5.1 Philosophy on Installing Tru64 UNIX

We can imagine your groans upon reading the title of this subsection. Having worked with many, many Systems Administrators over the years and having heard their lengthy criticisms of other books intended for Systems Administrators, we felt it was important to discuss the whys and hows of our methodology for installing and configuring Tru64 UNIX.

In a TruCluster Server environment, Tru64 UNIX is installed once, and only once, no matter if you have two or eight cluster nodes. As Tru64 UNIX is the basis for TruCluster Server, it is crucial that the installation of Tru64 UNIX be done properly the first time.

We have encountered two approaches when it comes to installing a UNIX server. The first is to install all software components of the operating system. HP advocates this approach in Chapter 3 of the TruCluster Server Cluster Installation guide. This is by far the simplest approach and if a user or System Administrator needs a software component, it will automatically be there.

The second approach is to install the minimum number of software components of the UNIX operating system required by the users of the system. The rational here is that maintenance should be easier (including the installation of future patches and additional software components), management should be easier because in theory, the system administration staff would have a better idea of what applications the users require, and system security should be easier to control.

In the example of the installation and the configuration of our Tru64 UNIX, we will use the second approach. When it comes to deploying your own Tru64 UNIX server to support the eventual creation of a TruCluster Server environment, we recommend that you first review your own requirements and then use the examples presented here as prototypes upon which to build.