Chapter 2 Overview of Planning for a Solaris Installation or Upgrade

This chapter provides you with information about decisions you need to make before you install or upgrade the Solaris operating environment. This chapter contains the following sections:

• Task Map: Installing or Upgrading the Solaris Software

• Initial Installation or Upgrade

• System Requirements

• Installing From the Network or From DVD or CDs

• Using DVD Media

• x86: Accessing the Solaris 8 Device Configuration Assistant And PXE

This book uses the term slice, but some Solaris documentation and programs might refer to a slice as a partition. To avoid confusion, this book distinguishes between fdisk partitions (which are supported only in Solaris Intel Platform Edition) and the divisions within the Solaris fdisk partition, which might be called slices or partitions.

Task Map: Installing or Upgrading the Solaris Software

The following task map is an overview of the steps necessary to install or upgrade the Solaris operating environment. Use this task map to identify all of the of the decisions that you need to make to complete the most efficient installation for your environment.

Initial Installation or Upgrade

You can choose to perform an initial installation or, if your system is already running the Solaris operating environment, you can upgrade your system.

Initial Installation

An initial installation overwrites the system's disk with the new version of the Solaris operating environment. If your system is not running the Solaris operating environment, you must perform an initial installation.

If the system is already running the Solaris operating environment, you can choose to perform an initial installation. If you want to preserve any local modifications, before you install, you must back up the local modifications. After you complete the installation, you can restore the local modifications.

You can use any of the Solaris installation methods to perform an initial installation. For detailed information about the different Solaris installation methods, refer to Chapter 3, Choosing a Solaris Installation Method.

Upgrade

An upgrade merges the new version of the Solaris operating environment with the existing files on the system's disk. An upgrade saves as many modifications as possible that you have made to the previous version of the Solaris operating environment.

You can upgrade any system that is running the Solaris 2.5.1, Solaris 2.6, or Solaris 7 software. You can upgrade to a Solaris 8 Update release if your system is running the Solaris 8 software. Type the following command to see the version of Solaris software that is running on your system:

$ uname -a

You can upgrade the Solaris operating environment by using the following installation methods.

Use the smosservice patch to upgrade diskless clients. For detailed instructions, refer to Solaris 8 System Administration Supplement or to smosservice(1M).

You cannot upgrade your system to a software group that is not installed on the system. For example, if you previously installed the End User Solaris Software Group on your system, you cannot use the upgrade option to upgrade to the Developer Solaris Software Group. However, during the upgrade you can add software to the system that is not part of the currently installed software group.

If you are already running the Solaris 8 operating environment and have installed individual patches, upgrading to a Solaris 8 Update release causes the following:

• Any patches that were supplied as part of the Solaris 8 Update release are reapplied to your system. You cannot back out these patches.

• Any patches that were previously installed on your system and are not included in the Solaris 8 Update release are removed.

You can use the Patch Analyzer to determine which patches, if any, will be removed by upgrading to the Solaris 8 Update release. For detailed instructions about using the Patch Analyzer, refer to Upgrading to a Solaris Update Release.

System Requirements

Verify that your system meets the requirements to install or upgrade to the Solaris operating environment.

Memory Requirement

To install or upgrade to the Solaris operating environment, the suggested memory size is 128 Mbytes or greater. You must have a minimum of 96 Mbytes to use DVD media to install and 64 Mbytes to use CD media to install.

Some optional installation features are enabled only when sufficient memory is present. For example, if you install from a DVD with 96 Mbtyes of memory, you install through the Solaris Web Start command line interface, not through the Solaris Web Start graphical user interface.

Requirements When Using the Solaris 8 Installation CD

When you are use the Solaris Web Start program on Solaris 8 Installation CD, special requirements apply for SPARC slices and IA fdisk partitions. When installing from a DVD or a net installation image, the Solaris Web Start program does not have these requirements.

# prtconf -pv | grep -i lba

lba-access-ok:

no-bef-lba-access

Installing From the Network or From DVD or CDs

The Solaris software is distributed on DVD or CD media so that you can install or upgrade systems that have access to a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive.

If you have systems that do not have local DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drives or if you are installing several systems and do not want to insert the discs into every local drive to install Solaris, you can set up the systems to install from remote DVD or CD images.

You can use all of the Solaris installation methods to install a system from the network. However, by installing systems from the network with the Web Start Flash installation feature or with a custom JumpStart installation, you can centralize and automate the installation process in a large enterprise. For more details about the different installation methods, refer to Chapter 3, Choosing a Solaris Installation Method.

Installing the Solaris software from the network requires initial setup. For detailed instructions on preparing to install from the network, refer to Chapter 12, Preparing to Install Solaris Software From the Network With CD Media.

Using DVD Media

When you are using DVD media and if you use the boot dvdrom command at the ok prompt, the system does not boot from the DVD-ROM drive. When you are asked to boot from the OK prompt, always type the following command:

ok boot cdrom

x86: Accessing the Solaris 8 Device Configuration Assistant And PXE

The Solaris Device Configuration Assistant is a program that enables you to perform various hardware configuration and booting tasks. You use the Device Configuration Assistant to boot from either a DVD, a CD, a net installation image, or a copy of the software on a diskette. You can access the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant from the following:

• By booting from the Solaris 8 DVD, the Solaris 8 Installation CD, or Solaris 8 Software 1 of 2 CD. Your system's BIOS must support booting from a DVD or CD.

• By booting from the network by using Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE). PXE enables you to boot a system directly from the network without using the boot diskette. The system must support PXE. Enable the system to use PXE by using the systems's BIOS setup tool or the network adapter's configuration setup Tool.

• By booting from the Solaris 8 Device Configuration Assistant Intel Platform Edition Diskette.

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  Note –

  You can download and copy the software to a diskette from the Solaris Developer Connection at: soldc.sun.com/support/drivers/dca_diskettes

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