Custom JumpStart Scenario

Custom JumpStart provides a way to install groups of systems automatically and identically. The first step when preparing custom JumpStart installations is deciding how you want to install Solaris on the systems at your site. The following scenario illustrates how to set up and perform a custom JumpStart installation at a particular site. Suppose, for example:

• You need to install Solaris on 100 new systems.

• Seventy of the systems are SPARC based, owned by your engineering group, and need to be installed as standalone systems with the Solaris operating environment software group for developers.

• The remaining 30 systems are IA (Intel Architecture) based, owned by your marketing group, and need to be installed as standalone systems with the Solaris operating environment software group for end users.

After you decide how you want the systems at your site to be installed, you must create a rules file and a profile for each group of systems. The rules file is a text file that contains a rule for each group of systems (or single systems) on which you want to install Solaris automatically.

Each rule distinguishes a group of systems based on one or more system attributes, and it links each group to a profile, a text file that defines how the Solaris software is to be installed on each system in the group. Both the rules file and profile must be located in a JumpStart directory.

You, as the system administrator at this site, need to create a rules file that contains two different rules, one for the engineering group and another for the marketing group. For each rule, you use the platform group for each type of system to distinguish the engineering group from the marketing group: SPARC and IA, respectively.

Each rule also contains a link to an appropriate profile. For example, in the rule for the engineering group, you add a link to the profile, called eng_profile, that you created for the engineering group. And, in the rule for the marketing group, you add a link to the profile, called market_profile, that you created for the marketing group.

After creating the rules file and profile, you must validate them with the check script. If the check script runs successfully, the rules.ok file is created, which is a generated version of the rules file that JumpStart uses to install the Solaris software.