Chapter 4
Silent Installation
Silent installation allows you to use a file to predefine all the answers that you would normally supply interactively to the setup program. This provides you with the ability to script the installation of your iPlanet Directory Access Routers (iDARs).
This chapter includes the following sections:
Using Silent Installation
To use silent installation, you call the setup program with the -s and -f command line options. That is, to use silent installation:
On UNIX machines, log in as root. On Windows NT machines, log in with Administrator privileges.
Create a new directory:
# mkdir idar5
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# cd idar5
If you have not already done so, download the product binaries file to the installation directory.
On UNIX, unpack the product binaries file using the following command:
# gunzip -dc file_name.tar.gz | tar -xvof-
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where file_name corresponds to the product binaries that you want to unpack.
On Windows NT, unzip the product binaries.
Prepare the file that will contain your installation directives.
Run the setup program with the -s and -f command line options:
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setup -s -f file_name
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where file_name is the name of the file that contains your installation directives.
The next section in this chapter provides some examples of the silent install files. A section describing all of the silent installation directives that you can use when installing iDAR then follows.
Preparing Silent Installation Files
Silent installation is intended for use at sites where many server instances must be created.
This section first describes how to create silent installation files. It then provides examples of using silent installation to support the following common installation scenarios:
A Typical Installation
Using an Existing Configuration Directory
Installing the Stand-Alone iPlanet Console
You find a definition of the individual installation directives in Installation Directives.
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Note
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Any Distinguished Names in the files must be in the UTF-8 character set encoding.
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Creating Silent Installation Files
The best way to create a file for use with silent installation is to use the setup program to interactively create a server instance of the type that you want to duplicate around your enterprise.
To do this run setup with the -k flag. The setup program will create the following file: <ServerRoot>/setup/install.inf
This file contains all the directives that you would use with silent installation to create the server instance. You can then use this file to create other server instances of that type.
You will have to make some modifications to this file before you use it on other machines. Specifically, ensure that you:
Set the FullMachineName directive to a value that is appropriate for the machine on which iDAR will be installed, if it's not to be the local machine. In most circumstances, it is best not to use this directive because FullMachineName will then default to the local host name. However, if you use custom installation to generate your initial server instance, then this directive will appear in the install.inf file.
Set the ServerIPAddress directive appropriate for the local machine. The same usage rules apply for ServerIPAddress as for FullMachineName. Specifically, try to not include ServerIPAddress in your install.inf file unless you absolutely have to (as may be necessary for multi-homed systems).
Verify the installation path on the ServerRoot directive. If you are installing on both Windows NT and UNIX machines, make sure the appropriate path delimiter is used. Add or remove the Windows NT drive letter designation as is appropriate for the host you are installing on.
If you create your install.inf file on a Windows NT machine, then the SuiteSpotUserID and SuiteSpotGroup directives are both set to nobody. If you subsequently use this file on a UNIX machine, ensure the user and group specified by these directives are appropriate for the machine. The SuiteSpotUserID and SuiteSpotGroup directives determine what user and group a server will run under when installed on a UNIX system.
Be sure to protect install.inf files since they contain passwords in the clear.
For complete information on the directives you can use in a silent installation file, see Installation Directives.
A Typical Installation
The following table shows the install.inf file that is generated for a typical installation:
[General]
FullMachineName= idarhost.yourdomain.com
ConfigDirectoryLdapURL=ldap://directoryhost.yourdomain.com:389/
SuiteSpotUserID= nobody
SuitespotGroup= nobody
ConfigDirectoryAdminID= admin
ConfigDirectoryAdminPwd= admin
ServerRoot= /usr/iplanet/servers
AdminDomain= yourdomain.com
Components=svrcore,base,admin,idar,idarConsole,idarConsoleInstaller,idarTCL
[admin]
SysUser= nobody
Port= 5000
ServerIpAddress=
ServerAdminID= admin
ServerAdminPwd= admin
Components= admin,admin-client
[idarConsoleInstaller]
idarListenPort= 10389
Components= idarConsoleInstaller
[base]
Components= base,base-client,base-jre
[idar]
Components= idar
[idarConsole]
Components= idarConsole
[idarTCL]
Components= idarTCL
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Installing the Stand-Alone iPlanet Console
The following is the install.inf file that is generated when you install just iPlanet Console:
[General]
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ServerRoot= /usr/iplanet/servers
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Components=
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Installation Directives
This section describes the basic format of the file used for silent installation. It then describes the directives that are available for each area of the silent installation file. Specifically, the following sections are provided here:
Silent Installation File Format
When you use silent installation, you provide all the installation information in a file. This file is formatted as follows:
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[General]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
[Base]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
[idar]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
[admin]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
[idarTCL]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
[idarConsole]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
[idarConsoleInstaller]
directive=value
directive=value
directive=value
...
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The keywords [General], [idar], [idarConsole], [idarConsoleInstaller], [idarTCL], and [admin] are required. They indicate that the directives that follow are meant for a specific aspect of the installation. They must be provided in the file in the order indicated above.
[General] Installation Directives
[General] installation directives specify information of global interest to the iPlanet servers installed at your site. That is, the information you provide here will be common to all your iPlanet servers.
