Oracle Services Tools Bundle FAQ

Chapter 1 Frequently Asked Questions

This document provides answers to questions about the Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB) for Sun Systems.

About Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Packages Bundled in Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Downloading and Installing Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Using Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

STB for OpenSolaris

Contacts and Support

About Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Question:

What is Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB) for Sun Systems?

Answer:

STB is a bundling of the underlying components, and any applications, packages, libraries, and sub components on which those component applications depend, wrapped with a smart installer. The installer is aware of any installation—order dependencies between the components, along with any interdependencies between them. Further, the installer will be aware of the opt-in or opt-out status of each of its components.

Service Tags (ST) is an important base component for the Sun Microsystems, Inc. product registration. Products first need to be tagged before they can be registered. When Service Tags is installed, it creates a tag for the Solaris operating system. Oracle Explorer Data Collector will create a Service Tag for itself if Service Tags is installed. STB installer is aware of this dependency and will try to install Service Tags prior to Oracle Explorer Data Collector. Oracle Explorer Data Collector collects any Service Tags present on the system for delivery back to Sun. Those Service Tags, when combined with a Sun Online Account name, can be used to create product registrations for both Solaris and Oracle Explorer Data Collector.

STB itself is available in the Sun standard operating system and architecture-specific manner, as a self-extracting installer. The prerequisite XML Libraries are included.

STB 6.0 contains the following components:

STB supports OpenSolaris via a new script install_stb_opensol.sh. This script is aware of the IPS packaging mechanism on OpenSolaris and delivers/install Oracle Explorer Data Collector in IPS form.

Question:

Why was the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems created?

Answer:

The STB was created to bring key Sun serviceability applications together into a single, consolidated, unit for delivery to both customers and field personnel. By bundling these applications together as a unit, any interdependencies between them can be handled by the STB installer.

Question:

On what architecture or machines does the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems run?

Answer:

STB currently runs on Solaris™ SPARC®, OpenSolaris, and Solaris x86 architectures.

Question:

Will the installation components vary based on the operating system version in which the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems is installed?

Answer:

Yes. Components for installation will be decided based on the operating system (OS) version and architecture.

Question:

What has changed since the last version of the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems?

Answer:

STB includes the following updates:

Question:

With Oracle Explorer Data Collector download being decommissioned, what will replace it?

Answer:

STB download will replace Oracle Explorer Data Collector download. Only STB will be available for download.

Packages Bundled in Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Question:

What packages are bundled along with the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems installer?

Answer:

The following packages are bundled in STB:


Note –

The correct order of installation of STB modules is as follows (from first to last installed):

  1. SNEEP Packages (SUNWsneep - Oracle Serial Number in EEPROM)

  2. Product Serial Number Collector (SUNWpsn)

  3. XML libraries (SUNWlxml, SUNWlxmlx)

  4. Service Tags Packages

    (SUNWservicetagr, SUNWservicetagu, SUNWstosreg, SUNWsthwreg)

  5. Oracle Explorer Data Collector Packages (SUNWexplo, SUNWexplu)

  6. Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool Packages (SUNWlwact one for SPARC and one for x86)


Question:

On what operating system version does the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems run?

Answer:

STB currently runs on the following operating system (OS) versions and the combinations of the components has been listed below:

  1. Solaris 10/SPARC: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5 + Service Tags 1.1.5 + Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.3 +SNEEP 2.9

  2. Solaris 9/SPARC: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5 + Service Tags 1.1.5 + Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.3 +SNEEP 2.9


    Note –

    XML libraries 2.4.12 or later are prerequisites for Service Tags.


  3. Solaris 8/SPARC: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5 + Service Tags 1.1.5 + Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.3 +SNEEP 2.9


    Note –

    XML libraries 2.4.12 or later are prerequisites for Service Tags.


  4. Solaris 7 and earlier/SPARC: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5 + Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.3 +SNEEP 2.9 (No Service Tags)

  5. Solaris 10/x86: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5 + Service Tags 1.1.5 + Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.3 + SNEEP 2.9

  6. Solaris 9/x86: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5 + Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.3 + SNEEP 2.9 (No Service Tags)

  7. OpenSolaris: Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.5


Note –

STB supports Solaris 5.6 and older versions via the Solaris 7 SPARC (combination 4). Those combinations must clearly state “Solaris 7 and earlier.”


