DNS Configuration During System Identification

The system identification utilities were updated in the Solaris 7 5/99 software release. This section supplements installation information in the Solaris Advanced Installation Guide.

Prior to the Solaris 7 5/99 software release, the system identification utilities were only able to configure a system as either a NIS client or a NIS+ client. These utilities are now also able to configure a system as a DNS client. You may specify that the system is to be a DNS client interactively or through the sysidcfg file. At this time, you cannot specify DNS through the add_install_client command.

The system identification utilities attempt to automatically determine configuration information, using data from a variety of sources. They first look for a sysidcfg file. If they cannot find the needed information in the sysidcfg file, they attempt to automatically detect the data using the network. In the case of name service configuration, the system identification utilities attempt to automatically locate a name service, unless the name service type and configuration are specified in the sysidcfg file. The utilities first attempt to automatically detect a NIS+ server. If a NIS+ server is not found, they look for a NIS server. If a NIS server is not found, the utilities interactively query for the configuration information. It is not currently possible to automatically detect a DNS server.

Preconfiguring With the sysidcfg File

The sysidcfg file preconfigures system identification information through a set of keywords (see Table 2-1) that specify the pieces of information you want to preconfigure. See the Solaris Advanced Installation Guide for more information about the use of the sysidcfg file, including a complete list of available keywords.

The name_service keyword has been augmented to allow the specification of DNS as an available name service. This augmented keyword is described in Table 2-1.