After you create a profile, use the pfinstall(1M) command to test the profile. Test the profile before you use the profile to install or upgrade a system. Testing a profile is especially useful when you are creating upgrade profiles that reallocate disk space.
By looking at the installation output that is generated by pfinstall, you can quickly determine if a profile works as you intended. For example, use the profile to determine if a system has enough disk space to upgrade to a new release of the Solaris software before you perform the upgrade on that system.
pfinstall enables you to test a profile against the following:
The system's disk configuration where pfinstall is being run.
Other disk configurations. You use a disk configuration file that represents a structure of a disk, for example, a disk's bytes/sector, flags, and slices. Creating disk configuration files is described in Creating Disk Configuration Files and x86: To Create a Disk Configuration File.
You cannot use a disk configuration file to test a profile you intend to use to upgrade a system. Instead, you must test the profile against the system's actual disk configuration and the software that is currently installed on that system.
To test a profile for a particular Solaris release successfully and accurately, you must test a profile within the Solaris environment of the same release. For example, if you want to test a Solaris 9 initial installation profile, run the pfinstall command on a system that is running Solaris 9.
You need to create a temporary installation environment if you are testing a profile under one of the following conditions:
You want to test a Solaris 9 upgrade profile on a system that is running a previous version of the Solaris software.
You do not have a Solaris 9 system installed yet to test Solaris 9 initial installation profiles.
Boot a system from an image of one of the following:
Solaris 9 SPARC Platform Edition DVD
Solaris 9 x86 Platform Edition DVD
Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 SPARC Platform Edition CD
Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 x86 Platform Edition CD
If you want to test an upgrade profile, boot the system that you are upgrading.
Respond to the system identification questions.
Exit from the installation program.
If you are using the Solaris 9 DVD, type ! at the following prompt.
Solaris Web Start will assist you in installing software for Solaris. <Press ENTER to continue> {"!" exits} |
If you are using the Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 CD, select the Solaris suninstall program as the program to install the Solaris 9 operating environment. On the first screen that is displayed, select Exit.
Execute the pfinstall command from the shell. For details about using the pfinstall command, see Step 7 in To Test a Profile.
Locate a system on which to test the profile that is the same type of platform, SPARC or x86, for which the profile was created.
If you are testing an upgrade profile, you must test the profile on the actual system that you intend to upgrade.
Use the following decision table to determine what to do next.
Test Scenario |
Instructions |
---|---|
Test an initial installation profile and have a system that is running the Solaris 9 software |
Become superuser on the system and go to Step 5. |
Test an upgrade profile, or you do not have a system that is running Solaris 9 to test an initial installation profile |
Create a temporary Solaris 9 environment to test the profile. For details, see To Create a Temporary Solaris 9 Environment to Test a Profile. Then, go to Step 3. |
Create a temporary mount point.
# mkdir /tmp/mnt |
Mount the directory that contains the profile or profiles that you want to test.
Mount Scenario |
Typing Instructions |
|
---|---|---|
Mount a remote NFS file system for systems on the network |
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SPARC: Mount a UFS-formatted diskette |
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Mount a PCFS-formatted diskette |
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To test the profile with a specific system memory size, set SYS_MEMSIZE to the specific memory size in Mbytes.
# SYS_MEMSIZE=memory_size # export SYS_MEMSIZE |
Did you mount a directory in Step 4?
If yes, change the directory to /tmp/mnt.
# cd /tmp/mnt |
If no, change the directory to where the profile is located, which is usually the JumpStart directory.
# cd jumpstart_dir_path |
Test the profile with the pfinstall(1M) command.
# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D:-d disk_config_file[[-c path]] profile |
You must include the -d or -D option. If you do not include one of these options, pfinstall uses the profile you specify to install the Solaris 9 software. All of the data on the system is overwritten.
pfinstall uses the current system's disk configuration to test the profile. You must use the -D option to test an upgrade profile.
pfinstall uses the disk configuration file, disk_config_file, to test the profile. If disk_config_file is not located in the directory where pfinstall is run, you must specify the path.
For instructions on how to create a disk configuration file, see Creating Disk Configuration Files.
You cannot use the -d disk_config_file option with an upgrade profile, install_type upgrade. You must always test an upgrade profile against a system's disk configuration, that is, you must use the -D option.
The path to the Solaris 9 software image. You use this option, for example, if the system is using Volume Manager to mount the Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 CD for your platform.
The -c option is not required if you booted from a Solaris 9 DVD or a Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 CD image for your platform. The DVD or CD image is mounted on /cdrom as part of the booting process.
The name of the profile to test. If profile is not in the directory where pfinstall is being run, you must specify the path.
The following example shows how to use pfinstall to test a profile that is named basic_prof. The profile is tested against the disk configuration on a system on which the Solaris 9 software is installed. The basic_prof profile is located in the /jumpstart directory, and the path to the Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 SPARC Platform Edition CD or Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 x86 Platform Edition CD image is specified because Volume Manager is being used.
# cd /jumpstart # /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D -c /cdrom/pathname basic_prof |
The following example shows how to use pfinstall to test the profile that is named basic_prof on a Solaris 9 system. The test is performed against the 535_test disk configuration file. The test checks for 64 Mbytes of system memory. This example uses a Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 SPARC Platform Edition CD or Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 x86 Platform Edition CD image that is located in the /export/install directory.
# SYS_MEMSIZE=64 # export SYS_MEMSIZE # /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -d 535_test -c /export/install basic_prof |