Installing Packages in Heterogeneous Environments

There are two cases in which software management on clients/servers is further complicated:

• When the server is running a different Solaris release than the client - For example, the server is running the Solaris 7 release and it is serving Solaris 2.5 diskless clients.

• When the server and the clients are different hardware platforms - For example, the server is a SPARC system serving diskless clients that are x86 systems.

These are generically referred to as heterogeneous environments. When managing software in heterogeneous environments, you must first add the proper Solaris and architecture services appropriate for the server's clients. To do this, you use Host Manager to "add services" to the server (for detailed information, see Chapter 4, Managing Server and Client Support (Tasks).

For detailed information about how to add packages in a heterogeneous environment, see "Adding Packages in a Heterogeneous Client/Server Environment".