password of your choosing.



Note - Ensure that you remember the password. If you forget it, you may have to re-install the operating system.



The Network Configuration screen displays with network interfaces detected by the installer.

12. Select Accept to accept the network configuration, or change the settings as necessary.

13. When prompted to test the Internet connection, select Yes or No.

It is recommended that you skip this test.

14. At the User Authentication Method screen, select the appropriate authentication method for your environment.

15. Read the displayed Release Notes and select Next.

16. Verify the settings in the Hardware Configuration screen and select Next.

The system saves the configuration settings and the Installation Completed screen is displayed.

17. Select Finish to complete the installation.

18. Proceed to Updating the Operating System and Drivers.


Installing SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Software From a Network

The tasks for installing SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software from a networked PXE server consist of the following procedures.

1. Configure your network to support PXE installation. See Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation.

2. Create a PXE install image on a system that will be the PXE server, from which the software is downloaded to other systems (PXE clients). See Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server.

3. Install the SUSE Linux software to the PXE clients from the PXE server. See Installing the Software from a PXE Server.

4. Update the SUSE Linux software. See Updating the Operating System and Drivers.

Required Items

The PXE installation procedure requires the following items.

Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server

This procedure describes how to create a PXE install image on the same server that is your DHCP server, so that it will also act as your PXE server. The PXE server provides the operating system files to your PXE client.



Note - Before you start this procedure, verify that your network has been configured to support PXE installation, as described in Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation.



1. On your DHCP/PXE server, set up the directory structure that will hold the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software.

You can use a different target directory than the /home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/ directory shown below. The examples in this procedure use this directory.

# mkdir -p /home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/

2. Insert SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 CD 1 (or the DVD) into your PXE server and copy its contents to your PXE server by typing the following commands:

# mount /media/cdrom

# cp -a /media/cdrom/* /home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/

3. For CD installation only: Unmount the CD with the following command and remove it from the server:

# umount /dev/cdrom

4. For CD installation only: Repeat Step 2 and Step 3 for all five CDs of the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Media Kit.

5. Copy the autoinst.xml file from the /tmp/suse9-pxefiles/ directory to the root of the PXE image with the following commands:

# cp /tmp/suse9-pxefiles/autoinst.xml \
/home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/

6. On your PXE server, modify and save the file /home/pxeboot/pxelinux.cfg/default to add the following entry to it:

Note that you should type the text block from append through autoinst.xml as one continuous string with no returns.

default SunFire_suse9
label SunFire_suse9
kernel SunFire_suse9/boot/loader/linux

append textmode=1 initrd=SunFire_suse9/boot/loader/initrd
install=nfs:/home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9 insmod=bcm5700
autoyast=nfs://
n.n.n.n/home/pxeboot/SunFire-suse9/autoinst.xml

Where n.n.n.n is the IP address of your PXE server.



Note - For console-based installations, add console=ttyS0,19200 to the append line.



7. Copy the Ethernet and SCSI RPMs into the proper directory by typing the following command:

# cp /tmp/suse9-pxefiles/*.x86_64.rpm \
/home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/suse/x86_64/

8. Copy the RPM selection file to the proper directory by typing the following command:

If the systems you are building are single-processor systems, type the following command:

# cp /tmp/suse9-pxefiles/Sunfire.sel.up \
/home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/suse/setup/descr/Sunfire.sel

If the systems you are building have more than one processor, type the following command:

# cp /tmp/suse9-pxefiles/Sunfire.sel.smp \
/home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/suse/setup/descr/Sunfire.sel

9. Update the package description files by typing the following commands:

# cd /home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/suse/

# create_package_descr -d /home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/suse/ \
-l english

This process takes a few minutes.



Note - If the create_package_descr program is not found, be sure to install the autoyast2-utils package.



10. Modify the available packages list by typing the following command:

# echo "Sunfire.sel" >> \
/home/pxeboot/SunFire_suse9/suse/setup/descr/selections

This ensures that the new selection package that was added will be seen by the installer.

Installing the Software from a PXE Server

This procedure describes how to initiate the request from the target Sun Fire V20z or Sun Fire V40z server to download the boot image file from the PXE/DHCP server and to install the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software onto the target server.



Note - This procedure assumes that you have already preconfigured your network and PXE server install image as described in Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation and Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server.