The [General] installation directives are:
Table 4-1 [General] Installation Directives
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Directive
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Description
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Components
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Specifies components to be installed. The list of available components will differ depending on the iPlanet servers available on your installation media. For stand-alone directory installation, the list of components is:
srvrcore—uninstallation binaries
base—the base installation package
admin—the Administration Server binaries
idar—the iDAR binaries
idarTCL—the TCL binaries
idarConsole—components used by the console to make it iDAR aware
idarConsoleInstaller—installation routines to "glue" iDAR's Console to the host platform
This directive is required. At a minimum, you should always provide:
components = srvrcore, base, admin
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ServerRoot
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Specifies the full path to the directory where the iPlanet server binaries are installed. This directive is required.
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FullMachineName
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Specifies the fully qualified domain name of the machine on which you are installing the server. The default is the local host name.
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SuiteSpotUserID
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UNIX only. Specifies the username that iPlanet servers will run as. This parameter does not apply to the user that the Administration Server runs as. See the SysUser directive in Table 4-4 for more information. The default is user nobody but this should be changed for most deployments.
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SuiteSpotGroup
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UNIX only. Specifies the group that iPlanet servers will run as. The default is group nobody but this should be changed for most deployments.
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ConfigDirectoryLdapURL
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Specifies the LDAP URL that is used to connect to your configuration directory. LDAP URLs are described in the iPlanet Directory Server Administrator's Guide. This directive is required.
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AdminDomain
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Specifies the administration domain under which this server will be registered. See Deciding the User and Group for Your iDAR (UNIX Only) for more information about administration domains.
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ConfigDirectoryAdminID
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Specifies the user ID of the entry that has administration privileges to the configuration directory. This directive is required.
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ConfigDirectoryAdminPwd
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Specifies the password for the ConfigDirectoryAdminID. This directive is required.
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UserDirectoryLdapURL
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Specifies the LDAP URL that is used to connect to the directory where your user and group data is stored. If this directive is not supplied, the configuration directory is used for this purpose. LDAP URLs are described in the iPlanet Directory Server Administrator's Guide.
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UserDirectoryAdminID
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Specifies the user ID of the entry that has administration privileges to the user directory.
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UserDirectoryAdminPwd
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Specifies the password for the UserDirectoryAdminID.
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[Base] Installation Directives
There is only one [Base] installation directive and it allows you to determine whether iPlanet Console is installed:
Table 4-2 [Base] Installation Directive
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Directive
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Description
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Components
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Specifies the base components to be installed. The base components are:
base—install the shared libraries used by all Server Consoles. You must install this package if you are also installing some other iPlanet server.
base-client—install the Java run time environment used by the Server Consoles.
base-jre—causes the Java run time environment to be installed.
This directive is required if you are installing an iPlanet server (versus, for example, just iPlanet Console). You must install both packages when you are installing an iPlanet server.
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[idarConsoleInstaller] Installation Directives
[idarConsoleInstaller] installation directives specify information of interest only to the iDAR instance that you are currently installing. These directives are described in the following section.
Required [idarConsoleInstaller] Installation Directives
You must provide the following directives when you use silent installation with iDAR:
Table 4-3 Required [idarConsoleInstaller] Installation Directives
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Directive
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Description
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Components
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Specifies the idarConsoleInstaller components to be installed. The idarConsoleInstaller components are:
idarConsoleInstaller—setup utilities.
This directive is required. It is recommended that you always install these components any time you install iDAR.
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idarListenPort
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Specifies the port on which iDAR will listen for connections.
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[admin] Installation Directives
[admin] installation directives specify information of interest only to your iDAR's Administration Server. That is, this is the installation information required for the Administration Server that is used to manage the iDAR instance that you are currently installing.
The [admin] installation directives are:
Table 4-4 [admin] Installation Directives
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Directive
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Description
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Components
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Specifies the admin components to be installed. The base components are:
admin—install the Administration Server. You must install the Administration Server if you are also installing some other iPlanet server.
admin-client—install iPlanet Console. Specify just this component if you are installing iPlanet Console as stand-alone. Do not install this component if you will remotely manage your servers and iPlanet Console will be installed somewhere else on your network.
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SysUser
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UNIX only. Specifies the user that the Administration Server will run as. For default installations that use the default iPlanet port numbers, this user must be root. Root is the default. For information on what users your servers should run as, see Deciding the User and Group for Your iDAR (UNIX Only)
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Port
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Specifies the port that the Administration Server will use. Note that the Administration Server's host name is given by the FullMachineName directive. For more information on FullMachineName, see Table 4-1.
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ServerAdminID
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Specifies the administration ID that can be used to access this Administration Server if the configuration directory is not responding. The default is to use the value specified by the ConfigDirectoryAdminID directive. See Defining Authentication Entities for information on this directive.
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ServerAdminPwd
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Specifies the password for ServerAdminID.
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ServerIPAddress
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Specifies the IP address that the Administration Server will listen to. Use this directive if you are installing on a multi-homed system and you do not want to use the first IP address for your Administration Server.
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