Solaris 10 5/09 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations

Creating the WAN Boot Miniroot

WAN boot uses a special Solaris miniroot that has been modified to perform a WAN boot installation. The WAN boot miniroot contains a subset of the software in the Solaris miniroot. To perform a WAN boot installation, you must copy the miniroot from the Solaris DVD or the Solaris Software - 1 CD to the WAN boot server. Use the -w option to the setup_install_server command to copy the WAN boot miniroot from the Solaris software media to your system's hard disk.

ProcedureSPARC: To Create a WAN Boot Miniroot

This procedure creates a SPARC WAN boot miniroot with SPARC media. If you want to serve a SPARC WAN boot miniroot from an x86–based server, you must create the miniroot on a SPARC machine. After you create the miniroot, copy the miniroot to the document root directory on the x86–based server.

Before You Begin

This procedure assumes that the WAN boot server is running the Volume Manager. If you are not using the Volume Manager, see System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role on the WAN boot server.

    The system must meet the following requirements.

    • Include a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive

    • Be part of the site's network and naming service

      If you use a naming service, the system must already be in a naming service, such as NIS, NIS+, DNS, or LDAP. If you do not use a naming service, you must distribute information about this system by following your site's policies.

  2. Insert the Solaris Software - 1 CD or the Solaris DVD in the install server's drive.

  3. Create a directory for the WAN boot miniroot and Solaris installation image.


    # mkdir -p wan-dir-path install-dir-path
    
    -p

    Instructs the mkdir command to create all the necessary parent directories for the directory you want to create.

    wan-dir-path

    Specifies the directory where the WAN boot miniroot is to be created on the install server. This directory needs to accommodate miniroots that are typically 250 Mbytes in size.

    install-dir-path

    Specifies the directory on the install server where the Solaris software image is to be copied. This directory can be removed later in this procedure.

  4. Change to the Tools directory on the mounted disc.


    # cd /cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools
    

    In the previous example, cdrom0 is the path to the drive that contains the Solaris OS media.

  5. Copy the WAN boot miniroot and the Solaris software image to the WAN boot server's hard disk.


    # ./setup_install_server -w wan-dir-path install-dir-path
    
    wan-dir-path

    Specifies the directory where the WAN boot miniroot is to be copied

    install-dir-path

    Specifies the directory where the Solaris software image is to be copied


    Note –

    The setup_install_server command indicates whether you have enough disk space available for the Solaris Software disc images. To determine available disk space, use the df -kl command.


    The setup_install_server -w command creates the WAN boot miniroot and a network installation image of the Solaris software.

  6. (Optional) Remove the network installation image.

    You do not need the Solaris software image to perform a WAN installation with a Solaris Flash archive. You can free up disk space if you do not plan to use the network installation image for other network installations. Type the following command to remove the network installation image.


    # rm -rf install-dir-path
    
  7. Make the WAN boot miniroot available to the WAN boot server in one of the following ways.

    • Create a symbolic link to the WAN boot miniroot in the document root directory of the WAN boot server.


      # cd /document-root-directory/miniroot
      # ln -s /wan-dir-path/miniroot .
      
      document-root-directory/miniroot

      Specifies the directory in the WAN boot server's document root directory where you want to link to the WAN boot miniroot

      /wan-dir-path/miniroot

      Specifies the path to the WAN boot miniroot

    • Move the WAN boot miniroot to the document root directory on the WAN boot server.


      # mv /wan-dir-path/miniroot /document-root-directory/miniroot/miniroot-name
      
      wan-dir-path/miniroot

      Specifies the path to the WAN boot miniroot.

      /document-root-directory/miniroot/

      Specifies the path to the WAN boot miniroot directory in the WAN boot server's document root directory.

      miniroot-name

      Specifies the name of the WAN boot miniroot. Name the file descriptively, for example miniroot.s10_sparc.


Example 12–1 Creating the WAN Boot Miniroot

Use the setup_install_server(1M) with the -w option to copy the WAN boot miniroot and the Solaris software image to the /export/install/Solaris_10 directory of wanserver-1.

Insert the Solaris Software media in the media drive that is attached to wanserver-1. Type the following commands.


wanserver-1# mkdir -p /export/install/cdrom0
wanserver-1# cd /cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools
wanserver-1# ./setup_install_server -w /export/install/cdrom0/miniroot \
/export/install/cdrom0

Move the WAN boot miniroot to the document root directory (/opt/apache/htdocs/) of the WAN boot server. In this example the name the WAN boot miniroot is set to miniroot.s10_sparc.


wanserver-1# mv /export/install/cdrom0/miniroot/miniroot \
/opt/apache/htdocs/miniroot/miniroot.s10_sparc

Continuing the WAN Boot Installation

After you create the WAN boot miniroot, verify that the client OpenBoot PROM (OBP) supports WAN boot. For instructions, see Verifying WAN Boot Support on the Client.

See Also

For additional information about the setup_install_server command, see install_scripts(1M).