Preface

The Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide describes how to install the Solaris^TM 8 operating environment on both networked and non-networked SPARC^TM and IA (Intel Architecture) based systems.

In this document, the term "IA" refers to the Intel 32-bit processor architecture, which includes the Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium II Xeon, Celeron, Pentium III, and Pentium III Xeon processors and compatible microprocessor chips made by AMD and Cyrix.

This book describes how to use the Solaris 8 Interactive Installation Program, Solaris JumpStart^TM, and Solaris custom JumpStart to set up, automate, customize, and perform the installation of Solaris on any number of systems in a large enterprise network environment.

It does not cover how to use Solaris Web Start to install Solaris 8 on a single system from a local CD-ROM drive. This type of installation is covered in the Solaris 8 Start Here booklet and the Solaris 8 (SPARC Platform Edition) Installation Guide or Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation Guide.

This book does not include instructions about how to set up system hardware or other peripherals.

The Solaris operating environment runs on two types of hardware, or platforms--SPARC and IA. The information in this document pertains to both platforms unless called out in a special chapter, section, note, bullet, figure, table, example, or code example.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for system administrators responsible for installing the Solaris operating environment. To understand the concepts and procedures presented in this manual, you need from one to two years of experience in UNIX® system administration and preferably a degree in computer science or equivalent knowledge.

How This Book Is Organized

This section describes the chapters in this book.

Chapter 1, Overview of Solaris 8 Installation provides an overview of the different ways to install Solaris 8.

Chapter 2, Disk Space Planning describes how to plan disk space.

Chapter 3, Organization of Solaris 8 CDs illustrates how the Solaris 8 CDs are organized.

Chapter 4, Preconfiguring System Configuration Information describes how to set up preconfiguration installation information.

Chapter 5, Using the Solaris 8 Interactive Installation Program describes how to use the Solaris 8 Interactive Installation Program to install and upgrade Solaris on a SPARC and an IA based system.

Chapter 6, Preparing Custom JumpStart Installations discusses how to set up and prepare a custom JumpStart installation.

Chapter 7, Using Optional Custom JumpStart Features describes how to create begin and finish scripts and how to take advantage of other optional custom JumpStart features.

Chapter 8, Creating Custom Rule and Probe Keywords provides information and procedures for creating your own custom rule and probe keywords.

Chapter 9, Preparing to Install Solaris Software Over the Network discusses how to prepare to install Solaris software over a network.

Chapter 10, Performing a Custom JumpStart Installation describes how to perform a custom JumpStart installation.

Chapter 11, Example of Setting Up and Installing Solaris Software With Custom JumpStart shows, by example, how to set up and use Custom JumpStart to install Solaris software on a SPARC and an IA based system.

Chapter 12, Troubleshooting offers suggestions about how to troubleshoot and resolve problems you might encounter during installation.

Appendix A, Platform Names and Groups lists the platform names and groups of various hardware platforms, which you might need when preparing a system on which to install Solaris software.

Appendix B, Locale Values lists the values that are required to set the locale keyword in a profile, which defines how Solaris is to be installed on a system.

Glossary defines selected terms and phrases used in this book.

Related Books

Table P-1 lists related information that you need when installing the Solaris software.

Ordering Sun Documents

Fatbrain.com, an Internet professional bookstore, stocks select product documentation from Sun Microsystems, Inc.

For a list of documents and how to order them, visit the Sun Documentation Center on Fatbrain.com at http://www1.fatbrain.com/documentation/sun.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.com^SM Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specific book title or subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com.

What Typographic Conventions Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

client_arch karch_value ...

[[!]]rule_keyword rule_value

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.