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Solaris 9 Installation Guide

Planning Your Solaris Flash Installation

Before you create and install a Solaris Flash archive, you must make some decisions about how you want to install the Solaris operating environment on your systems.

Designing the Installation of the Master System

The first task in the Solaris Flash installation process is to install a system, the master system, with the configuration that you want each of the clone systems to have. You can use any of the Solaris installation methods to install an archive on the master system. The installation can be a subset or a complete installation of the Solaris operating environment. After you complete the installation, you can add or remove software or modify any configuration files.

The master system and the clone systems must have the same kernel architectures. For example, you can only use an archive that was created from a master system that has a sun4u architecture to install clones with a sun4u architecture.

You must install the master system with the exact configuration that you want on each of the clone systems. The decisions that you make when you design the installation of the master system depend on the following:

Customizing the Solaris Installation on the Master System

After you install the Solaris operating environment on the master system by using any of the Solaris installation methods, you can add or delete software and modify system configuration information as necessary.

Further customization can be done when creating the archive. For example, you can exclude large data files that you might not want in the archive. For an overview, see “Customizing the Solaris Flash Archive Files and Directories”.

Note -

After you install the Solaris Flash archive on a clone system, some host-specific files are deleted and are re–created for the clone machine. The installation program uses the sys-unconfig(1M) command and the sysidtool(1M) programs to delete and re–create the host-specific network configuration files. The files that are re–created include such files as /etc/hosts, /etc/defaultrouter, and /etc/defaultdomain.

Creating Archives for SPARC and IA Systems

If you want to use the Solaris Flash installation method to install the Solaris software on both SPARC and IA systems, you must create a separate Solaris Flash archive for each platform. Use the Solaris Flash archive that was created from the SPARC master system to install SPARC systems. Use the Solaris Flash archive that was created from the IA master system to install IA systems.

Supporting Peripheral Devices Not Found on the Master System

You might be installing a master system that has different peripheral devices than the clone systems. If you install the master system with the Core, End User, Developer, or Entire Software Group, the master system supports only the peripheral devices that are attached to the master system at the time of installation.

For example, if you install the Entire Software Group on a master system that has a GX CG6 frame buffer, the installation contains support for only the GX CG6 frame buffer. Consequently, you can only install the archive that you create from this system on clone systems that have either the GX CG6 frame buffer or no frame buffers. If you use the archive to install a clone system with an Elite 3D frame buffer, the Elite 3D is unusable. The required drivers will not be installed.

You might have clone systems that have peripheral devices that the master system does not have. You can install support for these peripheral devices on the master system even though the master system does not have the devices. The Solaris Flash archive that you create from this master system contains support for the peripheral devices on the clone systems.

Sometimes, you might want to install clone systems that have different peripherals from the master system. You can install support for those peripherals on the master system in one of the following ways.

Planning the Creation of a Solaris Flash Archive

After you install the master system, the next task in the Solaris Flash installation process is to create a Solaris Flash archive. Files on the master system are copied to a Solaris Flash archive along with various pieces of identification information. You can create a Solaris Flash archive while the master system is running in multiuser mode or single-user mode. You can also create a Solaris Flash archive after you boot from one of the following:

Create the archive when the system is in as static a state as possible.

Customizing the Solaris Flash Archive Files and Directories

When you create a Solaris Flash archive, some files and directories that are to be copied from the master system can be excluded. If you have excluded a directory, you can also restore specified files or subdirectories under that directory. For example, you could create an archive that excludes all files and directories in /a/aa/bb/c. The content of the /bb subdirectory could be included. The only content then would be in the /bb subdirectory.

Caution - Caution -

Use the flar create file-exclusion options with caution. If you exclude some directories, others that you were unaware of might be left in the archive, such as system configuration files. The system would then be inconsistent and the installation would not work. Excluding directories and files is best used with data that can easily be removed without disrupting the system, such as large data files.

The following table lists the flar create command options that can exclude files and directories and restore files and subdirectories.

How Specified? 

Options That Exclude 

Options That Include 

Specify the name of the directory or file 

-x exclude_dir/filename

-y include_dir/filename

Use a file that contains a list 

-X list_filename

-z list_filename

-f list_filename

-z list_filename

For descriptions of these options, see Table 20–3.

For examples of customizing an archive, see “Creating an Archive Examples”.

Solaris Flash Archive Sections

Solaris Flash archives contain at least three sections. The sections include sections that identify the archive and the actual files that were copied from the master system.

  1. Archive Cookie section – The first section of a Solaris Flash archive contains a cookie that identifies the file as a Solaris Flash archive. The cookie must be present for an archive to be valid.

  2. Archive Identification Section – The second section contains keywords with values that provide identification information about the archive. You are required to specify a name for the Solaris Flash archive. Other information that you can specify about the archive includes:

    • The author of the archive

    • The date that the archive was created

    • The name of the master system that you used to create the archive

    For a list of keywords that describe the archive, see “Identification Section Keywords”.

  3. User–Defined sections – Following the Archive Identification Section, you can define and insert sections. The Solaris Flash archive does not process any sections that you insert. For example, this section could contain a description of the archive or perhaps a script to check the integrity of an application.

    In a User-Defined section, you can also define keywords. The Solaris Flash archive ignores user-defined keywords, but you can provide scripts or programs that process the Identification section and use these keywords.

    The User-Defined section requires the following format.

    User-Defined sections 

    • Must be line oriented

    • Must terminate with newline (ASCII 0x0a) characters

    • Can have unlimited length of individual lines

    • Encode binary data by using base64 or a similar algorithm.

    User-Defined keywords 

    • Must begin with X. X-department is a valid user-defined keyword.

    • Can contain any characters other than linefeeds, equal signs, null characters, and forward slashes (/).

  4. Archive Files Section – The Archive Files Section contains the files that were saved from the master system.

You can use the flar command to retrieve information about the archive. For detailed instructions, refer to “Extracting Information From an Archive”.

Where to Store the Solaris Flash Archive

After you create the Solaris Flash archive, you can save the archive on the hard disk of the master system or on a tape. After you save the archive, you can copy it to any file system or media that you choose.

Compressing the Archive

When you create the Solaris Flash archive, you can specify that the archive be saved as a compressed file by using the compress(1) utility. An archive that is compressed requires less disk storage space and creates less congestion when you install the archive over a network.

Planning the Installation of Solaris Flash Archives

The final task in the Solaris Flash installation process is to install Solaris Flash archives on clone systems.

Deciding How to Install Solaris Flash Archives

You can use any of the Solaris installation methods to install Solaris Flash archives on clone systems.

The Solaris Web Start program on the Solaris 9 DVD or Solaris 9 Installation CD enables you to install Solaris Flash archives that are stored on the following:

For installation instructions, see “SPARC: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris Web Start Program” or “IA: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris Web Start Program”.

The Solaris suninstall program on the Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 CD enables you to install Solaris Flash archives that are stored on the following:

For installation instructions, see “SPARC: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris suninstall Program” or “IA: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris suninstall Program”.

The custom JumpStart installation program enables you to install Solaris Flash archives that are stored on the following:

For installation instructions, see “To Prepare to Install a Solaris Flash Archive With a Custom JumpStart Installation”.

Solaris Live Upgrade enables you to install Solaris Flash archives that are stored on the following:

For installation instructions, see “Installing Solaris Flash Archives on a Boot Environment”.