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Sun Management Center Change Manager 1.0.1 Administration Guide

Chapter 4 Creating a Deployable Solaris Flash Archive (Tasks)

This chapter describes how to create customizable Solaris Flash archives. Such archives are suitable for deployment by Change Manager.

The following topics are covered in this chapter:

Creating Software Stacks

The term hardware and software integration encompasses the combined tasks of installing and configuring a system. Integration means several things:

The result of integrating several software products is referred to as an integrated software stack or simply a software stack.

Change Manager imports, manages, and deploys software stacks that are stored as Solaris Flash archives. Change Manager deploys these archives to managed hosts. Per-client customization is achieved through the use of archive parameters and custom JumpStart finish scripts that are included in the Solaris Flash archive.

The system that is used as the prototype from which the software stack is created is called the master system.

The following sections describe how to create software stacks on master systems.

Note –

Do not create a Solaris Flash archive on a master system that is a Sun Management Center server or a Change Manager server. Sun Management Center cannot be deployed by using the Solaris Flash technology.

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 similar platforms. For Change Manager 1.0.1, this range is restricted to platforms that use the same Sun Management Center agent. These agents can only be installed on the platform type for which they are intended. For instance, you cannot install a NetraTM agent on a Sun EnterpriseTM 4500 system. Therefore, an archive created on the Sun Enterprise 4500 system cannot provide full functionality on a Netra system.

Current Sun Management Center agents are as follows:

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.

Ensure that the software required to support the platforms you plan to install is included on the master system before you create the archive. Such an archive can be used to deploy the Solaris Flash archive to a range of platforms. 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.

Installing Software on the Master System

Begin to create the software stack by installing software on the master system. First, install the Solaris operating environment and Solaris patches on the master system. Then, install the other software applications you want.

Note –

Not all software applications can be deployed by using Solaris Flash technology. For example, Sun Management Center software retains instance-specific configuration information that cannot be unconfigured for redeployment. See the Solaris 9 Installation Guide for information about the limitations of this technology with respect to add-on software applications.

Addressing Hardware Differences Between a Master System and Managed Hosts

The master system might not match the hardware configuration of the other systems on which you might deploy the Solaris Flash archive. In such cases, ensure that the master system includes software to support all hardware. To support all hardware, install the Entire Solaris Software Group Plus OEM Support package cluster (SUNWCXall) on the master system. You must also install any third-party drivers or specialized device drivers on the master system.

For example, you select a PCI-based master system to create software stacks. Driver software for other buses, such as SBus, are not installed by default if a package cluster other than SUNWCXall is installed. Consequently, software stacks you build on this master system will not contain the SBus drivers. As a result, managed hosts that have SBus hardware will not have the appropriate software available to support the hardware.

To avoid this situation, do one or more of the following:

Installing the Change Manager Agent Module on a Master System (Task Map)

After the master system is installed with the software you want, you must also install the Sun Management Center agent and the Change Manager agent module. This software enables communication between the Change Manager server and the managed hosts that run the software stack you are now building. See Creating Software Stacks. This software must be installed on the master system so that it is included in the Solaris Flash archive.

Note –

These procedures assume that you already have a Change Manager server installed and configured. See Chapter 3, Installing, Configuring, and Accessing the Change Manager Server (Tasks).

The following table identifies the tasks for installing the Sun Management Center agent and the Change Manager agent module on the master system. Perform the tasks in the order shown.

Task 

Description 

For Instructions 

1. (Prerequisite) Install the Sun Management Center 3.5 agent software. 

Install the Sun Management Center 3.5 agent software on the master system you use to create a Solaris Flash archive. 

See the Sun Management Center 3.5 Installation and Configuration Guide.

2. Install the Change Manager 1.0.1 agent software. 

Install the Change Manager 1.0.1 agent software on the master system you use to create a Solaris Flash archive. 

See How to Install the Change Manager Agent Module.

