Chapter 5. Solaris Installations and Upgrades | Solaris System Management (New Riders Professional Library)

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A MAJOR PART OF THE SYSTEM MANAGER'S WORK involves the provision of new resources and the improvement of existing ones. To this end, the system manager is the person who will investigate the configuration options that are available and will provide the best service for the business.

This chapter covers two main areas: a new installation and an upgrade. A third section at the end looks at the installation of patches, discussing some of the issues that arise when trying to decide on a patching policy, both for the Solaris operating environment patches as well as unbundled product patches and third-party patches.

Businesses face a dilemma these days about implementing new systems. With such a vast array of hardware and software available, all claiming to be the best and all being fully adaptable to the requirements of business, the system manager needs to obtain as much information as possible before committing to any one product. Indeed, some businesses deliberately diversify so as not to be tied to a specific vendor. These environments are known as multivendor environments.

A great deal of information can be obtained from the World Wide Web. All the major vendors have Web sites that you can search for information on the various products that they market.

There is a distinct difference, though, between purchasing a new system and upgrading an existing one, which is why these two scenarios form the basis of this chapter.

The following pages discuss new installations and upgrades, providing some useful information on the types of hardware and software services that either are available now or are becoming available. Also investigated are some of the issues that the system manager must deal with when attempting to secure the best possible option for the business. He must be thinking of the future and about the life expectancy of a system, the potential for asset replacement, the required availability, expansion plans, and the purpose for the existence of the system in the first place. A new system must fit into the existing infrastructure and must be in line with the corporate IT strategy ” radical changes are frequently perceived as being risky.

A further consideration that is addressed here is the installation into a 24x7 working environment. Internet business is proliferating at an alarming rate, so there is a greater requirement for systems to be running continuously around the clock, every day.

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