Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Site Preparation Guide

Sun N1 System Manager Hardware and OS Requirements

The information in this section will help you determine what operating system, hardware, and storage resources must be allocated or acquired to implement the N1 System Manager system.

This section discusses the following topics:

Management Server Requirements

N1 System Manager management server hardware and operating software minimum requirements are listed in the following table. See Table 2–3 for specific management server sizing information based on the number of provisionable servers to be managed.

Caution –

Dedicate the management server only to N1 System Manager software. Do not install other applications on the management server.

Table 2–1 Management Server Hardware and Operating System Requirements


Type		Operating System	Disk Space	RAM
SPARC
	Netra^TM 240, 440	Solaris 10	72 Gbytes minimum	4 Gbytes minimum
	Sun Fire^TM V210, V240, V440	Solaris 10	72 Gbytes minimum	4 Gbytes minimum
x86
	Sun Fire X4100 and X4200	Solaris x86 Version 10 HW1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 AS Update 5, 32–bit and 64–bit	72 Gbytes minimum	4 Gbytes minimum
	Sun Fire V20z and V40z	Solaris x86 Version 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 AS Update 2 through 5, 32–bit and 64–bit	72 Gbytes minimum	4 Gbytes minimum

A minimum of 3.0 Gbytes should be allocated for each OS distribution you plan to provision.

On a Solaris-based management server, OS distributions are stored as follows:
- Linux OS distributions are stored in /var/opt/SUNWscs/share/allstart
- Solaris OS distributions are stored in /var/js
On a Linux-based management server, OS distributions are stored as follows:
- Linux OS distributions are stored in /var/opt/sun/scs/share/allstart/
- Solaris OS distributions are stored in /var/opt/sun/scs/share/allstart/jumpstart/

Note –

For ease of administration, install a 10/100 NIC as ETH2 in the N1 System Manager management server to provide connectivity through the management switch to the management interfaces of the provisionable servers. Example diagrams and configurations in this document assume that an additional 10/100/1000 NIC has been installed in the management server.

Provisionable Server Requirements

N1 System Manager provisionable server hardware and operating software requirements are listed in the following table.

Table 2–2 Provisionable Server Hardware and Operating System Requirements


Server Type		Provisionable OS	Disk Space Requirements	RAM Requirements
SPARC
	Sun Netra 240 and 440	Solaris 10 Solaris 9 7/05	12 Gbytes minimum	512 Mbytes minimum, 1 Gbyte recommended
	Sun Fire V210, V240, and V440	Solaris 10 Solaris 9 7/05	12 Gbytes minimum	512 Mbytes minimum, 1 Gbyte recommended
x86
	Sun Fire X4100 and X4200	Solaris 10 HW1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.0 Update 1, 64 bit only Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4.0 Update 1, 64 bit only Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3.0, Update 5, 32 bit and 64 bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 3.0, Update 5, 32 bit and 64 bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP1, 64 bit only	12 Gbytes minimum	512 Mbytes minimum, 1 Gbyte recommended
	Sun Fire V20z and V40z	Solaris x86 Version 10 Solaris x86 Version 9 Update 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.0, 32 bit and 64 bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4.0, 32 bit and 64 bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3.0, Updates 1 through 5, 32 and 64 bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 3.0, Updates 1 through 5, 32 and 64 bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and SP1, 32 and 64 bit	12 Gbytes minimum	512 Mbytes minimum, 1 Gbyte recommended

Recommended Switch Configuration

You can use a single VLAN-programmable switch to provide the management, provisioning, and data network infrastructure. However, for ease of management, you should install one VLAN-programmable switch for the management network, and a second VLAN-programmable switch for the provisioning and data network. Each management, provisioning, and data network should be assigned to separate subnets and VLANs.

Note –

The management network switch must be configured to auto-negotiate link speed. If link speed is not auto-negotiated, firmware updates to Sun Fire V20z and V40z servers can fail.

The management switch and the provisioning and data network switch should support the following Ethernet connectivity.

Management Network Switch
- 10/100 megabit per second connectivity from the management server to the management switch to provide connectivity to each provisionable servers management port
- 10/100 megabit per second connectivity from each provisionable server management port to the management switch
The management network should be on a private subnet, and must provide connectivity to a management port on each provisionable server
Provisioning and Data Network Switch
- 1 gigabit per second connectivity from the management server ETH1 port to the provisioning and data switch
- 1 gigabit per second connectivity from each provisionable server ETH0 port to the provisioning and data switch
- 1 gigabit per second connectivity from each provisionable server ETH1 port to the provisioning and data switch
- 1 gigabit per second connectivity from the provisioning and data switch to the corporate network
The provisioning network should be on a private subnet.

Note –
OS provisioning of Linux might fail if there is a delay in the transmission of data between the management server and the provisionable server is too long. A long delay can result if the spanning tree option is enabled for the switch port connected to the ETH0 port of the provisionable server. To address this issue, you can disable the spanning tree option for the switch or for the switch ports connected to the provisionable servers. Refer to your switch documentation for instructions about how to disable spanning tree on your switch.

Note –
The data network should be on a public subnet accessible by the management server, provisionable servers, and the corporate network.

Due to the use of the DHCP protocol and the bandwidth requirements for OS provisioning, isolating the data network from the provisioning network might be required.