Installing the Change Manager Agent Module on a Master System

The Sun Management Center 3.5 Agent component must be installed before the Change Manager 1.0.1 agent module. None of the Sun Management Center add-ons are supported on master systems that include the Change Manager 1.0.1 agent module.

For procedures that describe the installation of Sun Management Center 3.5 software, see the following sections in the Sun Management Center 3.5 Installation and Configuration Guide:

Note –

When you set up the Sun Management Center 3.5 Agent component on your master system, ensure that the following values match those used to set up the Sun Management Center server software:

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

The following procedure shows how to install the Change Manager 1.0.1 agent module on a master system.

How to Install the Change Manager Agent Module

  1. Become superuser.

  2. Install the Change Manager agent module in one of the following ways:

    • Install the Change Manager agent module by using the GUI.


      # /opt/SUNWsymon/sbin/es-guiinst

    • Install the Change Manager agent module by using the command line.


      # /opt/SUNWsymon/sbin/es-inst

  3. Specify the source directory of the Change Manager installation files.

    For example, if the directory in which you downloaded the Change Manager 1.0.1 software is called /export/build/cm101, then specify this directory.

    The installation program checks for add-on products to be installed.

  4. Install the Change Manager product.

    The Change Manager agent module is installed.

    After the installation completes, you are asked to run the setup.

  5. Set up the Change Manager add-on product.

    The Sun Management Center components are stopped.

    Configure the add-on products only.

    The agent software is set up.

  6. Start the Sun Management Center agent component.

    Starting the agent component takes only a few moments.

Unconfiguring Software Applications

Some applications are uninstalled and unconfigured by using specific procedures. For example, you might remove host-specific information, such as host names, from configuration files to unconfigure an application.

Be sure to unconfigure software applications before you create the Solaris Flash archive. After you unconfigure the applications, the software stack no longer contains host-specific information about the master system.

Note –

You might not be able to unconfigure or remove the host-specific information created by an application. In such cases, you cannot use Solaris Flash technology to deploy the application. Some software stores configuration information outside of UNIX file systems. Such software does not always configure correctly on managed hosts that are installed with Solaris Flash archives. An example is Sun Management Center, which stores host-specific information in an Oracle database. Because its host-specific information cannot be removed, Sun Management Center cannot be deployed using the Solaris Flash feature.

Configuration information that is host-specific and instance-specific can be provided at deployment time by using archive parameters and custom JumpStart finish scripts as described in Creating a Customizable Solaris Flash Archive.

After you install the Solaris Flash archive on a managed host, some host-specific files are re-created for the managed host. The installation program uses the sys-unconfig command and the sysidtool command to delete and re-create the host-specific network configuration files. The files that are re-created include such files as /etc/hosts, /etc/defaultrouter, and /etc/defaultdomain. See the sys-unconfig(1M) man page and the sysidtool(1M) man page.

Other Considerations

Caution – Caution –

Do not configure boot environments on the master system by manually using the Solaris Live Upgrade commands lu(1M) and lucreate(1M). Change Manager uses Solaris Live Upgrade tools to manage boot environments if they are specified in shared profiles and in host properties for managed hosts.

Do not provide runtime data for applications after installation on the master system. For example, do not create user data for a database server or an LDAP server after installing the database management software.

Note –

Depending on the application, you might need to provide mechanisms for initializing this data when the managed host first boots.

Creating the Solaris Flash Archive From the Master System

Create the Solaris Flash archive of the integrated software stack after installing and configuring the software on the master system.

Use the flar command to create the Solaris Flash archive. See the flar(1MCM) man page.

For example, to create a Solaris Flash archive named Netra082202.apache.flar, type the following:


# /usr/sbin/flar create -n apacheServer -u ic_cfgparams \
  -c /flarchive/Netra082202.apache.flar

The -n option assigns its value, apacheServer, to the content_name keyword in the Solaris Flash archive. You can view archive keywords by using the browser interface or the command-line interface. See How to View or Modify File Properties (Web Browser) or How to View File or Folder Properties (Command Line).

