Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade

Checklist for Upgrading

Use the following checklist to gather the information that you need to upgrade the Solaris OS. You do not need to gather all of the information that is requested on the checklist. You only need to collect the information that applies to your system. If you are performing the upgrade over the network, the installation program provides the information for you, based on the current system configuration.

You cannot change basic system identification, such as host name or IP address. The installation program might prompt you for basic system identification, but you must enter the original values. If you use the Solaris installation program to upgrade, the upgrade fails if you attempt to change any of the values.

Table 5–2 Upgrade Checklist

Information for Upgrade

Description or Example

Answer – Defaults are noted with an asterisk (*)

Network connection

Is the system connected to a network?

Networked/Nonnetworked

DHCP

Can the system use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to configure its network interfaces?

DHCP provides the network parameters that are necessary for installation.

Yes/No*

If you are not using DHCP, note the network address.

IP Address

If you are not using DHCP, supply the IP address for the system.

Example: 172.31.255.255

To find this information on a running system, type the following command.

# ypmatch host-name hosts

Subnet

If you are not using DHCP, is the system part of a subnet?

If yes, what is the netmask of the subnet?

Example: 255.255.255.0

To find this information on a running system, type the following command.

# more /etc/netmasks

IPv6

Do you want to enable IPv6 on this machine?

IPv6 is a part of the TCP/IP Internet protocol that facilitates IP addressing by adding better security and increasing Internet addresses.

Yes/No*

Host name

Host name that you choose for the system.

To find this information on a running system, type the following command.

# uname -n

Kerberos

Do you want to configure Kerberos security on this machine?

If yes, gather this information:

Yes/No*

Default Realm:

Administration Server:

First KDC:

(Optional) Additional KDCs:

The Kerberos service is a client-server architecture that provides secure transactions over networks.

If the system uses a naming service, provide the following information.

Naming service

Which naming service should this system use?

To find this information on a running system, type the following command.

# cat /etc/nsswitch.conf

A naming service stores information in a central place, which enables users, machines, and applications to communicate across the network. Examples of information that is stored are host names and addresses or user names and passwords.

NIS+/NIS/DNS/ LDAP/None

Domain name

Provide the name of the domain in which the system resides.

During installation, you can choose the default NFSv4 domain name. Or, you can specify a custom NFSv4 domain name.

For instructions about how to find the domain name on a running system, see Checking for the NFS Version 4 Domain in System Administration Guide: Network Services
To preconfigure the NFSv4 domain name in the sysidcfg file, see nfs4_domain Keyword in Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations

NIS+ and NIS

Do you want to specify a name server or let the installation program find one?

If you want to specify a name server, provide the following information.

Specify one/Find one*

Server's host name:

For NIS clients, type the following command to display the server's host name.
# ypwhich
For NIS+ clients, type the following command to display the server's host name.
# nisping

Server's IP Address:

For NIS clients, type the following command to display the server's IP address.
# ypmatch nameserver-name hosts
For NIS+ clients, type the following command to display the server's IP address.
# nismatch nameserver-name hosts.org_dir

Network Information Service (NIS) makes network administration more manageable by providing centralized control over a variety of network information, such as machine names and addresses.

DNS

Provide IP addresses for the DNS server. You must enter at least one IP address, but you can enter up to three addresses.

Server's IP Address:

To display the server's IP address, type the following command.

# getent hosts dns

You can enter a list of domains to search when a DNS query is made.

List of domains to be searched:

The domain name system (DNS) is the naming service that the Internet provides for TCP/IP networks. DNS provides host names to the IP address service. DNS simplifies communication by using machine names instead of numerical IP addresses. DNS also serves as a database for mail administration.

LDAP

Provide the following information about your LDAP profile.

Profile Name:

Profile Server:

If you specify a proxy credential level in your LDAP profile, gather this information.

Proxy-bind distinguished name:

Proxy-bind password:

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) defines a relatively simple protocol for updating and searching directories that are running over TCP/IP.

Default route

Do you want to specify a default route IP address or let the Solaris installation program find one?

