Chapter 4 Installing and Administering Solaris Flash Archives (Tasks)

This chapter provides step-by-step procedures for installing a Solaris Flash archive by using the Solaris installation program. This chapter also provides references to procedures for installing Solaris Flash archives when using other installation programs. Also, step-by-step procedures for administering an archive are provided.

When installing the Solaris OS with a Solaris Flash archive, the archive and the installation media must contain identical operating system versions. For example, if the archive is a Solaris 10 operating system and you are using DVD media, then you must use Solaris 10 DVD media to install the archive. If the operating systems versions do not match, the installation on the target system fails.

• If you want to use the Solaris installation program, see Installing a Solaris Flash Archive With the Solaris Installation Program.

• If you want to use the custom JumpStart installation method or Solaris Live Upgrade, see References to Procedures for Installing Solaris Flash Archives.

• To split or merge an archive, see Administering Solaris Flash Archives.

Installing a Solaris Flash Archive With the Solaris Installation Program

To use the Solaris installation program to install a Solaris Flash archive, use the following procedure.

Installing a Solaris Flash Archive

Steps

1. Begin the Solaris installation program and proceed through the panels until you reach the Specify Media panel. Continue with Solaris Flash installation.

   For the step-by-step procedures, see either of the following procedures.

   • SPARC: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris Installation Program in Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Basic Installations

   • x86: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris Installation Program in Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Basic Installations

2. Specify the media you are using to install.

   1. Type the information that you are prompted to enter.

      Media Selected	Prompt
      DVD or CD	Insert the disc where the Solaris Flash archive is located.
      Network File System	Specify the path to the network file system where the Solaris Flash archive is located. You can also specify the archive file name.
      HTTP	Specify the URL and proxy information that is needed to access the Solaris Flash archive.
      FTP	Specify the FTP server and the path to the Solaris Flash archive. Specify the user and password information that allows you access to the FTP server. Specify any proxy information that is needed to access the FTP server.
      Local tape	Specify the local tape device and the position on the tape where the Solaris Flash archive is located.

      If you selected to install an archive from a DVD, CD, or from an NFS server, the Select Flash Archives panel is displayed.

   2. For archives that are stored on a disc or an NFS server, on the Select Flash Archives panel, select one or more Solaris Flash archives to install.

   3. On the Flash Archives Summary panel, confirm the selected archives and click Next.

   4. On the Additional Flash Archives panel, you can install an additional Solaris Flash archive by specifying the media where the other archive is located. If you do not want to install additional archives, select None.

3. Click Next to continue the installation. Follow the steps to complete the installation.

References to Procedures for Installing Solaris Flash Archives

You can use any of the Solaris installation methods to install Solaris Flash archives for an initial installation. You must use custom JumpStart or Solaris Live Upgrade to install a Solaris Flash differential archive.

Administering Solaris Flash Archives

The flar command enables you to administer archives. You can split an archive into sections. Those sections can be modified, added to, or deleted, and then merged to create an archive. You can also obtain information about the archive.

Do not modify the Archive Files section or you compromise the integrity of the archive.

Splitting a Solaris Flash Archive

You can split an archive into sections, which enables you to modify some sections, add new sections, or delete sections. After you have modified the sections, you need to merge the sections to create an new archive. For example, you might want to add a User-Defined section or modify the Archive Identification section. Do not modify the Archive Files section or you compromise the integrity of the archive.

The flar split command splits a Solaris Flash archive into sections. The flar command copies each section into a separate file in the current directory or specified directory. The files are named after the sections, for example, the archive cookie is saved in a file that is named cookie. You can specify that the flar split command save only one section. The syntax of the command is as follows:

flar split[-d dir] [-u section] [-f archive] [-S section] [-t [-p posn] [-b blocksize]] filename

Example 4–1 Splitting an Archive

In the following example, archive1.flar is split into three files:

• cookie – The first line of the archive, which identifies the version of the archive format. Do not change this identifier.

• identification – A copy of the Archive Identification section with all keyword-value pairs.

• archive – The cpio archive itself. This file can be compressed.

# flar split archive1.flar

After the archive is split, you can modify the Archive Identification section or add a User-Defined section. The sections can then be merged to re-create the archive.

Merging a Solaris Flash Archive

After you have split an archive into sections, you can combine the sections to create a new archive.

The flar combine command creates a Solaris Flash archive from individual sections. Each section is assumed to be in a separate file, the names of which are the section names. At a minimum, these three files must be present:

• Archive Cookie (cookie)

• Archive Identification (identification)

• Archive Files (archive)

When combining sections, remember the following points:

• If archive is a directory, flar uses cpio to archive the directory before including it in the combined archive.

• If the Archive Identification section specifies to compress the archive, flar compresses the contents of the newly combined archive.

• No validation is performed on any of the sections. In particular, no fields in the Archive Identification section are validated or updated.

flar combine [-d dir] [-u section] [-t [-p posn] [-b blocksize]] filename

-d dir

Retrieves the sections to combine from dir, rather than from the current directory.

-u section

• If you use this option, flar copies the Cookie, Identification, Archive, and section sections. You can specify a single section name or a space-separated list of section names.

• If you do not use this option, flar copies the Cookie, Identification, and Archive sections only.

Example 4–2 Merging a Solaris Flash Archive

In this example, an Archive Cookie section, an Archive Identification section, and an Archive Files section are combined to become a complete archive. The archive is named newarchive.flar.

# flar combine newarchive.flar 

Example 4–3 Merging a Solaris Flash Archive and Adding a User-Defined Section

In this example, an Archive Cookie section, an Archive Identification section, an Archive Files section, and a User-Defined section are combined to become a complete archive. The archive is named newarchive.flar. The User-Defined section content is in the file that is named user-defined, which is in the current directory.

# flar combine -u user_defined newarchive.flar 

Extracting Information From an Archive

Use the flar info command to get information about archives you have already created. The syntax of the command is as follows:

flar info [-l] [-k keyword] [-t [-p posn] [-b blocksize]] filename

-k keyword

Returns only the value of the keyword keyword.

-l

Lists all the files in the archive section.

Example 4–4 Listing Files in an Archive Section

In this example, the command checks the file structure of the archive named archive3.flar.

# flar info -l archive3.flar
aaa
aaa/bbb
aaa/bbb/ccc
aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd
aaa/eee