Question:

Is there a way to install only a particular Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems component?

Answer:

No. STB 6.0 and higher installs all STB components by default. Users cannot choose individual application packages for installation.

Question:

STB does not let me choose individual application packages for installation. Why?

Answer:

STB component bundles have intricate dependencies amongst them. It has always been recommended that users install all STB components for a better user experience. STB 6.0 and higher mandates it.

Question:

Is SNEEP a prerequisite for Oracle Explorer Data Collector and LWACT now? Why?

Answer:

Yes. STB 5.3 and higher versions mandates the presence of the SNEEP package for the installation of Oracle Explorer Data Collector and LWACT. This is done to ensure serial number consistency across SNEEP, Oracle Explorer Data Collector, and LWACT.

Question:

Can I install SNEEP without installing Oracle Explorer Data Collector?

Answer:

Yes. SNEEP can be installed without installing Oracle Explorer Data Collector. However, the STB new menu installs all STB-bundled applications including Oracle Explorer Data Collector without prompting for a choice. Although not recommended, SNEEP can be installed as a standalone application using the STB extract option.

Question:

Are there any prerequisite for installing LWACT using STB?

Answer:

LWACT installation requires SNEEP and Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.0 or higher to be present on the system. STB installation takes care of these dependencies.

Question:

Does the installation dependency among SNEEP, Oracle Explorer Data Collector, and LWACT also apply to package extraction?

Answer:

No. Extract option of STB does not check for package dependencies.

Question:

I had hostname/hostid tags saved in EEPROM with their respective values. After STB installation, they got erased. Why?

Answer:

SNEEP 2.8 and higher does not support setting values for hostname/hostid tags in EEPROM as they are system commands. So STB erases the residual entries for hostname/hostid from EEPROM.

Question:

Can STB detect and notify user about serial number inconsistency across data sources available on the system?

Answer:

Yes, STB detects serial number inconsistency across data sources available on the system with help of SNEEP, attempts to make data sources consistent running the sneep start command and notifies user about the consistency of the data sources.

Downloading and Installing Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Question:

How do I obtain the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems?

Answer:

Use the following procedure to download the latest STB:

  1. Go to the STB download section of the Download Center: http://www.sun.com/service/stb/index.jsp

  2. In the drop-down lists, select the appropriate Platform and Language for your download.

  3. Review the STB License Agreement and mark the I agree check box to proceed with downloading.

    The Sun Download Center might require you to log in before proceeding.

  4. To download the installer, complete one of the following steps:

    • For Solaris, click install_stb.sh.

    • For OpenSolaris, click install_stb_opensol.sh.

Question:

How do I run the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems?

Answer:

Consult the help option for usage.

After downloading the STB installer, run the below help options:

Question:

How much space is required to run the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems?

Answer:

The minimum temporary space required to run Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems is the following:

Question:

In order to install a newer version of the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems, should I remove the previous version?

Answer:

No, the STB installer will upgrade all component applications to the latest version.

Using Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems

Question:

Where can I find the log files of the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems installer?

Answer:

All STB installer events (success or failure) on a system are logged under /var/log/install_stb-v<STB_VERSION>.log

Question:

Will I be able to run the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems installer without any user intervention?

Answer:

Yes, the auto option can be used to run STB installer in a non-interactive mode; however, There is no auto mode available for the OpenSolaris version of STB. The OpenSolaris version can only be run interactively.

Question:

What is the default option for the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems installer?

Answer:

The default option for STB installer is manual, where installer runs in interactive mode.

Question:

Does the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems support command-line arguments?

Answer:

For information, consult the help option for usage; type: ./install_stb.sh -help.

Question:

Are there any pre-requisite packages for the Oracle Services Tools Bundle for Sun Systems installer?

Answer:

STB is nothing more than an intelligent installer script, the patch pre-requisites are that of its individual components and not of STB as a whole. Therefore, if a certain application patch dependency is not met, only that application will fail to get installed. Individual components dependencies has to be checked on patches before installing STB.

