Provisioning Oracle Solaris 11 Operating Systems
12c Release 3 (12.3.1.0.0)
E60023-02
December, 2015
This document provides an end-to-end example for how to use Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center to create and apply a Provision OS deployment plan to install an Oracle Solaris 11.1 operating system on a piece of configured hardware.
Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center streamlines the process of installing an Oracle Solaris 11 operating system (OS) on configured or unconfigured hardware. As shown in Figure 1-1 , when you use Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center to provision, you create two profiles to define the provisioning parameters and a plan to apply your configuration selection to target systems.
As shown in Figure 1-1 , the following is an overview of the OS provisioning process:
Create an OS Provisioning profile: Defines the OS provisioning parameters, including the platform-specific operating system image and software package, file system layout, user accounts, naming services, and other installation requirements.
Create an OS Configuration profile: Defines the OS configuration parameters, including the platform, how the operating system is managed (with or without an agent), MPxIO and networking options.
Create an OS Provisioning Deployment Plan: Defines the OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles to use for the provisioning job. To successfully create the plan, the OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles must be the same sub-type. For example, Solaris SPARC.
Apply the OS Provisioning Deployment Plan to selected targets: Selects the targets to provision, defines the boot interface resource assignments, network resource assignments, and server pool assignment (if applicable), and schedule when to begin the provisioning job.
You can reuse the OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles and the deployment plan to provision other systems or groups of systems.
Note:
To provision operating systems on logical domains, you must use the OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles that have Logical Domains as a subtype. The profiles described in this document provision an operating system on configured systems.
See Planning for Operating System Provisioning in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Operations Reference for things to consider before provisioning.
Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center leverages the Oracle Solaris 11 Automated Installer (AI) feature and simplifies it. For example, you do not need to bootstrap a system, create an Automated Installer server, or configure WAN Boot to provision a system with an Oracle Solaris 11 operating system. Each Proxy Controller that is installed on an Oracle Solaris 11 operating system is designed to act as an Automated Installer server without any configuration on your part. The software configures WAN Boot on either a SPARC or x86 Proxy Controller, then selects it as the default connection.
The platform determines the connection options for provisioning Oracle Solaris 11:
SPARC: Uses WAN Boot or DHCP connection. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center automatically configures and uses WAN Boot. You can configure the software to use a DHCP connection on SPARC platforms. When you configure the software to use DHCP, that connection is used for all profiles and plans executed for Oracle Solaris 11 operating systems on SPARC.
x86: Uses an ISC DHCP connection.
Oracle Solaris 11 uses group packages to install, or provision, the operating system. The following options are available:
Oracle Solaris Large Server: Installs the solaris-large-server packages, which provide an Oracle Solaris large server environment.
Oracle Solaris Small Server: Installs the solaris-small-server packages, which provide a useful command-line Oracle Solaris environment.
Oracle Solaris Desktop: Installs the solaris-desktop packages, which provide an Oracle Solaris desktop environment.
You create an Oracle Solaris 11 Software Update Library when you install and configure the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center software. The library contains the packages you need to have for provisioning and patching. You can configure the library to sync with the latest information on oracle.com on a set schedule, or you can use the Add Content option to update the library whenever you need to get the latest information. Adding Oracle Solaris 11 images to the software update library creates a default set of OS provisioning and configuration profiles and a default OS Provisioning plan for each image. Default profiles are prefixed with default-. For example, the following is the name of a default OS Provisioning profile: default-profile-Oracle Solaris 11.0 sparc-13.4.0-OracleSolarisSmallServer.
Profiles and plans simplify and standardize the procedures between different operating systems and platforms. The profiles take care of many of the configuration requirements for you and the plan defines the systems to provision and final configuration options, such as the boot interface and network assignments.
Beginning with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Release 2 (12.2.0.0.0), you will use two profiles to define your OS provisioning job:
OS Provisioning profile: Defines the platform, image, provisioning, and installation requirements, such as language, time zone, and console details. For Oracle Solaris 11, you can add an OS Update profile to the OS Provisioning profile. This is useful when you want to install packages as part of provisioning. For example, you can create an OS Update profile to add an FTP package or plug-ins.
OS Configuration profile: Defines the platform, operating system, and network configuration.
You can use the default profiles to provision the operating system, or you can keep the default profiles as templates and copy a profile and give it a name that is more meaningful to your organization. You can reuse any of the profiles and plans to quickly install the operating system on an unconfigured bare metal system or on a configured system.