1. Connect the PXE client to the same network as the PXE server and power on the PXE client.

The PXE client is the target Sun Fire V20z or Sun Fire V40z server to which you are installing SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software.

2. When the PXE client prompts you for a network boot, press the F12 key.

The PXE client connects to the PXE server and attempts to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server.

3. Press the F8 key to begin the downloading of the PXE boot image.

4. When you are prompted at the boot: prompt, type in the label you gave the image during Step 6 of Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server.

The SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 install image downloads onto the target Sun Fire V20z or Sun Fire V40z server.

5. To configure the Linux operating system for your server, refer to the manual that is shipped with your SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 media kit.

6. Refer to Updating SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Software to obtain the most up-to-date drivers and software.


Updating the Operating System and Drivers

The CD media may not contain the most up-to-date versions of the software. Since the media has been released, there have been many updates to the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software.

See the following procedures for instructions on updating the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 software.

Updating SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 Software

To keep your system protected against security threats and increase stability, you should run the yast2 program when the system is fully installed.

Refer to the SUSE Linux Professional 9.0 documentation for futher details on YaST Online Update.

This procedure assumes you have your system configured to connect to the Internet.

1. Log in as the superuser.

2. Run the following command:

# yast2 online_update

3. Follow the directions on the screen.



Note - If a newer kernel is installed as part of the update, it might downgrade some drivers. Please refer to Upgrading SCSI and Network Driver Upgrades.



Upgrading SCSI and Network Driver Upgrades

The kernel that is installed on the system might not contain the optimal drivers that Sun Microsystems recommends. Updating the drivers ensures proper system performance.

The instructions below describe how to copy the latest drivers from the Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z Servers Documentation and Support Files CD. You can also download the driver RPMs from the product pages for the Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers. The following URL is valid for both servers:

http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v20z/downloads.html

 

1. Determine which kernel is currently installed on the system by running the following command:

# rpm -qa | grep ^k_

The following is an example of the output you might get:

k_deflt_2.4.21-102

2. Insert the Documentation and Support Files CD into the Sun Fire V20z or Sun Fire V40z server.

3. Mount the CD and locate the RPMs on the CD.

# mount /media/cdrom

# cd /media/cdrom/support/drivers/suse/suse9

4. Determine which driver RPMs correspond to the kernel version as determined in Step 1.

The filenames of the RPMs contain the kernel version and type. For the example kernel version in Step 1, the Ethernet (bcm5700) and SCSI (lsi) drivers would be:

bcm5700-deflt-7.0.0_2.4.21_102-suse9_1.x86_64.rpm

lsi-deflt-2.05.06_2.4.21_102-suse9_1.x86_64.rpm

Where 2.4.21_102 represents the kernel number that corresponds to to k_deflt_2.4.21-102.

5. Run the following command to install the RPM files:

# rpm -Uvh /media/cdrom/support/drivers/suse/suse9/bcm5700-driver.rpm

# rpm -Uvh /media/cdrom/support/drivers/suse/suse9/lsi-driver.rpm

Where bcm5700-driver and lsi-driver refer to the appropriate Ethernet and SCSI driver rpm files, as determined in Step 4.



Note - The following steps are for installing NPS drivers, which include JNET and machine check kernel drivers, as well as POCI, a monitoring daemon. This software is required in order to enable hardware monitoring, OS-state reporting and SNMP proxy service to the server's service processor.



6. Locate the NPS RPM on the Documentation and Support Files CD that corresponds to your operating system version and architecture.

The NPS RPM files are located in OS-specific directories within this top level path on the CD: /support/sysmgmt/

7. Install the NPS RPM by typing the following command:

# rpm -Uvh /mnt/cdrom/support/sysmgmt/suse/suse9/nps-V2.rpm

Where nps-V2 represents the version and architecture of the NPS RPM file.

Alternatively, the NPS RPM can be compiled and installed from source by typing the following commands:

# cd /usr/src/packages

# tar -xvf /mnt/cdrom/support/sysmgmt/src/nps-V2*.tar.gz

# rpm -bb SPECS/nps.spec

# rpm -ivh `find ./RPMS | grep nps`



Note - Some Linux variants might require the rpmbuild command instead of the rpm command. Check with the documentation for your version of Linux.



8. After successful installation, reboot the system by running the following command:

# reboot