Initial Installation or Upgrade

You can choose to perform an initial installation or, if your system is already running the Solaris operating environment, you can upgrade your system.

Initial Installation

An initial installation overwrites the system's disk with the new version of the Solaris operating environment. If your system is not running the Solaris operating environment, you must perform an initial installation.

If the system is already running the Solaris operating environment, you can choose to perform an initial installation. If you want to preserve any local modifications, before you install, you must back up the local modifications. After you complete the installation, you can restore the local modifications.

You can use any of the Solaris installation methods to perform an initial installation. For detailed information about the different Solaris installation methods, refer to Chapter 3, Choosing a Solaris Installation Method.

Upgrade

An upgrade merges the new version of the Solaris operating environment with the existing files on the system's disk. An upgrade saves as many modifications as possible that you have made to the previous version of the Solaris operating environment.

You can upgrade any system that is running the Solaris 2.5.1, Solaris 2.6, or Solaris 7 software. You can upgrade to a Solaris 8 Update release if your system is running the Solaris 8 software. Type the following command to see the version of Solaris software that is running on your system:

$ uname -a

You can upgrade the Solaris operating environment by using the following installation methods.

Use the smosservice patch to upgrade diskless clients. For detailed instructions, refer to Solaris 8 System Administration Supplement or to smosservice(1M).

You cannot upgrade your system to a software group that is not installed on the system. For example, if you previously installed the End User Solaris Software Group on your system, you cannot use the upgrade option to upgrade to the Developer Solaris Software Group. However, during the upgrade you can add software to the system that is not part of the currently installed software group.

If you are already running the Solaris 8 operating environment and have installed individual patches, upgrading to a Solaris 8 Update release causes the following:

• Any patches that were supplied as part of the Solaris 8 Update release are reapplied to your system. You cannot back out these patches.

• Any patches that were previously installed on your system and are not included in the Solaris 8 Update release are removed.

You can use the Patch Analyzer to determine which patches, if any, will be removed by upgrading to the Solaris 8 Update release. For detailed instructions about using the Patch Analyzer, refer to Upgrading to a Solaris Update Release.