/flarchive is the target directory name in which the Solaris Flash archive is created. The example command line creates an archive named Netra082202.apache.flar in the target directory.

Note –

Ensure that the target directory has sufficient disk space to accommodate the Solaris Flash archive.

Archive parameters must be described in a text file called ic_cfgparams. The file must be located in the directory from which the flar create command is invoked. Or you can specify the path to the ic_cfgparams file as an argument to the -d option. Use flar create -u to include the ic_cfgparams file in the “user-defined section” of the Solaris Flash archive you create.

Import this archive to the Change Manager repository for deployment to managed hosts.

Creating a Customizable Solaris Flash Archive

An archive might require that the user deploying it supply the information required to customize the archive for its production environment. To accomplish this, when you create the archive, include a special section that describes the required parameters, archive parameters. Also, include custom JumpStart finish scripts that process the supplied values to modify the system accordingly.

Archive parameters are name=value pairs that are associated with the integrated software stack. These parameters provide the data to be processed by the finish scripts that are invoked to customize the software stack for the managed host. Custom JumpStart finish scripts are written by the stack creator. These scripts perform host-specific customizations on the managed host as part of the deployment process. Archive parameters obtain host-specific values through the Change Manager interface.

Creating the Archive Parameters File

An archive parameters file specifies application-specific parameters and default values. The archive parameters file contains entries in the following format:

The archive parameters file can be created by any text editor capable of saving files as plain ASCII text.

Following is a simple example of an archive parameters file:

name=telnet label="Do you want to enable telnet?" default=yes
name=ftp label="Do you want to enable ftp?" default=yes
name=finger label="Do you want to enable finger?" default=yes

Archive parameters must be described in a text file called ic_cfgparams. The file must be located in the directory from which the flar create command is invoked. Use flar create -u to include the ic_cfgparams file in the “user-defined section” of the Solaris Flash archive you create.

Processing the Archive Parameters File With Finish Scripts

As the final step in software stack deployment, Change Manager runs the finish scripts contained in the Solaris Flash archive. Change Manager provides a script that executes all user-supplied finish scripts that it finds in the /etc/ichange.d directory of the newly deployed software stack. This script provides access to the values that the user specified in the archive parameters file.

Following is an example of a finish script that processes the archive parameters file created in the previous section:

#! /bin/sh

case `cmgetprop telnet` in
[Nn]*)  telnet='#'      ;;
*)      telnet=         ;;
esac

case `cmgetprop ftp` in
[Nn]*)  ftp='#'         ;;
*)      ftp=            ;;
esac

case `cmgetprop finger` in
[Nn]*)  finger='#'      ;;
*)      finger=         ;;
esac

ed $SI_ROOT/etc/inetd.conf <</
/^#*telnet/s/^#*/$telnet/
/^#*ftp/s/^#*/$ftp/
/^#*finger/s/^#*/$finger/
w
q
/

exit 0

You might use two or more finish scripts to process the parameters in the ic_cfgparams file. Ensure that the ic_cfgparams file contains all of the parameters that the scripts process.

Store all the finish scripts in the /etc/ichange.d directory prior to creating the Solaris Flash archive of the master system. The finish scripts must be part of the archive. If you have more than one finish script, they are processed in lexical order by file name.

Set the finish script permissions to 755. If the scripts are not executable, the Solaris Flash archive cannot be customized.

Finish scripts use the following elements:

Using flar to Create a Customizable Solaris Flash Archive

Use the flar command to create the Solaris Flash archive. See the flar(1MCM) man page. The -u option includes the archive parameters file in the user section of the Solaris Flash archive.

For example, to create a customizable Solaris Flash archive named 082202.apache.flar, type the following:


# /usr/sbin/flar create -n apacheServer -u ic_cfgparams \
-c /flarchive/082202.apache.flar

/flarchive is the target directory name in which the Solaris Flash archive is created. The example command line creates an archive named 082202.apache.flar in the target directory.