Set Up the Install Image and Install Service

Perform the following steps to set up an install image and install service:

• Install the AI installation tool set.

• Download an AI boot image.

• Create an AI install service.

Identify Space for Your AI Image Files

The AI boot image ISO files and the expanded versions of these images must be stored on your AI server. Consider storing these files on a separate ZFS file system so that you can take advantage of ZFS features such as:

• Set separate file system characteristics, such as compression or atime.

• Directly snapshot and recover specified file systems.

See the Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide for more information and best practices for creating ZFS file systems.

Install the AI Installation Tools

The AI installation tools package provides the installadm(1M) commands that enable you to create and manage AI install services.

The installadm utility enables you to accomplish the following tasks:

• Create and enable install services.

• Set up and update a DHCP server.

• Add custom client installation and configuration instructions.

• Set criteria for clients to use custom installation and configuration instructions.

See Manage an Install Server and Appendix B, Automated Installer Installation Administration Commands for more information about installadm commands.

To install the tools package, your AI install server must be able to access an Oracle Solaris Image Packaging System (IPS) package repository. Make sure you are connected to the Internet or to a local IPS package server that contains the install/installadm package. The install/installadm package that you install must be the same version as the version of the Oracle Solaris OS that the AI install server is running.

Make sure your preferred publisher is set to the repository from which you want to get the AI tools package, or specify the publisher when you install the tools package.

The following example shows that two publishers are defined:

# pkg publisher
PUBLISHER                 TYPE    STATUS  URI
solaris      (preferred)  origin  online  http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release
example.com  (non-sticky) origin  online  http://pkg.example.com/

The following example installs the AI tools package from the preferred publisher, solaris:

# pkg install install/installadm

The following example installs the tools package from the example.com publisher, which is not the preferred publisher:

# pkg install pkg://example.com/install/installadm

See the Oracle Solaris 11 Express Image Packaging System Guide for information about how to add a publisher and set a preferred publisher.

Set Up an AI Boot Image

AI uses a minimal boot image to boot the client. After the client boots, the installation of the Oracle Solaris OS continues according to the installation instructions in the install service.

How to Set Up an AI Boot Image

1. Assume the root role:

   $ su - root

2. Create a ZFS file system in the root pool for the boot images.

   In this example, the new ZFS file system is named ai.

   # zfs create rpool/ai

   In many cases, setting the compression=on option is a good practice. In this case, you might gain very little from specifying compression because the AI ISO files are already compressed. Similarly, setting dedup=on can be a good practice. See Introducing ZFS Properties in Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide for information on ZFS file system properties. See The dedup Property in Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide for more information about deduplication.

3. Download the boot image.

   To download the AI boot image, go to the following Internet location:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris11/downloads/index.html

   Be sure to download the Automated Install image and not the live CD image or the text install image. Download the Oracle Solaris 11 Express SPARC Automated Install image for SPARC clients or the Oracle Solaris 11 Express x86 Automated Install image for x86 clients. For x86, be sure to download the .iso file and not the .usb file. (The .usb file can be used to initiate an AI install by booting a system from a USB device. See Chapter 8, Automated Installations That Boot From Media. The .usb file is not suitable for creating an install service.)

   The AI ISO image must be the same version as the Oracle Solaris OS that you plan to install on the client.

Create an AI Install Service

Create an install service to associate an install image with a named install service. Client systems use the install service name to find the correct install image.

An install server can have more than one install service. Each install service is associated with only one boot image. To install both SPARC and x86 clients, for example, you need one install service with a SPARC boot image and a second install service with an x86 boot image.

Use the installadm create-service command to create an AI install service. Give the service a name, specify the path to the ISO image to use, and specify the path where you want the ISO image unpacked. The path where the ISO image is unpacked is also called the target or net image.

If you do not supply a name, the name assigned to the install service is _install_service_port_number.

If you do not specify the path to the ISO image to use, then the path you specify for the net image must already contain the unpacked ISO image files.

The installadm create-service command also provides a net install image on a web server running on port 5555. For example, the web server address might be http://ai server:5555/export/aiserver/s11-ai-x86/s11-x86.

The create-service command can set up Oracle Solaris DHCP on the AI install server as shown in Create an Install Service Including Oracle Solaris DHCP Setup. See Chapter 6, Setting Up DHCP for AI if you want to do any of the following DHCP tasks:

• Set up a separate Oracle Solaris DHCP server.

• Configure an Oracle Solaris DHCP server for use with AI.

• Set up an ISC DHCP server.

• Configure an ISC DHCP server for use with AI.

The DHCP server must be able to provide DNS information to the install clients.

Create an Install Service Without DHCP Setup

The following example creates an AI install service for SPARC clients. (This process is the same for an x86 install service, though the output is different.) The -n option specifies the service name, and the -s option specifies the path to the AI ISO image file to be used to create this service. In this example, DHCP is already set up on a different server or will be set up later. If the create-service command does not detect DHCP on this AI install server, the output of the command displays instructions for creating a DHCP macro by using dhtadm(1M) to add the macro to the DHCP configuration table, dhcptab(4). See Chapter 6, Setting Up DHCP for AI for more information.

