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 Netra^TM agent 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 agents are as follows:

• Desktop (Sun Blade^TM 100, Sun Blade 1000, Ultra^TM 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^TM (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.

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.