pfinstall

- tests installation profiles

Synopsis

/usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D | -d disk_config 
     [-c CDpath] profile

Description

After you create a profile, you can use the pfinstall command to test the profile and see if it does what you want before using it to install or upgrade a system. pfinstall enables you to test a profile against:

• The system's disk configuration where pfinstall is being run.

• Other disks by using a disk configuration file that represents a structure of a disk. See NOTES on how to create a disk configuration file.

To successfully and accurately test a profile for a particular Solaris release, you must test a profile within the Solaris environment of the same release. For example, if you want to test a profile for Solaris 2.10, you have to run the pfinstall command on a system running Solaris 2.10.

So, on a system running Solaris 2.10, you can test Solaris 2.10 initial installation profiles. However, if you want to test a Solaris 2.10 upgrade profile on a system running a previous version of Solaris, or if you don't have a Solaris 2.10 system installed yet to test Solaris 2.10 initial installation profiles, you have to boot a system from a Solaris 2.10 CD image and temporarily create a Solaris 2.10 install environment. Then, you can run pfinstall in the Solaris 2.10 install environment to test your profiles.

To create a temporary Solaris operating system install environment, boot a system from a Solaris CD image (just as you would to install), answer any system identification questions, choose the Solaris Interactive Installation program, and exit out of the first screen that is presented. Then, from the shell, you can execute the pfinstall command.

Options

The following options are supported:

-c CDpath

The path to the Solaris installation image. This is required if the image is not mounted on /cdrom. (For example, use this option if you copied the installation image to disk or mounted the CD-ROM on a directory other than /cdrom.) When testing a profile on an x86 machine, the miniroot needs to be unpacked before using -c option. See EXAMPLES, below, for the procedure to unpack the miniroot.

-d disk_config

pfinstall uses a disk configuration file, disk_config, to test the profile. See NOTES on how to create a disk configuration file. You must specify either this option or the -D option to test the profile (see WARNINGS). This option cannot be used with an upgrade profile (install_type upgrade). You must always test an upgrade profile against a system's disk configuration ( -D option).

-D

pfinstall uses the system's disk configuration to test the profile. You must specify either this option or the -d option to test the profile (see WARNINGS).

Operands

The following operands are supported:

profile

The file name of the profile to test. If profile is not in the directory where pfinstall is being run, you must specify the path.

Examples

Example 1 Testing an Upgrade Profile

The following example tests an upgrade profile, upgrade.prof, on a system with a previous version of the Solaris software installed.

1. Boot the system to be upgraded from the Solaris image chosen for the upgrade, just as you would to install. The image can be located in the system's local CD-ROM or on an install server.

2. Answer the system configuration questions, if prompted.

3. If you are presented with a choice of installation options, choose the Solaris Interactive Installation program.

4. Exit from the first screen of the Solaris Interactive Installation program.

   After the Solaris Interactive Installation program exits, a shell prompt is displayed.

5. Create a temporary mount point:

   example# mkdir /tmp/mnt

6. Mount the directory that contains the profile(s) you want to test.

   If you want to mount a remote NFS file system (for systems on the network), enter:

   example# mount -F nfs server_name:path /tmp/mnt

   If you want to mount a UFS-formatted diskette, enter:

   example# mount -F ufs /dev/diskette /tmp/mnt

   If you want to mount a PCFS-formatted diskette, enter:

   example# mount -F pcfs /dev/diskette /tmp/mnt

7. Change directory to /tmp/mnt where the profile resides:

   example# cd /tmp/mnt

8. Test the upgrade.prof profile:

   example# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D upgrade.prof

Example 2 Testing the basic.prof Profile on an x86 Machine (Includes Unpacking miniroot)

The following example tests the basic.prof profile against the disk configuration on a Solaris 8 system where pfinstall is being run. The path to the Solaris CD image is specified because Volume Management is being used.

example# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D -c /cdrom/cdrom0/s0 basic.prof

When testing a profile on an x86 machine, before using pfinstall with -c option, use the following procedure to unpack the miniroot:

1. Uncompress the miniroot archive into a temporary file. The miniroot archive is under /cdrom/cdrom0/s0.

   # /usr/bin/gzcat /cdrom/cdrom0/boot/x86.miniroot > \ /tmp/x86_miniroot_gz

2. Create the miniroot device using lofiadm(1M):

   /usr/sbin/lofiadm -a /tmp/x86_miniroot_gz
   /dev/lofi/1

3. Mount the miniroot under miniroot directory using the lofi device returned by lofiadm in the previous step:

   # /usr/sbin/mount -F ufs /dev/lofi/1 \ /cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot

4. Now run pfinstall with -D option:

   # /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D -c /cdrom/cdrom0/ jumpstart.profile

5. After pfinstall testing is completed, unmount the lofi device:

   # /usr/sbin/umount /dev/lofi/1

6. Delete the lofi device:

   # /usr/sbin/lofiadm -d /tmp/x86_miniroot_gz

Example 3 Testing the basic.prof Profile Against Disk Config File

The following example tests the basic.prof profile against the 535_test disk configuration file. This example uses a Solaris CD image located in the /export/install directory, and pfinstall is being run on a Solaris 2.6 system.

example# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -d 535_test \ -c /export/install basic.prof

Exit Status

0

Successful (system rebooted).

1

Successful (system not rebooted).

2

An error occurred.

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

See Also

fdisk(1M), lofiadm(1M), prtvtoc(1M), attributes(5)

Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Basic Installations

Warnings

If the -d or -D option is not specified, pfinstall may perform an actual installation on the system by using the specified profile, and the data on the system may be overwritten.

Notes

You have to test a profile on a system with the same platform type for which the profile was created.

SPARC

To create a disk configuration file (-d option) for a SPARC based system:

1. Locate a SPARC based system with a disk that you want to test.

2. Create a disk configuration file by redirecting the output of the prtvtoc(1M) command to a file.

   example# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 > 535_disk

3. (Optional.) Concatenate disk configuration files into a single file to test a profile against multiple disks. The target numbers in the disk device names must be unique.

   example# cat 535_disk 1G_disk > mult_disks

x86

To create a disk configuration file (-d option) for an x86 based system:

1. Locate an x86 based system with a disk that you want to test.

2. Create part of the disk configuration file by saving the output of the fdisk(1M) command to a file:

   example# fdisk -R -W 535_disk /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0p0

3. Append the output of the prtvtoc(1M) command to the disk configuration file.

   example# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 >> 535_disk

4. (Optional.) Concatenate disk configuration files into a single file to test a profile against multiple disks. The target numbers in the disk device names must be unique.

   example# cat 535_disk 1G_disk > mult_disks

To test a profile with a specific system memory size, set SYS_MEMSIZE to the specific memory size (in Mbytes) before running pfinstall:

example# SYS_MEMSIZE=memory_size

example# export SYS_MEMSIZE