You can find documentation of each component along with STB download at http://www.sun.com/service/stb

Question:

If I do not have enough space in/tmp, can I still install STB?

Answer:

Yes, 5.2 and higher versions of STB facilitates an option to unpack STB temporary files in alternate location. This can be achieved by setting an environment variable STB_INST_PATH before running STB.

For example, if you want to utilize /var for temporarily unpacking and installing STB components:

export STB_INST_PATH=/var

./install_stb.sh

This will unpack all temporary files in/var/STBinstall directory.


Note –

You need 49 MB free space to unpack temporary files.


Question:

How do I extract STB packages to a non-default directory?

Answer:

STB, by default, extracts all its packages to /var/tmp/stb/extract directory. However, starting from STB 5.2, packages bundled in STB can be extracted into non default directory by exporting an environmental variable STB_EXT_PATH.

For example if one wants to extract the packages to user defined path such as /tmp/foo:

export STB_EXT_PATH=/tmp/foo

./install_stb.sh -runmode auto -ext

This will extract all STB packages to /tmp/foo/stb/extract directory.

Question:

Can I run STB from a non-global zone?

Answer:

Yes. STB can be run from non global zone. However, only Service Tags and SNEEP can be installed or extracted in non global zones. Oracle Explorer Data Collector and LWACT can be installed only from global zone.

Question:

As I try to install Service Tags using STB, I get the message "Service Tag dependency failed" and the installation of Service Tags is skipped. Why does this happen?

Answer:

Service Tags depends on a number of packages without which it may not function properly. STB 5.2 and higher versions checks for the list of all service tags dependency packages before installing it. If one or more of these dependent package is found missing, STB skips Service Tags installation with the information on the missing packages.

Question:

What happens if STB is interrupted while it is run?

Answer:

If STB is interrupted during installation of a package, it attempts to clean up any partial installation that it creates. Also, STB displays the list of already completed installations during that run. User can manually remove them, if needed. Similarly, if STB is interrupted during extraction of packages, a message is displayed asking the user to remove the extracted packages manually. If STB is interrupted while it performs other tasks, it updates the log file, removes the traces of any transient files that it placed on the system and exits gracefully.

Question:

After I interrupt the STB installation by pressing Ctrl+C continuously I find partially installed STB component in system. Why is that so?

Answer:

STB, when interrupted, attempts to clean up partial installation from the system. But if user interrupts the clean up process continuously, it can abort package removal process, leaving behind partial installation. In this case, user has to manually cleanup the partially installed packages.

Question:

If system has any STB component partially installed, can STB detect that? How are these packages handled by STB?

Answer:

Yes, STB when invoked, can detect partial installation of its components, if any. When STB is invoked in manual mode, user will be prompted for overwriting the partially installed package. If user agrees, STB will remove the corresponding partially installed component and install the bundled version completely. In auto mode, any partial installations of the components will automatically be overwritten by the corresponding bundled versions.

Question:

Does STB support handsoff/jumpstart installation?

Answer:

Yes. STB 6.0 and higher supports jumpstart installation. STB should be run in auto mode in the jumpstart script.

Question:

Do we have any uninstallation script for STB?

Answer:

STB does not provide a script to remove packages installed by it. This is due to the interdependency between the packages and also due to the criticality of the functionality rendered by these packages instances on the system.

Although STB does not provide any uninstaller script, one can manually remove the packages installed by STB using the Solaris pkgrm utility.

For example, one can remove LWACT from system by executing the below shown command:

pkgrm SUNWlwact

STB for OpenSolaris

Question:

Why does STB for OpenSolaris contain the Oracle Explorer Data Collector application only while STB for Solaris contains many more applications?

Answer:

Of all the STB components, at present, only 6.0 and higher versions of Oracle Explorer Data Collector supports the OpenSolaris platform. Other applications (such as Service Tags, Oracle Lightweight Availability Tool, SNEEP) do not support OpenSolaris. These components will be added to the STB for OpenSolaris bundle when they extend their support to OpenSolaris.

Question:

Why am I not allowed to use http://opensolaris.org as my depot server to publish the packages?

