What's New in the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 Release for Installation

DVD Media Only for Installations

Starting with the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 release, only an installation DVD is provided. Oracle Solaris Software CDs are no longer provided.

Auto Registration

What is Auto Registration?

Auto Registration, a feature of Oracle Solaris, is new in the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 release. When you install or upgrade your system, configuration data about your system is, on rebooting, automatically communicated through the existing service tag technology to the Oracle Product Registration System. This service tag data about your system is used, for example, to help Oracle enhance customer support and services. You can learn about service tags at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris/oracle-service-tag-faq-418684.html.

You can use this same configuration data to create and manage the inventory of your systems. By registering with your support credentials using one of the registration options below, you have a straightforward way to inventory your systems, by recording and tracking the service tags for the systems and for the software products installed on the systems. For instructions about tracking your registered products, see https://support.oracle.com/CSP/ui/flash.html.

You may elect to have your configuration data sent to the Oracle Product Registration System anonymously. An anonymous registration means that the configuration data sent to Oracle has no link to the name of a customer. You, also, have the option to disable Auto Registration.

How to Enable or Modify Auto Registration

Auto Registration is enabled by default. Auto Registration uses support credentials and proxy information that you provide before, during, or after an x86 or SPARC installation or upgrade as follows.

Before or During an Installation or Upgrade

• You can add the new auto_reg keyword to your sysidcfg file prior to a hands-off installation or upgrades, such as network installations or JumpStart, a feature of Oracle Solaris, upgrades. You can use this keyword, and related keywords, to provide your support credentials and proxy information for Auto Registration. Or, you can use these keywords to set up an anonymous registration. You can also use this keyword to disable Auto Registration, so that no service tag data is sent to Oracle. If you do not add the auto_reg keyword to the sysidcfg file, you will be prompted to provide your credentials, or to register anonymously, during the installation or upgrade. For instructions about using the auto_reg keyword in the sysidcfg file, see auto_reg Keyword in Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations. See, also, the sysidcfg(4) man page.

• During an interactive installation or upgrade, the installer asks you to provide your support credentials, or to register anonymously. You are, also, asked to provide proxy information, if needed. For further information about interactive installations, see Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Basic Installations.

• Use a new Live Upgrade command option to provide your support credentials and proxy information, or to register anonymously, during a Live Upgrade. First, you create a configuration file that contains your registration and proxy information. Then you point to this file in the luupgrade command as follows.

  luupgrade -u -k /<path>/<filename>

  ---

  Caution - If you do not use this -k option, the Live Upgrade fails.

  ---

  For further information, see Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.

• If you are working with a Flash Archive that is based on the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 release or a later release, Auto Registration is enabled by default. The means of providing Auto Registration credential and proxy information depends on which installation or upgrade method is used with the archive. For more information, see How Does Auto Registration Impact Flash Archives? in Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Flash Archives (Creation and Installation).

After an Installation or Upgrade

Post-installation, a privileged system administrator can use the regadm command-line utility to administer Auto Registration and to manage a service tag inventory. You can use the regadm command to perform the following tasks.

• Administer the SMF service that manages the Auto Registration feature

• Display the current Auto Registration configuration

• Configure Auto Registration properties

• Clear Auto Registration properties

• Authenticate with My Oracle Support by specifying named credentials

• Register new products, independent of the installation process

All of these tasks can be performed using the regadm command, separate from performing an installation or upgrade. For further information, see Chapter 17, Working With the Oracle Solaris Auto Registration regadm Command (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

When Is the Data Transmitted to Oracle?

When you reboot the system after installation or upgrade, the SMF service, svc:/application/autoreg, sends new or changed system configuration and registration data to the Oracle Product Registration System.

Alternately, when you use the regadm register command to register or your system or to change the registration information, the data is immediately transmitted to the Oracle Product Registration System.

Once your system is registered, whenever your system configuration changes again, revised configuration data is automatically sent to the Oracle Product Registration System on the next reboot after the changes were made.

What Configurations Are Supported?

Any x86 system or SPARC system, and its component products, that can be installed or upgraded with the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 release is supported for Auto Registration. All Oracle Solaris installation technologies support Auto Registration. Auto Registration is supported, for example, with WAN Boot, Oracle VM Server for SPARC, VirtualBox, or zones.

Authentication

Oracle uses a secure, one-way transport system for access to the Oracle Product Registration System. Service tags for registered products are extracted from the Service Tag Registry and then uploaded to My Oracle Support through a secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection. Communications are outbound, and are initiated from a customer system only. Client-generated information is encrypted.

How to Disable Auto Registration

You have the following options for disabling Auto Registration on a SPARC system or x86 system, thus preventing data transmission to the Oracle Product Registration System.

Hands-Off Installation

If you are performing a hands-off installation or upgrade, for example, if you are using the JumpStart program, you can disable Auto Registration prior to the installation or upgrade as follows.

1. Before you begin the installation or upgrade, edit the sysidcfg file to add the auto_reg keyword to the file as follows.

   auto_reg=disable

2. Proceed with the hands-off installation or upgrade.

3. Optional: When the installation has completed, and the system reboots, verify that the Auto Registration feature is disabled as follows.

   # regadm status
   Solaris Auto-Registration is currently disabled

Hands-On Installation

1. Begin an interactive installation or upgrade.

2. During the interactive installation or upgrade, the installer prompts you to select an automatic reboot. Do not select the option to automatically reboot after the installation or upgrade. You need to disable Auto Registration prior to rebooting the system.

3. When the installation is complete, but before rebooting the system, open a terminal window as follows.

   • For a GUI installation, right-click to open a terminal window.

   • For a text installation, press "!" to open a terminal window.

4. At the command line, remove the /a/var/tmp/autoreg_config file.

5. Reboot the system.

   # reboot

For Live Upgrades

1. Prior to performing a Live Upgrade, open a text editor and create a file that contains the following Auto Registration information.

   autoreg=disable

2. Save this file.

3. Point to this file when you run the luupgrade command as follows.

   luupgrade -k /<path>/<filename>

Further Information

For further information about Auto Registration, see the following resources.

Table 2-1 Auto Registration Documentation

Disaster Recovery Image

Starting with the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 release, the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 Installation Guide: Solaris Flash Archives (Creation and Installation) now includes instructions about how to create a Flash Archive recovery image that can be used to restore a system to “factory fresh” condition. See Chapter 5, Creating and Using a Disaster Recovery Image, in Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Flash Archives (Creation and Installation). This chapter provides the simplest instructions to create a Flash Archive (FLAR) image that can be loaded onto the target system to recover from a failed disk drive.