# installadm create-service -n s11-sparc \
-s /rpool/ai/s11_sparc/iso/s11-ai-sparc.iso \
/rpool/ai/s11_sparc/target
Setting up the target image at /rpool/ai/s11_sparc/target ...
Registering the service s11-sparc._OSInstall._tcp.local

Detected that DHCP is not set up on this server.
If not already configured, please create a DHCP macro
named dhcp_macro_s11-sparc with:
   Boot server IP (BootSrvA) : 10.6.68.29
   Boot file      (BootFile) : http://10.6.68.29:5555/cgi-bin/wanboot-cgi
If you are running the Solaris DHCP server, use the following
command to add the DHCP macro, dhcp_macro_s11-sparc:
   /usr/sbin/dhtadm -g -A -m dhcp_macro_s11-sparc \
-d :BootSrvA=10.6.68.29:BootFile=\"http://10.6.68.29:5555/cgi-bin/wanboot-cgi\":
Note: Be sure to assign client IP address(es) if needed
(e.g., if running the Solaris DHCP server, run pntadm(1M)).
Service discovery fallback mechanism set up
Creating SPARC configuration file

This command displays the name and values of a macro, dhcp_macro_s11-sparc, that you must add to the DHCP server.

If you are using the Oracle Solaris DHCP server, you can create the macro on your DHCP server by running the dhtadm commands shown in the above output on your DHCP server. On systems that support graphic interfaces, you can use the DHCP Manager, dhcpmgr(1M), instead of the dhtadm commands.

Create an Install Service Including Oracle Solaris DHCP Setup

You can use the installadm create-service command to set up an Oracle Solaris DHCP server on this AI install server. (This process is the same for both SPARC and x86 install services, though the output is different.) The following example creates an install service for x86 clients where the network consists of a single subnet and the install server also acts as the DHCP server for the network, using DNS to resolve host names. AI creates a new DHCP macro named dhcp_macro_s11-x86. This install service serves five IP addresses (-c), starting from 172.1.0.10 (-i). See Configure an Existing DHCP Server for AI for more information.

# installadm create-service -n s11-x86 -i 172.1.0.10 -c 5 \
-s /rpool/ai/s11_x86/iso/s11-ai-x86.iso \
/rpool/ai/s11_x86/target
Setting up the target image at /rpool/ai/s11_x86/target ...
Registering the service s11_x86._OSInstall._tcp.local
Creating DHCP Server
Created DHCP configuration file.
Created dhcptab.
Added "Locale" macro to dhcptab.
Added server macro to dhcptab - line1-x4100.
DHCP server started.
Added network macro to dhcptab - 10.0.0.0.
Created network table.
Copying boot file to /tftpboot/pxegrub.I86PC.Solaris-1
Service discovery fallback mechanism set up

In this example, you can review the menu.lst file in /tftpboot/menu.lst.s11_x86.

If DHCP service is already set up on this server, you can use the -i and -c options to update the DHCP server with new IP addresses for the named AI service.

You can view the DHCP configuration results in the DHCP table by using the DHCP Manager utility, dhcpmgr(1M).

Review the Default Installation Instructions

An AI manifest contains installation and configuration instructions that can be used for one or more clients. Each boot image includes a default AI manifest that can be used for clients of any install service that is created using this boot image. The manifest is unpacked along with the other files in the image. For example, if the net image path for a service is /rpool/ai/s11_sparc/target, then the default AI manifest is in /rpool/ai/s11_sparc/target/auto_install/default.xml.

This is the default AI manifest for all clients that use any install service that uses this install image.

Review this default manifest to determine whether it meets the needs of all the clients that will use an install service based on this image. Default AI Manifest shows a copy of the default AI manifest. The default manifest might be slightly different in different install images.

To perform different installations on different clients using the same install image, provide customized AI manifests for that install service. More than one AI manifest can be associated with each install service. Clients that do not match the criteria specified to use any custom manifest are installed using the instructions in the default AI manifest.

Instead of modifying net_install_image_path/auto_install/default.xml, consider the following alternatives:

• Add custom manifests to specified install services.

  To create custom installation manifests and associate them with specified clients or types of clients, see Chapter 3, Customizing Installations.

• Modify the default AI manifest for a specified install service.

  1. Copy net_install_image_path/auto_install/default.xml to a new location: new_location/default.xml.

  2. Modify new_location/default.xml.

     To change installation specifications such as target disk or additional packages to install, see Chapter 4, Specifying Installation Instructions. To change configuration specifications such as user account or root role password, see Chapter 5, Configuring the Client System.

  3. Add the modified default manifest to a specified install service.

     The install service uses an internal copy of the default manifest that was in the image when the service was created. Modifying the default AI manifest that is in the image directory does not modify the default AI manifest for any service that has already been created. To modify the internal copy of the default AI manifest for an existing service, add the modified manifest to the service.

     Use the installadm add-manifest command to add new_location/default.xml to a specified install service. See Add an AI Manifest.

     • The new default manifest must be named default.xml.

     • The value of the name attribute of the <ai_instance> tag must be default.

     • Do not specify any client criteria in the add-manifest command.