Answer:

opensolaris.org is a depot server for OpenSolaris users. Only the OpenSolaris community users will be able to publish packages to this server. Hence, STB does not allow anyone to publish STB packages to opensolaris.org.

Question:

Do I need a dedicated machine as depot server?

Answer:

A dedicated machine is not required. depot server is a service and it is started via the SMF actuators by the STB. The service will run on a dedicated port (chosen by the user) and the machine can still be used for other purposes.

Question:

What hardware and software features are required for a system to qualify as depot server?

Answer:

The system must be running OpenSolaris. This requirement constitutes all other needs to qualify as a depot server.

Question:

I have read that Oracle Explorer Data Collector installation in OpenSolaris requires client server architecture. If I install OpenSolaris in an isolated box, can I still install Oracle Explorer Data Collector?

Answer:

Yes, a local box can act as server where STB will publish the package. The same box can then act as a client and Oracle Explorer Data Collector can be installed on that box.

Question:

In OpenSolaris, why does STB sometimes prompt for the remote host login?

Answer:

Installation of IPS packages require pkg service to be running on the server. If this service is not running on the server, STB will try to start it, which requires access to that machine with sufficient privilege.

Question:

Do I need to set the depot server in my authority list?

Answer:

No, STB will do that for you.

Question:

Do I need an Internet connection to install Oracle Explorer Data Collector in OpenSolaris?

Answer:

Unlike most packages in OpenSolaris, which requires an Internet connection to directly install from the server, STB has no such limitation. STB will set a depot server locally and then install packages from there.

Question:

I receive the following error message when I run STB: Unable to restart pkg service on <Preferred host>. What does it mean?

Answer:

STB tried to start up the depot service on your preferred host and it failed, probably due to intermittent, network issues/delays. To overcome this, wait for a few minutes and then try re-running the installer on your host again. If the problem persists, contact Sun's support team.

Question:

I receive the following error message when I run STB: Unable to refresh packages in <HOSTNAME>. What does it mean?

Answer:

STB tries to update the catalogs on the concerned host so as to be in sync with the packages on their corresponding depot servers. The error log suggests that this update has failed. It could have failed due to transient network connectivity issues. To overcome this, wait for a few minutes and then try re-running the installer on your host again. If the problem persists, contact Sun's support team.

Question:

I'm seeing an error message about “Refreshing the package catalog...” What does it mean and why does it occur?

Answer:

The complete error message follows:


Refreshing the package catalogs..
pkg: 1/2 catalogs successfully updated:
    Could not retrieve catalog from 'opensolaris.org'
URLError, reason: (8, 'node name or service name not known')

In IPS packaging mechanism, the packages are published onto a central server (such as the depot server) and clients later download and install those packages from the server. A client maintains an 'authority list' where all these servers are listed. By default, on all OpenSolaris boxes, 'opensolaris.org' is listed as an authority.

Before installing the packages from a depot server, STB installer script has to refresh the package catalogs to check for any updated packages on the corresponding depot servers. Thus, when STB tries to update the catalogs of the listed authorities, it tries to check 'opensolaris.org' server as well for any package updates. This error occurs if the host is unable to connect to this server.

This error can be ignored as this has no effect on the functionality of STB. You can avoid this error by manually unsetting the concerned opensolaris.org authority from the authority list. Please refer to the IPS client utility: 'pkg unset-authority' for more information.

Question:

Even when I enter the correct user credentials, STB fails to start the pkg service; why does this happen?

Answer:

Your login probably does not have enough privilege to start the pkg service on the server. If you had attempted logging in as root user, this may be due to security settings on the systems that does not allow direct root access.

Question:

While trying to publish packages, why does STB fail with a pkgsend error?

Answer:

If STB fails with a pkgsend error, check your depot server settings and ensure that it has been configured as read only.

Also, check your network settings to ensure that the http communications with the concerned depot server are successful.

Contacts and Support

Question:

How do I get Support for STB and its bundled applications

Answer:

STB Support: To obtain information about STB and search for similar problems reported, go to http://sunsolve.sun.com and search for STB. If you are unable to resolve the problem and have a SunSpectrum support contract, contact the Customer Care Center and request the Oracle Explorer Data Collector queue.

Individual support path for STB's component applications are as follows: