About This Documentation (PDF and HTML)
Shell Prompts in Command Examples
Introduction to Sun Installation Assistant
Getting Started With Sun Installation Assistant
SIA Version 2.3 Through 2.4 Features and Benefits
Supported Servers and SIA Media Availability
Starting SIA and Preparing for Deployment or Recovery Tasks
Local and Remote Media Options
How to Start SIA and Prepare for Tasks Using Local or Remote Media
How to Create a RAID Volume Using SIA
How to Delete a RAID Volume Using SIA
How to Install Windows With SIA Using Local or Remote Media
How to Install Linux With SIA Using Local or Remote Media
Using SIA to Upgrade System Firmware
How to Upgrade the System BIOS and ILOM Firmware
How to Upgrade Expander Firmware
Using SIA to Recover a Service Processor
How to Recover a Service Processor
Performing an SIA PXE-Based Attended Installation
Obtain the SIA PXE Image Files
How to Create the SIA Image and Prepare for PXE Boot
How to Boot SIA From a PXE Server for an Attended Installation
Performing an SIA PXE-Based Unattended Installation
Obtain the SIA PXE Image Files
Contents of the SIA State File
How to Prepare for an Unattended SIA Installation of Linux
How to Prepare for an Unattended SIA Installation of Windows Server
How to Prepare for an Unattended SIA Firmware Upgrade
How to Create the SIA Image and Prepare for PXE Boot
How to Boot SIA From a PXE Server and Perform an Unattended Installation
Observing an SIA PXE-Based Unattended Installation
Set Up Passwords for Root and Virtual Access
Using a Virtual Console or Secure Shell (SSH) Connection
Debugging Unattended Installation Problems
Creating a Bootable SIA USB Flash Drive
How to Get the Syslinux and SIA Software
How to Prepare the USB Flash Drive on a Windows XP System
Setting BIOS Parameters and Booting Off the SIA USB Flash Drive
How to Set the BIOS Parameters and Boot Off the SIA USB Flash Drive
Identifying a Linux Boot Device on a Sun Fire X4500 Server
How to Identify a Linux Boot Device on a Sun Fire X4500 Server
How to Install Service Tags in Linux
This procedure requires the use of parted utility version 1.8.6 or later. Do not use earlier versions of parted.
Extract (unzip) the contents of the syslinux-version.zip archive file.
# unzip syslinux-version.zip
Where version represents the Syslinux version number.
Insert the USB flash drive into a working USB 2.0 port.
Use the tail command to identify the USB flash drive’s device name.
# tail /var/log/messages
You should see the device name (such as, sda or sdb). Example output is shown below:
Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: scsi 4:0:0:0: Lexar, Inc. USBdisk PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 1030750208 512-byte hardware sectors (1030 MB) Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: sdb: Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk Nov 12 13:19:29 server kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Caution - Be sure to confirm and make a note of the device name of the USB flash drive (/dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc.). The instructions listed here require you to delete existing partition(s) on the USB flash disk. Making a mistake in identifying the device might cause you to erase a hard disk. |
Create a single bootable partition on the USB flash drive using parted, as follows:
Note - This procedure requires the use of parted utility version 1.8.6 or later. Do not use earlier versions of parted.
Note - These steps require superuser (su - root) access.
If Linux has automounted the device, unmount it first.
# umount /dev/sdX1
Where X is the drive letter for the USB flash drive (for example, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb), and 1 indicates the first partition.
Use parted to delete all partitions and create a new bootable FAT32 partition:
# /sbin/parted /dev/sdX
Where X is the drive letter for the USB flash drive (for example, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb).
The parted command prompt displays.
Enter the following commands in the order listed and follow the prompts to create your bootable primary partition:
(parted): mklabel
You will be prompted to create a disk label type. If msdos is not listed as the default, you will need to enter msdos at the appropriate prompt, as shown in the example below:
Warning: The existing label on sdx will be destroyed and all data on this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue? Yes/No: yes New disk label type? msdos
(parted): mkpartfs
Creates a new partition on the disk. Answer the prompts to confirm that this will be the primary partition, fat32 format, spanning the entire disk minus the last megabyte (starting at 1, and ending at -1). Example output is shown below:
Partition type? primary/extended? primary File system type? [ext2] fat32 Start? 1 End? -1
(parted): set 1 boot on
Sets the boot flag for this partition.
(parted): set 1 lba on
Sets the lba (Linear Block Addressing) flag for this partition.
(parted): print
Displays the current settings for the new partition. Example output is shown below:
Model: Lexar, Inc. USBdisk (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 1031MB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Minor Start End Size Type Filesystem Flags 1 16.4kB 931MB 1031MB primary fat32 boot, lba (parted)
(parted): quit
Quits the parted utility.
Navigate to the Syslinux mbr directory:
# cd path/mbr
Where path is the folder to which you extracted Syslinux.
Locate the Syslinux master boot record file mbr.bin in the mbr directory and write it to the disk using the following command:
# cat mbr.bin > /dev/sdX
Where X is the drive letter for the USB flash drive (for example, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb).
Navigate to the Syslinux unix directory:
# cd path/unix
Where path is the folder to which you extracted Syslinux.
Note - For later versions of Syslinux, the unix directory might be replaced with a linux directory. If so, replace the unix directory name with linux.
From the Syslinux unix directory, enter the following command:
# ./syslinux /dev/sdX1
Where X is the drive letter for the USB flash drive (for example, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb), and 1 indicates the first partition.
Note - In the next step you will need to specify the mount point. If autofs is running, it might have auto–mounted the drive partition to some other mount point. If this happens, unmount it by entering the command:
umount /dev/sdX1
Mount the drive to a mount point by entering the command:
# mount -t vfat /dev/sdX1 /mnt
Where X is the drive letter for the USB flash drive (for example, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb), and 1 indicates the first partition. For this example, the mount point is /mnt.
Extract the contents of the SIA-version.zip archive file to the USB flash drive by entering the following command:
# unzip -q -d /mnt ~/path/SIA-version.zip -x “source/*”
Where path represents the path to the directory where the .zip file is located, and version represents the SIA version number. The “source/*” parameter excludes the any source files from the extraction to save time and disk space.
Unmount the USB flash drive:
# umount /mnt
Remove the flash drive from client machine.
The USB flash drive is now ready to boot SIA.
To begin the OS installation using the SIA USB flash drive, see Setting BIOS Parameters and Booting Off the SIA USB Flash Drive.