The default route provides a bridge that forwards traffic between two physical networks. An IP address is a unique number that identifies each host on a network.

You have the following choices:

You can specify the IP address. An /etc/defaultrouter file is created with the specified IP address. When the system is rebooted, the specified IP address becomes the default route.
You can let the Solaris installation program detect an IP address. However, the system must be on a subnet that has a router that advertises itself by using the ICMP router discovery protocol. If you are using the command-line interface, the software detects an IP address when the system is booted.
You can choose None if you do not have a router or do not want the software to detect an IP address at this time. The software automatically tries to detect an IP address on reboot.

Detect one*/Specify one/None

Time zone

How do you want to specify your default time zone?

Geographic region*

Offset from GMT

Time zone file

Root password

Provide the root password for the system.

Default or custom installation

Do you want to perform a default installation, or customize the installation?

Select Default installation to format the entire hard disk and install a preselected set of software.
Select Custom installation to modify the hard disk layout and select the software that you want to install.

Note –

The text installer does not prompt you to select a Default or Custom Installation. To perform a default installation, accept the default values that are provided in the text installer. To perform a custom installation, edit the values in the text installer screens.

Default installation*/Custom installation

Keyboard

This feature is new in the following releases:

For SPARC, starting with the Solaris 10 10/06 release
For x86, starting with the Solaris 10 8/07 release

If the keyboard is self-identifying, the keyboard language and layout automatically configures during installation. If the keyboard is not self-identifying, the sysidkdb tool provides you, during the installation, a list of supported keyboard layouts during installation, so that you can select a layout for keyboard configuration.

SPARC: Previously, the USB keyboard assumed a self-identifying value of 1 during the installation. Therefore, all of the keyboards that were not self-identifying always configured for a U.S. English keyboard layout during installation.

For further information, see Preconfiguring With the sysidcfg File in Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations.

Locales

For which geographic regions do you want to install support?

Note –

The locale can be preconfigured by NIS or NIS+. For more information, see sysidcfg File Keywords in Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations.

SPARC: Power Management (only available on SPARC systems that support Power Management)

Do you want to use Power Management?

Note –

If your system has Energy Star version 3 or later, you are not prompted for this information.

Yes/No

Automatic reboot or CD/DVD ejection

Reboot automatically after software installation?

Eject CD/DVD automatically after software installation?

Yes*/No

Disk space reallocation

Do you want the installation program to automatically re-layout the systems on your disks?

If yes, which file system should be used for auto-layout?

Example: /, /opt, /var

If no, you must provide information for the system configuration.

Yes/No*

If you are installing through a tip line, follow these instructions.

Ensure that your window display is at least 80 columns wide and 24 rows long. For more information, see tip(1).

To determine the current dimensions of your tip window, use the stty command. For more information, see the man page, stty(1).

Check your Ethernet connection.

If the system is part of a network, verify that an Ethernet connector or similar network adapter is connected to your system.

Solaris Live Upgrade use

Determine your resource requirements for creating a new boot environment and upgrading it. For detailed information, refer to Chapter 3, Solaris Live Upgrade (Planning), in Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.
Determine the requirements if you are using RAID-1 volumes. For detailed information, refer to Guidelines for Selecting Slices for File Systems in Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.

Check the system for the existence of Prestoserve software.

If you begin the upgrade process by shutting down the system with the init 0 command and you're using Prestoserve software, you might lose data. Refer to the Prestoserve documentation for shutdown instructions.

Check for patches needed.

The most recent patch list is provided at http://sunsolve.sun.com.

Review the planning chapter and other relevant documentation.

Review the entire planning chapter or specific sections in Chapter 4, System Requirements, Guidelines, and Upgrade (Planning).
Review the Solaris 10 8/07 Release Notes on http://docs.sun.com and vendor release notes to ensure that the software you use is supported in the new Solaris release.
Review the 10 8/07 Sun Hardware Platform Guide to ensure that your hardware is supported.
Review the documentation that accompanied your system to ensure that your system and devices are supported by the Solaris release.