Installing OS Distributions by Deploying OS Profiles

This section describes the following tasks:

• Deploying OS Profiles

• To Load an OS Profile on a Server or a Server Group

Deploying OS Profiles

OS profile installations can be customized to fit your provisioning and network needs.

To deploy default or custom OS profiles, use the load command with the server or group keyword and the osprofile subcommand. To add the base and OS management features that support updating and patching, use the add command with the server keyword and the basemanagement or osmonitor subcommand.

For syntax and parameter details, type help load server, help load group, and help add server at the N1–ok command line.

The following table provides a quick reference of all the parameters that are available for the load group and load server commands.

Before you attempt any Solaris OS on x86 platform deployments by using the N1 System Manager, you must ensure that the nameserver and search values are correctly configured at the operating system level on your management server. Otherwise, the installations will fail.

For more details, see the resolv.conf(5) man page. You need root user access on your management server to modify these settings.

To Load an OS Profile on a Server or a Server Group

The following procedure describes how to load an OS profile on a server or a server group by using the browser interface. The examples that follow the procedure provide command-line equivalents.

Uninstallation of an OS profile is not supported. However, you can reprovision a server by loading another OS profile on a server that is already provisioned.

Before You Begin

• Create an OS profile. See To Create an OS Profile.

• Disable monitoring for the servers that will be loaded with an OS profile. See To Disable Monitoring for a Server for details. Disabling monitoring prevents the fault notifications that are generated as the server reboots after installation.

• Ensure that you have enough disk space available to load an OS profile.

• Optionally create and copy a flash archive file. See To Copy a Flash Archive to the Management Server.

• Optionally create and copy a post-installation script to the management server. See Step 4.

Steps

1. Log in to the N1 System Manager.

   See To Access the N1 System Manager Browser Interface for details.

2. (Optional) Modify the OS profile to use a flash archive and a post-installation script.

   N1-ok> set osprofile osprofile flar flar

   The flar attribute value is the full path and flash archive file name, for example, /jumpstart/Flash/archive1.flar.

   N1-ok> add osprofile osprofile script script type type

   The script attribute value is the full path and script file name, for example, /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1.

   The type attribute specifies the time when the custom script will run during the installation. Valid values for the type attribute are:

   • pre– Run the script before the installation (for example, drivers).

   • post – Run the script after the installation.

   • postnochroot– Run the script after the installation. The script does not have to be run as superuser (root).

   The OS profile is modified to use the designated post-installation script and the flash archive file.

3. Navigate to the table that contains the server or the server group by performing one of the following actions:

   • Choose All Servers from the View Selector menu.

     The Servers table appears.

   • Choose Servers By Group from the View Selector menu.

     The Server Groups table appears.

4. Drag and drop the OS profile icon from the Shortcuts pane to the server or the server group.

   The Load OS Profile wizard appears.

5. Use the wizard steps to guide you through the screens.

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   Note –

   Click the Help tab in the left pane of the wizard for detailed information about the entry fields.

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6. To begin loading the OS profile on the selected servers, click the Finish button in the wizard.

   The wizard window closes and a job ID appears in the Command Line pane.

7. Click the Jobs tab.

   The Jobs table appears with information about your Load OS job.

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   Note –

   The Load OS job must complete before the server is available for login. After the Load OS job completes, a final reboot occurs.

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8. Save the options that you used to load the OS profile as a note in case you need to restore the server sometime in the future.

   See Modifying Server and Server Group Information for details.

Example 3–9 Loading a Solaris OS Profile on a Server Through the Command Line

The following example shows you how to install a Solaris OS profile on a server by using the load command.

N1-ok> load server 192.168.8.9 osprofile S10profile 
networktype static ip 192.168.18.19

The networktype attribute must be set to static for Solaris profile installations. See Table 3–3 and load server in Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Command Line Reference Manual for details.

Use the show job command to view the results.

N1-ok> show job target=192.168.8.9

Example 3–10 Loading a Solaris OS Profile on a Server Group Through the Command Line

The following example shows you how to install a Solaris OS profile on a server group by using the load command.

N1-ok> load group devgroup osprofile S10profile 
excludeserver=server1 networktype static ip 192.186.8.8-192.186.8.9
Job "14" started.

The following command shows you how to view the job results.

N1-ok> show job 14

Example 3–11 Loading a Linux OS Profile on a Server

The following example shows you how to install a Linux OS profile on a server by using the load command.

N1-ok> load server 192.168.8.9 osprofile RH3profile 
bootip 192.168.8.9 networktype dhcp

The bootip attribute is only used for Linux profile installations.

The following command shows you how to view the job results.

N1-ok> show job target=192.168.8.9

Example 3–12 Loading a Linux OS Profile on a Server Group

The following example shows you how to install a Linux OS profile on a server group by using the load command.

N1-ok> load group devgroup osprofile RH3profile 
bootip 192.186.8.8-192.186.8.9 networktype dhcp
Job "15" started

The following command shows you how to view the job results.

N1-ok> show job 15

Troubleshooting

If a value is not specified for the bootnetmask or netmask parameters during the load operation, the netmask will default to the provisioning network interface that is specified in the n1smconfig utility. See To Configure the Sun N1 System Manager System in Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Installation and Configuration Guide.

If the deployment fails, see the topics in OS Profile Deployment Failures for possible solutions.

Next Steps

To enable remote connectivity, OS resource monitoring, package deployment, and inventory management, you must add the OS management feature on each server. See To Add the OS Monitoring Feature.