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:

• Parameter name (name)

• Label to be used by the browser interface (label)

• Optional default value (default)

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:

• SI_ROOT – This environment variable specifies the mount point of the file system being installed or updated.

  For example, $SI_ROOT/etc/passwd points to the password file on the boot environment currently being installed.

• cmgetprop – This tool is used by finish scripts to determine the current value of an archive parameter. Finish scripts use a $PATH that includes the cmgetprop command. See the cmgetprop(1MCM) man page.

  The following example is based on the ic_cfgparams file described in Creating the Archive Parameters File. You might use cmgetprop as follows:

  enable_telnet=`cmgetprop telnet`

  This command line assigns the value associated with the telnet parameter to the shell variable enable_telnet.

  The value of a parameter might come from one of the following sources:

  • Default value specified in the archive parameters file (ic_cfgparams)

  • Shared profile associated with the managed host

  • Host properties of the managed host

  You can use the browser interface to supply and modify parameter values on the shared profile property page or the managed host property page. You can also supply and modify parameter values by using the changemgr fileset and changemgr hostset commands of the command-line interface.

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.