This example shows how to create an OS Update profile to add a desktop Firefox extensions package, copy a default OS Provisioning profile and a default OS Configuration profile to create new profiles, and then create a new Provision OS deployment plan. The profiles and plan will install an Oracle Solaris 11.1 SRU 16.4 desktop operating system on a configured SPARC server using WAN Boot.
See Related Articles and Resources for links to related information and articles.
You need the following to provision an Oracle Solaris 11.1 operating system:
Enterprise Controller and Proxy Controller installed on a system running the Oracle Solaris 11.1 or later operating system.
Oracle Solaris 11 Software Update Library. This example uses Oracle Solaris 11.1 SRU 16.4 content.
Configured hardware to provision.
SPARC-based platform with at least OpenBoot PROM (OBP) version 4.17 installed.
Updated firmware.
Configured service processor.
SSH and IPMI Discovery Credentials for the service processor. You can use the system's default credentials or you can create discovery credentials. You will specify the credentials in the discovery profile. See Discovering and Managing Hardware for how to create SSH and IPMI credentials.
IP address for the service processor.
Service processor discovered and visible in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center UI.
A password for root and for the user account that you want to use for your new operating systems.
Note:
Oracle Solaris 11 requires that you add a non-root user, such as admin, during installation. When you create the profile, you define the root password and non-root user name and password. The user name and passwords are configured on the operating system during provisioning.
Network port and MAC address combination. These are used to connect to the server once it is available on the network.
The roles and permissions to complete the tasks. You need the following Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center roles:
Asset Admin role to discover the service processor.
Plan/Profile Admin to create an OS Update profile, OS Provisioning profile, OS Configuration profile, and Provision OS deployment plan.
Apply Deployment Plans to apply the plan.
Complete the following actions to provision Oracle Solaris 11 operating system on configured and managed hardware:
Create an OS Provisioning Profile for Oracle Solaris 11 Operating System
Create an OS Configuration Profile for an Oracle Solaris 11 Operating System
You can discover the target asset before or after creating the profiles and plans. After you create the profiles and plan, you can reuse and apply the plan to other target assets.
You have the option to add an Oracle Solaris 11 OS Update profile to install or uninstall packages as part of an OS Provisioning profile. This example shows how to create an OS Update profile that installs a Firefox extension package. You can add the profile to an OS Provisioning profile. An OS Update profile is not required to provision an OS.
You can use the default profiles, make a copy of a default profile, or create a profile. One of the advantages to copying a default profile is that the correct platform, operating system image, and software group are pre-selected based on the image. This example shows how to copy the default-profile-Oracle Solaris 11.1 SPARC-16.4.0-OracleSolarisDesktop default profile to create a profile.
The profile appears in the center pane and in the Profiles and Policies section of Plan Management.
The OS Configuration profile defines how the OS is managed (with or without an agent) and the networking options. The profile is platform-specific, but not SRU-specific.
The OS Configuration profile lets you define the network interface that you want to use on the operating system. The first interface you define in this wizard is the boot interface and also the primary interface. You can add more than one network interface. When you apply the plan to a target, you can select which network interface is the primary interface and define the IP address.
Note:
Before you begin, contact your network administrator for the list of available networks and interfaces.
This wizard lets you choose from a list of 32 interfaces. The 32 interfaces are all possible network interfaces, not available interfaces.
By default, the primary interface is the boot interface. You can change the primary interface to a different interface when you deploy the plan.
You can create an OS Configuration profile by creating a new profile or copying a default profile and then editing the profile. This example copies a default SPARC profile.
Expand the Plan Management section. In the section OS Configuring of Profiles and Policies section you can select the OS Configuration profile to view its details in the center pane.
To provision the operating system, associate the OS Provisioning profile and OS Configuration profile with a deployment plan. Several different types of deployment plans use OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles. This example uses a Provision OS deployment plan. When you create a plan you can configure the plan to to stop when a step fails to complete or for the plan to complete as many of the steps as possible. This plan will use the default, which is stop at failure.
Note:
When you create the plan, both the OS Provisioning profile and the OS Configuration profile must have the same platform subtype. This example uses the Solaris SPARC subtype for both profiles.
You must discover the service processor before you can provision the hardware. Because this example describes provisioning a configured service processor, create a discovery profile to discover the service processor. For bare metal systems with unconfigured service processors, use the Declare Server option. See Related Articles and Resources for links to related information and articles.
