You can choose to use local or remote installation media when performing a Linux OS installation. Which media option you choose to use will depend on the type of installation you want to perform. A brief discussion about local and remote installation media options follow.
Local Media. When you choose to perform the installation from local media you must use the Linux OS Distribution CDs/DVD
The local media method requires you to physically attach a CD/DVD-ROM drive to the USB connector on the front panel of the Sun Blade Server Module. For more information about attaching a CD/DVD ROM to a Sun Blade Server Module, see Attach USB Devices to Server Module.
Remote Media. When you choose to perform the installation using remote media, you can use one of the following customer-provided (or ordered) installation media:
Linux OS distribution CDs/DVD
ISO CD images or ISO DVD image
An automation installation image – KickStart (Red Hat) or AutoYaST (SUSE)
Automating the installation process (with KickStart or AutoYaST) can eliminate some or most of the manual tasks of setting up the operating system installation for the first time on multiple systems.
The remote media method does not require you to be physically near the server. You can choose to boot the installation media over the network via a virtual drive or PXE client:
Boot installation media via virtual drive. A virtual drive refers to the drive being emulated. This can include a remote CD/DVD drive or an ISO image located on a network share. If you choose to boot the installation media via a virtual drive, you must list the virtual drive as the first temporary boot device in the BIOS (or select manually by pressing F8 during the install process).
Boot installation media via PXE Client. A PXE client refers to the computer booting the installation media via PXE (Intel Preboot Execution Environment). The installation media uses the PXE specification implemented on the Sun Blade 8000 Series. Specifically, the PXE technology provides the server with the capability to boot Linux over the network using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
Note that when you install Linux from remote media via a PXE-based network, you will need to configure the PXE network interface card as the temporary boot device. Instructions for configuring the PXE network interface card as the temporary boot device are provided in the procedure Installing SLES9 via PXE and Installing RHEL4 via PXE.