| Chapter Syllabus 13.1 Using swinstall to Push Software across the Network swinstall to Push Software across the Network 13.2 Installing a Complete Operating System Using Ignite-UX 13.3 Setting Up a Golden Image 13.4 Making a Recovery Archive In this chapter, we start the discussion on installing software from the premise that we all know the basics of installing, removing, and updating software using basic Software Distributor commands like swinstall , swremove , and the various associated logfiles like swagentd.log . We start by looking at Software Distributor as a tool for installing software across the network. This should not be new to us; most administrators should be perfectly aware of pulling software across the network using swinstall . The problem with this is that you need to log in to each server in turn and issue a swinstall command. We look at using Software Distributor to push software across the network. From a central software depot, we issue a single swinstall command to push software to a collection of machines on our network. From there, we discuss using Ignite-UX to push an entire operating system image onto a client. That operating system image can either be a fresh installation of it can be an image of our ideal server ”a so-called Golden Image, containing all of the customizations an ideal server would require to exist in a complex network infrastructure. The installation media we have is used not only for installing the operating system but also to help us repair it after a disaster or major corruption. Although reinstalling a system using a Golden Image is relatively quick, it means a loss of some data stored in the operating system disks. We can try to affect a recovery of the operating system using the Recovery Shell available on the Install media. We can affect some complex recovery procedures that would normally render a system unusable. We look at scenarios where booting the system in maintenance mode boot fails and how we can attempt to recover the system using the Recovery Shell. As always with troubleshooting, there comes a time when a good administrator will say, " enough is enough. " With good backup and recovery procedures, no machine should be out of action for too long. | 