You can discover individual service processors, or you can create a discovery file that contains the information to add several service processors at the same time.
This example shows how to create a generic discovery profile to add a single server. You will add the IP address and discovery credentials for the service processor as part of the discovery. After you create the discovery profile, you can use the profile and edit, as needed, to add service processors in the future.
Expand Assets in the Navigation pane. Right-click All Assets, then click Add Assets, or click Add Assets in the Actions pane.
Select Add and manage various types of assets via discovery probes, then click Next.
Click the Create Profile icon to create a discovery profile to discover ILOM service processors.
Enter a name and description for the profile.
Expand Server Hardware, then select ILOM Service Processor.
Click Next.
Tags are not used in this example, click Next.
You can add IP ranges now, or later. For this example, IP ranges are added later, click Next.
Click Select for SSH and IPMI to select and add the SSH and IPMI discovery credentials that you created earlier, then click Next. To create discovery credentials, click New and complete the wizard.
Click Finish.
Select the discovery profile and enter the following server information, then click Add Now:
IP Address: Specify an IP address to route the discovery to the correct Proxy Controller. You do not need to use a server's actual IP address. You can use an IP address that is on the same subnet as the server to be discovered.
Network: Select Automatic. To point to a specific network, click the menu to view available networks.
Model: Select the hardware model.
A job starts to discover the asset. When the job completes successfully, expand Servers in Assets to see the service processor.
To select targets to provision and begin a provisioning job, apply the deployment plan.
The provisioning job takes time to complete. You can view the progress and status of the provisioning job from the Jobs pane.
When the job is completed, go to Assets and expand Servers to see your operating system. Click the operating system in the Navigation pane to display the details in the center pane.
When you provision the operating system, you can use the same SRU version that you selected when creating a profile to be used for provisioning.
In the Navigation pane, click Administration, then click Enterprise Controller.
In the center pane, click the Configuration tab.
In the Configuration Management section, select OS Provisioning from the Subsystem drop-down list.
Scroll down to useSRUVersion. The value is set to false by default.
To set the same SRU version that you selected in the profile to be used for provisioning your operating system, set the value to true.
You can use the OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles to consistently and quickly provision operating systems. You can also use the profiles and deployment plans as building blocks in multi-step or complex plans. For example, depending on the plan, you can either use the OS Provisioning and OS Configuration profiles or the Provision OS deployment plan as steps in the following plans:
Install Server: This multi-step plan contains steps that use profiles to deploy a server. With this plan you can provision the operating system, update the BIOS, update the operating system, install software, execute preinstall and postinstall scripts, add operational profiles, add monitoring profiles, and create guests.
Configure and Install Dynamic System Domain: This multi-step plan contains steps that use a profile to create a Dynamic System Domain and the Install Server plan to install and update the operating system.
Configure M-Series Hardware, Create and Install Domain: This complex plan contains steps that use profiles to configure a service processor, update firmware, and create a Dynamic System Domain. You can add a step to use the Install Server plan to install and update the operating system on an M-series system.
Configure Server Hardware and Install OS: This complex plan contains steps that use profiles to configure the service processor, configure the RAID Controller, and update firmware. You can add a step to use the Install Server plan to install and update the operating system.
When you create a multi-step or complex plan from the template, you often have the choice to add or skip steps. For example, when you create the Install Server plan, the only required step is OS provisioning. You can choose to skip steps, such as updating the BIOS.
The Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c Release 3 documentation is available at http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E59957_01/index.htm
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The following chapters in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Configure Reference Guide and Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Operations Reference Guide contain more information:
See Asset Management in the Configuration Reference for more information on discovery, declaring servers, and an example discovery file.
See Plans and Profiles in the Configuration Reference for information about plans and profiles, including using complex plans.
See Operating Systems Provisioning in the Operations Reference for more information about OS provisioning.
See Discover and Manage Hardware for how to create SSH and IPMI credentials.
The Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Administration Guide has information about user roles and permissions.
For end-to-end examples, see the workflows and how to documentation in the library. For deployment tasks, go to http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E59957_01/nav/deploy.htm
and for operate tasks go to http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E59957_01/nav/operate.htm
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For in-depth information about Oracle Solaris 11, see the Oracle Solaris 11 documentation at http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23824_01/index.html
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Oracle® Enterprise Manager Ops Center Provisioning Oracle Solaris 11 Operating Systems, 12c Release 3 (12.3.1.0.0)
E60023-02
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