Solaris Advanced Installation Guide

Chapter 1 Overview of Installing Solaris

Successfully installing Solaris software requires a clear sense of what you're doing and why, especially if you have to install a large number of systems. This chapter provides all the information you need to determine the best way to install the Solaris software at your site, including installing systems over the network and automating the installation process.


Note -

If you want to install a desktop system from a local CD-ROM, you should use the Installation Instructions for Solaris 2.6.


Maybe You Don't Need to Install

If you are managing a large site of desktop systems running Solaris software, you may not need this book. Instead of installing the Solaris software on every system, you may want to turn your systems into Solstice(TM) AutoClient(TM) systems or diskless clients. AutoClient systems and diskless clients do not have the Solaris software installed on their local disks; instead, the Solaris software is provided by an OS server.

AutoClient systems and diskless clients reduce the burden and cost of system administration by eliminating the work you do to configure and maintain your desktop systems, which includes installing the Solaris software. These systems help you centralize your administration. However, even if you are going to set up AutoClient systems or diskless clients, you still need to use this book to install an OS server.

For more information about using these types of systems, refer to the Solstice AdminSuite 2.3 Administration Guide.

Installing Standalone Systems and Servers

There are two types of systems on which you must install the Solaris software:

Methods for Installing Solaris Software

There are four methods for installing Solaris software:

Installing Over the Network

Because the Solaris software is distributed on a CD, a system has to have access to a CD-ROM drive to install it. However, if you have a large number of systems that don't have a local CD-ROM drive or if you don't want to insert the Solaris CD into every system's CD-ROM drive, you can set upthe systems to install from a remote Solaris CD image. The remote Solaris CD image must be provided by an install server, which has either the Solaris CD copied to its hard disk or the Solaris CD mounted from its CD-ROM drive.

You can use all of the installation methods when installing a system over the network. However, installing systems over the network with the custom JumpStart method is a good way to centralize and automate the installation process for a large enterprise site.

Requirements for a Totally Automated Installation

To set up your site to install Solaris software on systems over the network with no user intervention, you must: