Chapter 16: Advanced Installation Procedures

Overview

SOLARIS 9 EXAM OBJECTIVES COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER:

• Explain the purpose, features, and functionality of JumpStart, including boot services, identification services, configuration services, and installation services.

• Given a scenario, explain the procedures, scripts, and commands to implement a JumpStart server.

• Given a scenario describing JumpStart configuration alternatives, explain how to establish a boot-only server, identification service alternatives, configuration service alternatives, and installation service alternatives.

• Given scenarios involving JumpStart problems with booting, identification, configuration, install, or begin/finish scripts, analyze and select a course of action to resolve the problem.

• Explain how to use the Flash installation feature, and describe requirements and limitations of this feature.

• Explain how to create and use a Flash archive and how to use a Flash archive for installation with Web Start, interactive install, and JumpStart.

Installing operating systems is an essential task for system administration. After all, if you don't install an operating system, what will you have to administer? Although installation is a necessary chore, you won't find many network administrators who classify it as an exciting task.

The first two or three times you install a new operating system might be informative and even somewhat interesting. The first time, the installation is new to you, so you're likely to pay attention. The second time, you will pay less attention, but you might notice something you missed the first time. The third time…well, from here the excitement probably wanes significantly. Now, imagine the thrill of installing two or three dozen computers, or perhaps even two or three hundred.

To help with the process of installing large numbers of computers, and ensuring that they all have similar configurations, Sun has developed utilities to automate installations. In Chapter 2, "Installation," you learned about the four programs you could use to install Solaris. The automated methods described in this chapter, custom JumpStart and Flash, are extensions of installation processes you learned about in Chapter 2.

Using these automated installations requires more preparation time, but will save you a significant amount of time when installing a large number of computers. And just as important, you can be assured that the computers you install will have the software configuration you want.