Install the Solaris OS Over a 10GbE Network on SPARC Systems

Before You Begin

The Solaris Advanced Installation Guide describes the full procedure for installing the Solaris Operating System over the network.

1. Prepare an installation server and a client system for installing the Solaris Operating System over the network.

   1. Create an installation server that contains the image of the Solaris CD.

   2. Set up the client system to be installed over the network.

      The Solaris Advanced Installation Guide describes how to create the installation server and set up the client systems

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   Note - If you want to install the client system over a network that is not part of the same subnet, you must also create a boot server. The Solaris Advanced Installation Guide describes how to create a boot server.

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2. On the installation server, find the root directory of the client system by searching the /etc/bootparams file.

   # grep client-name /etc/bootparams
   client_name root=server-name:/netinstall/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot
   install=server-name:/netinstall boottype=:in rootopts=:rsize=32768

   In this example, the root directory for the Solaris 10 client is /netinstall. In Step 4, you would replace root-directory with /netinstall.

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   Note - If the root directory is not found in the /etc/bootparams file, refer to the Solaris Advanced Installation Guide for configuration instructions.

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3. On the installation server, download the Sun Dual 10GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 ixgbe driver onto the hard drive.

   You can download the driver from the following web site:

   http://www.sun.com/download

4. On the installation server, install the Sun Dual 10GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 software to the client’s root directory, as determined in Step 2.

   Replace root-directory with the location of the client’s root directory.

   # cd directory-where-driver-was-downloaded
   # ls SUNWixgbe*
   # pkgadd -R root-directory/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot -d . SUNWixgbe.v

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   Note - If the preceding commands do not work correctly, refer to the documentation for your version of the Solaris Operating System.

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5. On the client system, shut down and halt the system to get to the OpenBoot (ok) prompt.

   # shutdown -i0 -g0 -y. . .
   (shutdown command messages omitted)
   . . .
   ok

6. At the ok prompt, find the device path of the 10-Gigabit Ethernet device.

   You should see the full paths and names of the network devices, similar to the example below.

   ok show-nets
   a) /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@9/network@0,1
   b) /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@9/network@0
   c) /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@2/network@0,1
   d) /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@2/network@0
   e) /pci@780/pci@0/pci@8/network@0,1
   f) /pci@780/pci@0/pci@8/network@0
   g) /pci@780/pci@0/pci@1/network@0,1
   h) /pci@780/pci@0/pci@1/network@0
   q) NO SELECTION
   Enter Selection, q to quit: q

7. At the ok prompt, boot the client system using the full device path of the 10-Gigabit Ethernet device, for example:

   ok boot /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@9/network@0,1

   The boot takes about 3 minutes to complete. Then you see a menu for continuing to install the Solaris OS.

8. Proceed with the Solaris Operating System installation.

   Refer to the Solaris Advanced Installation Guide for more information about installing the Solaris Operating System over the network.

9. Install the Sun Dual 10GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 adapter software on the client system.

   The software installed in Step 4 is required to boot the client system over the 10-Gigabit Ethernet interface. You now must install the software in order for the operating system to use the client’s 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces in normal operation.

   Before installing the SUNWixgbe driver, ensure that the client system does not already have the driver installed.

   # pkginfo | grep SUNWixgbe

   • If the software is installed, this command will return the package name you typed in. In that case, skip to Step 10.

   • If the software is not installed, install the software from the download center at http://www.sun.com/download/.

10. Confirm that the network host files have been configured correctly during the Solaris installation.

    Although the Solaris software installation creates the client’s network configuration files, you might need to edit these files to match your specific networking environment. See Configure the Network Host Files With the ifconfig Command for more information about editing these files.

11. Display the configuration information for all datalinks or the specified datalink.

    By default, the system is configured to have one datalink for each known network device.

    # dladm show-dev
    e1000g0         link: up        speed: 1000  Mbps       duplex: full
    e1000g1         link: down      speed: 0     Mbps       duplex: half
    e1000g2         link: down      speed: 0     Mbps       duplex: half
    e1000g3         link: down      speed: 0     Mbps       duplex: half
    ixgbe0          link: up        speed: 10000 Mbps       duplex: full
    ixgbe0          link: up        speed: 10000 Mbps       duplex: full

Related Information

• Solaris Advanced Installation Guide

• Sun Dual 10GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapter Product Notes

• Verify the Driver Version on a Solaris Platform