Choosing the Master System

Before you begin the installation of Change Manager software, see Master System Requirements to understand the hardware and software requirements for the master system.

A master system is the prototype for other systems that will run the software staged on this master. Therefore, choose a master system that closely matches the hardware configurations of the managed hosts it represents. Ideally, you stage the software on an identical system to avoid software discrepancies caused by hardware differences (such as missing device drivers). However, choosing a master system that is similar to the managed hosts is sufficient.

You can create a Solaris Flash archive on one platform that is deployable to a range of other similar platforms. For version 1.0 of Change Manager, this range is restricted to platforms that use the same Sun Management Center agent module. These agents can only be installed on the platform type for which they are intended. For instance, you cannot install a Netra agent module on a Sun Enterprise^TM 4500 system. Therefore, an archive created on the Sun Enterprise 4500 system cannot provide full functionality on a Netra system.

Current Sun Management Center agent modules are:

• Desktop (Sun Blade^TM 100, Sun Blade 1000, Ultra 1, Ultra 10, Ultra 2, Ultra 30, Ultra 450, Ultra 5, Ultra 60, Ultra 80)

• Netra (T1, T4, T/112x, X1)

• Workgroup Enterprise Server (220, 250, 420, 450, 280, 480, 880, 10, 150, 2)

• Sun Enterprise 3000-6500 Servers

• Sun Fire (3800, 4800, 4810, 6800)

• Sun Fire 15000

You must also consider hardware architecture when choosing a master system. Hardware independence is restricted by both instruction set and platform architecture. The master system and the managed hosts must have the same instruction set (namely, SPARC®) and platform architecture (namely, sun4u). Note that SPARC is the only processor type that Change Manager currently supports. Also note that all current SPARC products are sun4u.

If you plan to deploy the Solaris Flash archive to a range of platforms, or if the identical hardware is unavailable, ensure that all software that is required to support the various hardware configurations is installed on the master system. This software must be installed on the master system before you create the Solaris Flash archive. For more information, see Addressing Hardware Differences Between a Master System and Managed Hosts.