Overview

C H A P T E R 1

Overview

About Installing an Operating System on a Netra X4200 Server

There are several supported operating system (OS) distributions and several ways to install each. This topic is intended only as a general guide that refers you to detailed procedures.

Note - This document only covers supported Solaris and Linux OS installation. For instructions on installing the Windows Server 2003 Operating System onto the Netra X4200 servers, see the Sun Fire X4000 Series Servers Windows Operating System Installation Guide (819-4346).

Prerequisites

You must complete the following prerequisite steps before you can begin the installation.

Install the server hardware.

(Optional) Configure the service processor. (You can do this after installation if you prefer.)

(Solaris only) Install and set up the software on the Resource CD.

(Linux only) Create a Driver CD or use the Sun Installation Assistant (recommended procedure). See the topic about creating a Driver CD for your particular Linux OS or the topics about the Sun Installation Assistant.

Gather needed information, such as IP address and netmask.

Things You Must Decide

In addition, you must decide the following.

Which operating system are you installing?

Operating System	Supported Versions and Notes
Solaris 10	64-bit version
Red Hat Linux	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
SUSE Linux	SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Are you configuring the server for diskless booting?

Operating System	Relevant Documentation on Diskless Configurations
Solaris 10	See About Solaris OS Installation or Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations at `http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-5504`
Red Hat Linux	See Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide at `https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/`
SUSE Linux	See SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 Administration Guide at `http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes/index.html?page=/documentation/oes/sles_admin/data/front.html`

Which installation method will you use?

Method	Solaris	Red Hat	SUSE
Preinstalled on disk	YES	NO	NO
Install from distribution media (CD/DVD) on the server	YES	YES	YES
Install from distribution media (CD/DVD) via KVMS	YES	YES	YES
Install from network using PXE	YES	YES	YES
Sun Installation Assistant (Linux only)	NO	YES	YES

Note - The Netra X4200 server supports industry-standard KVMS via devices connected to it via a USB port or the ILOM Remote Console application. For more information on setting up USB connections to your system, see your server hardware documentation. For more information on setting up a remote KVMS connection to your server via the ILOM Remote Console application, see the Integrated Lights Out Manager Administration Guide (819-1160).

For relevant procedures, see the appropriate chapter of this guide for your particular OS.

Will you need to update the operating system and drivers?

In general, you need to perform updates once the operating system has been installed. For details, see the appropriate chapter for your particular OS.

What Next

The sections in this guide provide detailed installation information--see the appropriate chapter for your OS.

You should also gather the installation, administration, and configuration documentation distributed with the operating system. These documents generally accompany the distribution media as printed manuals, or else are included as PDF files on the media itself. In many cases, the latest versions of such documents are also downloadable from the web site of the OS vendor.