Solaris 8 10/01 What's New Supplement

Chapter 2 What's New for Installation

This chapter highlights new installation features in the Solaris 8 Update releases.


Note -

For the most current man pages, use the man command. The Solaris 8 Update release man pages include new feature information not found in the Solaris 8 Reference Manual Collection.


Installing

Feature Description 

Release Date 

Solaris Live Upgrade

Solaris Live Upgrade provides a method of upgrading that substantially reduces the usual service outage that is associated with an operating system upgrade. You can duplicate your current running boot environment, then while the original boot environment continues to run, you can upgrade the duplicate. The duplicate boot environment is then activated to become the active boot environment when the system is rebooted. If a failure occurs, you can quickly fall back to the original boot environment with a simple reboot, thereby eliminating the service outages that are associated with the normal test and evaluation process. 

In addition to upgrading a boot environment, you can install a Web Start Flash archive on an inactive boot environment. When you reboot the system, the configuration that you installed on an inactive boot environment is active. 

For further information, see the Solaris Live Upgrade 2.0 Guide.

10/01 

IA: PXE network boot

The Intel Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE) enables you to boot a Solaris 8 IA system directly from the network without using the Solaris boot diskette. The IA system must support PXE. On a system that supports PXE, enable the system to use PXE by using the system's BIOS setup tool or the network adapter's configuration setup tool. The Solaris boot diskette is available for the systems that do not support this feature. 

10/01 

New boot options for a custom JumpStart installation

New options have been added for use with the boot command when you perform a custom JumpStartTM installation. With the boot command, you can specify the location of the configuration files to use to perform the installation. You can specify a path to an HTTP server, an NFS server, or a file that is available on local media. If you do not know the path to the files, you can require that the installation program prompt you for the path after the machine boots and connects to the network.

The nowin option enables you to specify that the custom JumpStart program not begin the X program. You do not need to use the X program to perform a custom JumpStart installation, so you can shorten the installation time by using the nowin option.

For detailed instructions about how to use these new options, refer to "Performing a Custom JumpStart Installation" in the Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide.

7/01 

Revisions to the Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide

The Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide has been revised. The revised version combines all of the previous Solaris 8 installation guides:

  • Solaris 8 (SPARC Platform Edition) Installation Guide

  • Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation Guide

  • Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide

  • Solaris 8 Installation Supplement

The revision also includes the addition of information about new and enhanced Solaris installation technologies. The focus is on task-based procedures, with reference material covered separately in the guide. 

For further information, see the Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide.

7/01 

Web Start Flash installation feature

The Web Start Flash installation feature enables you to create a single reference installation of the Solaris operating environment on a machine and then replicate that installation on several machines. 

 

4/01 

Default routing with system identification utilities

The system identification utilities automatically attempt to determine the default router during installation. 

4/01 

Configuration with system identification utilities

During system identification, the system identification utilities can configure systems to be LDAP clients. Prior Solaris releases allowed the configuration of a machine only as a NIS, NIS+, or DNS client. 

1/01 

Upgrading

Feature Description 

Release Date 

Patch Analyzer

The Patch Analyzer is now available when you upgrade with the Solaris Web Start 3.0 installation method on the Solaris 8 Installation CD. The Patch Analyzer performs an analysis on your system to determine which (if any) patches will be removed or downgraded by upgrading from the Solaris 8 release to a Solaris 8 Update release.  

6/00 

Administering and Uninstalling Software

Feature Description 

Release Date 

Solaris Product Registry 3.0

A new version of the Solaris Product Registry tool has been released. The Solaris Product Registry 3.0 includes these new features: 

  • Ability to uninstall individual system packages.

  • All of the Solaris system products that you installed in their localized version appear in the System Software Localizations folder.

  • Registry is compatible with more installation wizards.

For further information, see the Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide.

1/01 

Modify software groups in Solaris Web Start program

The SolarisTM Web Start 3.0 installation method was updated to allow you to modify the selected Solaris Software Group by adding or removing software packages.

For further information, see the Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide.

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