Oracle Solaris Installation Considerations
Each PDomain requires a bootable storage device running the Oracle Solaris OS. Since the server does not contain integrated storage devices like drives or disk arrays, you must configure a storage device for each server PDomain. If you ordered the server with at least one Oracle Flash Accelerator PCIe card per PDomain, the Oracle Solaris OS is preinstalled on the card. If your server PDomain uses an external storage device, you must download the Oracle Solaris installation image and install the OS on the external storage device.
The Oracle Solaris 11 OS installation image downloads are located at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris11/downloads/index.html
For instructions on installing the Oracle Solaris OS, refer to the Installing Oracle Solaris 11.3 Systems document, which is part of the Oracle Solaris documentation. Refer to the SPARC M8 and SPARC M7 Servers Product Notes for OS and firmware requirements and late-breaking information. Refer to the storage device documentation for further requirements and instructions.
Note - When you update Solaris OS SRU levels, you must update the miniroot image that is on the Active SP-emulated eUSB device. The miniroot image is not part of the OS or firmware image. You must download the miniroot image separately from My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com, and load it onto the Active SP. For instructions on updating the miniroot image, refer to the Oracle ILOM Administrator's Guide for Configuration and Maintenance Firmware Release 3.2.x in the Oracle ILOM documentation (http://www.oracle.com/goto/ilom/docs). If you replace an SP, the Active SP automatically updates the miniroot image.
 | Caution - Always download and use a supported version of the Oracle Solaris OS install image to perform fresh OS installations. You cannot install a previous version of the Oracle Solaris OS and then use the pkg update command to upgrade the OS to the latest version. The installation will fail if you attempt to install an earlier, unsupported version of the Oracle Solaris OS. Refer to the SPARC M8 and SPARC M7 Servers Product Notes for the minimum required Oracle Solaris OS version permitted for fresh installations. |
Note - By default, the installer selects the first drive it finds with enough space for the OS as the boot disk and installs the OS on it. Since these series servers do not include integrated drives, the installation might fail or the installer might install the OS on the first drive of an external storage device, even if that first drive is not appropriate for your environment. To ensure that the OS is installed on the correct drive, specify the target drive in the AI manifest file. Otherwise, set the boot disk at the OpenBoot prompt. Refer to How To Set the Boot Disk From OBP in Installing Oracle Solaris 11.3 Systems and the ai_manifest(4) man page for instructions.