Preface

This book describes planning your installation or upgrade with the Oracle Solaris operating system (OS) on both networked and nonnetworked SPARC and x86 architecture based systems. This book also provides overviews of several technologies that relate to installation such as Oracle Solaris ZFS installations, Oracle Solaris Zones partitioning technology, booting, and the creation of RAID-1 volumes during installation.

This book does not include instructions about how to set up system hardware or other peripherals.

Note - This Oracle Solaris release supports systems that use the SPARC and x86 families of processor architectures. The supported systems appear in the Oracle Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility Lists. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types.

In this document, these x86 related terms mean the following:

x86 refers to the larger family of 64-bit and 32-bit x86 compatible products.
x64 relates specifically to 64-bit x86 compatible CPUs.
"32-bit x86" points out specific 32-bit information about x86 based systems.

For supported systems, see the Oracle Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility Lists.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for system administrators responsible for installing the Oracle Solaris OS. This book provides both of the following types of information.

Advanced Oracle Solaris installation planning information for enterprise system administrators who manage multiple Oracle Solaris machines in a networked environment
Basic Oracle Solaris installation planning information for system administrators who perform infrequent Oracle Solaris installations or upgrades

Related Books

Table P-1 lists documentation for system administrators.

Table P-1 Are You a System Administrator Who is Installing Oracle Solaris?

Description	Information
Do you need to install a single system from DVD or CD media? The Oracle Solaris installation program steps you through an installation.	Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Basic Installations
Do you need to upgrade or patch your system with almost no downtime? Save system downtime when upgrading by using Live Upgrade, a feature of Oracle Solaris.	Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning
Do you need to install a secure installation over the network or Internet? Use WAN boot to install a remote client. Or, do you need to install over the network from a network installation image? The Oracle Solaris installation program steps you through an installation.	Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations
Do you need to install Oracle Solaris on multiple machines? Use JumpStart to automate your installation.	Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Custom JumpStart and Advanced Installations
Do you need to install or patch multiple systems quickly? Use Flash Archive, a feature of Oracle Solaris, to create an archive and install a copy of the OS on clone systems.	Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Flash Archives (Creation and Installation)
Do you need to back up your system?	Chapter 22, Backing Up and Restoring UFS File Systems (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems
Do you need troubleshooting information, a list of known problems, or a list of patches for this release?	Oracle Solaris Release Notes
Do you need to verify that your system works on Oracle Solaris?	SPARC: Oracle Solaris Sun Hardware Platform Guide
Do you need to check on which packages have been added, removed, or changed in this release?	Oracle Solaris Package List
Do you need to verify that your system and devices work with Solaris SPARC and x86 based systems and other third-party vendors.	Solaris Hardware Compatibility List for x86 Platforms

Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For information, visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=info or visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=trs if you are hearing impaired.

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P-2 Typographic Conventions

Typeface	Description	Example
`AaBbCc123`	The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output	Edit your `.login` file. Use `ls -a` to list all files. `machine_name% you have mail.`
`AaBbCc123`	What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output	`machine_name%` `su` `Password:`
`aabbcc123`	Placeholder: replace with a real name or value	The command to remove a file is `rm` `filename`.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide. A cache is a copy that is stored locally. Do not save the file. Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX system prompt and superuser prompt for shells that are included in the Oracle Solaris OS. Note that the default system prompt that is displayed in command examples varies, depending on the Oracle Solaris release.

Table P-3 Shell Prompts

Shell	Prompt
Bash shell, Korn shell, and Bourne shell	`$`
Bash shell, Korn shell, and Bourne shell for superuser	`#`
C shell	`machine_name%`
C shell for superuser	`machine_name#`

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