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C H A P T E R  4

Linux Operating System Installation

This chapter contains information about installing the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise System (SLES) operating systems and system‐specific drivers onto your Sun Netra X4250 server.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Installing the Operating System

This section provides an overview of the Linux OS installation process and is not meant be a comprehensive source of information for installing a Linux OS. This section provides installation methods and tasks for installing a supported version of Linux on the Sun Netra X4250 server.

OS Installation Overview

The following procedures are for installing drivers if you are performing a fresh installation of a Linux OS. You do not need to reinstall the drivers if you are using the preinstalled version of the OS. Perform the tasks in the order given.

See TABLE 4-1 for the task map for OS installation.


TABLE 4-1   OS Installation Task Map 
Step Task Description Instructions
1. Set up your server. Install your server hardware and configure the service processor. Sun Netra X4250 Server Installation Guide
2. Prepare your system for OS installation. Set the display environment. If necessary, erase the primary boot disk. Chapter 1, “Operating System Installation Overview And Preparation”
3. Set up your system for a RAID or non-RAID configuration based on the SAS controller card. Sun Netra X4250 server supports two SAS controller cards. RAID setup is different for each card. Chapter 2, “RAID Configuration”
4. Review the Sun Netra X4250 Server Product Notes. The product notes contain late-breaking news about the Solaris OS software and patches. Sun Netra X4250 Server Product Notes
5. Install the Linux OS. Choose an installation method and locate the installation instructions. OS Installation Methods
6. Install the system-specific drivers from the Tools and Drivers DVD. Install the system-specific drivers needed to run the Linux OS on the Sun Netra X4250 server. Installing the System-Specific Drivers
7. Run the up2date utility. Patches are available from the SunSolve Patch Portal at: http://www.sunsolve.sun.com To Run the up2date Utility for the RHEL OS

OS Installation Methods

See the following list of installation methods to determine the type of installation that you want to perform and the information source for the installation.


Method Section or Procedure
Install from CD/DVD media. To Install Using CD/DVD Media
Install from the network. To Install Using PXE
Install from a remote server. To Install Using Remote Console With Virtual CD/DVD

See Choosing an OS Installation Method for a description of each method.

procedure icon  To Install Using CD/DVD Media

procedure icon  To Install Using PXE

procedure icon  To Install Using Remote Console With Virtual CD/DVD

This method includes using a remote networked system to install the OS onto the Sun Netra X4250 server. The CD/DVD drive of the remote system (virtual CD-ROM) is used to access the OS media.The output of the Sun Netra X4250 server is displayed on the remote system (Remote Console).

Specific details on the using the Remote Console in the Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) can be found in the Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager 2.0 User’s Guide.


Note - This procedure assumes that you are familiar with the ILOM web GUI administration. More information can be found in the Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager 2.0 User’s Guide.


Requirements for Remote Console installation include:

  • Remote system connected to the network.

  • One of the following browsers on the remote system – Internet Explorer, Mozilla, or Firefox.

  • CD/DVD drive connected to the remote system.

  • Media for installing the OS of your choice.

  • SP of the Sun Netra X4250 server set up as instructed in the Sun Netra X4250 Server Installation Guide.

  • You must be logged into the remote system as root.

  1. On a remote system, open a browser and enter the IP address of the ILOM SP for the Sun Netra X4250 server on which you want to install the OS.

    The ILOM login screen appears.

  2. Type the user name and password for an account with administrator privileges and click Login.

    The ILOM main menu screen appears.

  3. Set the session timeout:

    1. From the main menu, click the System Information tab.

      The System Information submenu tabs appear.

    2. Click the Session Time-Out submenu tab.

      The Session Time-Out screen appears.

    3. Select 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 3 hours, and then click Apply.

  4. From the main menu, click the Remote Control tab.

    The Remote Control screen appears.

  5. Select the Redirection tab.

    The Redirection Screen appears with a Launch Redirection button.

  6. Click the Launch Redirection button.

    A screen appears with a Launch button, your current host name, IP address, and user name.

  7. Click Launch.

  8. Insert the OS CD/DVD to be installed on the Sun Netra X4250 server into the local CD/DVD drive.

  9. In the remote console screen, select Storage and then select Mount Devices.

    The Device Configuration screen appears.

  10. In the Storage 1 Source drop-down list, select the CD/DVD drive to be used for installing the OS.

  11. Click Submit.

  12. Reboot the server.

    The server boots from the virtual CD.

Installing the System-Specific Drivers

You can use the methods described in the following sections to install system-specific drivers onto your Sun Netra X4250 server.

Driver Installation Script

A driver installation script is available on the Sun Netra X4250 Server Tools and Drivers DVD. You can download the Tools and Drivers DVD ISO image from the downloads link at http://www.sun.com/download.


Note - If you have created a new diagnostic partition, you also must run this script to mount the diagnostic partition. See the Sun Netra X4250 Server Service Manual for information about how to create a diagnostic partition.


procedure icon  To Install the Drivers Using KVMS Over IP

  •   See the instructions in To Install Using Remote Console With Virtual CD/DVD or the Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager 2.0 User’s Guide for specific details.


    Note - Before performing a remote installation, use the ILOM web-based interface (web GUI) to disable the session timeout function. The installation process then can proceed without interruption.


procedure icon  To Install Drivers Directly Onto the Sun Netra X4250 Server

If your server has a DVD drive, you can install the drivers directly onto the server, using the Sun Netra X4250 Server Tools and Drivers DVD.

  1. Log in to the Sun Netra X4250 server as root (superuser).

  2. Insert the Sun Netra X4250 Server Tools and Drivers DVD into the DVD drive and type:


    # cd /mountpoint/DRIVERS/LINUX/operating_system

    where /mountpoint is the directory to which the DVD is mounted and operating_system is the type of Linux installed on the server (value is RED_HAT or SUSE).

    • If the directory does not exist, the DVD did not automount. You must mount the DVD and change to the correct directory as shown in Step 5 and Step 6.

    • If you were able to access the operating_system directory, go to Step 7.

  3. If the DVD does not automount, open a terminal window and mount the DVD:


    # mount /dev/cdrom /mountpoint

    where /mountpoint is the appropriate mount point for the OS and optical drive type.

    For example:


    # mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/dvdrom

  4. Change to the /mountpoint/DRIVERS/LINUX/operating_system directory.

    where /mountpoint is the directory where the DVD is mounted and operating_system is the version of Linux installed on the server (value is RED_HAT or SUSE).

    For example:


    # cd /mnt/dvdrom/DRIVERS/LINUX/RED_HAT

  5. Eject the DVD after the driver installation is complete.

  6. Reboot the server.

procedure icon  To Install the LSI RAID Management Utilities

  1. Insert the Tools and Drivers DVD in the server’s DVD drive.

  2. Change to the /DRIVERS/LINUX/RAID/LSI/MSM directory and list the directory contents:


    # cd /DRIVERS/LINUX/RAID/LSI/MSM
# ls -al

  3. Copy the compressed MSM tar file to a directory of your choice and extract the RAID storage manager contents.

  4. Follow the instructions in the disk/readme.txt file.

Running the up2date Utility for the RHEL

Run the up2date utility after installing the OS and drivers from the Sun Netra X4250 Tools and Drivers DVD.

procedure icon  To Run the up2date Utility for the RHEL OS

Run the up2date utility after installing the OS and drivers from the Sun Netra X4250 Server Tools and Drivers DVD.

  1. Set up the up2date utility on the server.

    See the documentation included with your RHEL media kit for details.

  2. Run the up2date program.

    Select the kernel packages in the available package updates section.



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