Creating RAID-1 Volumes (Mirrors) With Custom JumpStart

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The custom JumpStart™ installation method now enables you to create RAID-1 volumes (mirrors) during the installation of the Solaris Operating System. By mirroring file systems, you can protect your system by duplicating data over two physical disks. If one of the mirrored disks fails, the system data is still accessible from the second mirrored disk.

In JumpStart, the following new custom profile keywords and values enable you to create mirrored file systems.

• The new filesys keyword value mirror creates a mirror. Then you can designate specific slices as single-slice concatenations to attach to the mirror.

• The new metadb profile keyword enables you to create the required state database replicas.

For more information, see the Solaris 9 4/04 Installation Guide.

x86: Specifying Boot Properties With add_install_client Command

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 4/04 release.

The add_install_client command now enables you to set boot properties for Solaris x86 clients during a PXE network boot. The -b option enables you to perform the following tasks with the add_install_client command.

• You can specify an alternate console to use during your network installation.

• You can specify the device to use as the network boot device during the installation.

• You can instruct the client to perform a fully automated custom JumpStart installation.

For more information, see the install_scripts(1M) man page, the eeprom(1M) man page, and the Solaris 9 4/04 Installation Guide.

WAN Boot Installation Method

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/03 release.

The Solaris software now enables you to boot and install software over a wide area network (WAN) by using HTTP. The WAN boot installation method enables you to install the Solaris software on systems over a large public network where the network infrastructure might be untrustworthy. You can use WAN boot with new security features to protect data confidentiality and installation image integrity.

The WAN boot installation method enables you to transmit an encrypted Solaris Flash archive over a public network to a remote client. The WAN boot programs then install the client system by performing a custom JumpStart installation. To protect the integrity of the installation, you can use private keys to authenticate and encrypt data. You can also transmit your installation data and files over a secure HTTP connection by configuring your systems to use digital certificates.

For more information about this feature, see the Solaris 9 4/04 Installation Guide.

Solaris Live Upgrade 2.1

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

Solaris Live Upgrade provides a method of upgrading a system while the system continues to operate. While your current boot environment is running, you can duplicate the boot environment, then upgrade the duplicate. Or, rather than upgrading, you can install a Solaris Flash archive on a boot environment. The original system configuration remains fully functional and unaffected by the upgrade or installation of an archive. When you are ready, you can activate the new boot environment by rebooting the system. If a failure occurs, you have a safety net. You can quickly revert to the original boot environment with a simple reboot. Thus, you eliminate the normal downtime of the test and evaluation process.

New features in Solaris Live Upgrade 2.1 provide the following new functionality.

• Solaris Live Upgrade uses Solaris Volume Manager technology to create a duplicate boot environment that contains file systems with RAID-1 volumes (mirrors). The mirror provides data redundancy for any file systems, including the root (/) file system. With the lucreate command, you can create mirrored file systems that contain up to three submirrors.

• With the lucreate command, you can now exclude some files and directories that would normally be copied from the original boot environment. If you have excluded a directory, you can also include specified files and subdirectories under that directory.

For further information, see the Solaris 9 4/04 Installation Guide.

Custom JumpStart Installation Method Creates New Boot Environment

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 8/03 release.

You can now use the JumpStart installation method to create an empty boot environment when you install the Solaris software. The empty boot environment can then be populated with a Solaris Flash archive for later use.

Solaris Flash Archives

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The Solaris Flash installation feature enables you to use a single reference installation of the Solaris software on a system. This system is called the master system. Then, you can replicate that installation on a number of systems, which are called clone systems. The installation is an initial installation that overwrites all files on the clone system.

Solaris Flash Differential Archives and Configuration Scripts

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The Solaris Flash installation feature provides new enhancements for this Solaris release.

• A Solaris Flash installation can now update a clone system with minor changes. If you have a clone system and want to update it, you can create a differential archive that contains only the differences between two images, the original master image and an updated master image. When you update a clone system with a differential archive, only the files that are specified in the differential archive are changed. The installation is restricted to clone systems that contain software which is consistent with the original master image. You use the custom JumpStart installation method to install a differential archive on a clone system. Or, you can use Solaris Live Upgrade to install a differential archive on a duplicate boot environment.

• Special scripts can now be run for configuration of the master or clone or can be run to validate the archive. These scripts enable you to do the following tasks.

  • Configure applications on clone systems. You can use a custom JumpStart script for some uncomplicated configurations. For more complicated configurations, special configuration file processing might be necessary on the master system or before or after installation on the clone system. Also, local preinstallation and postinstallation scripts can reside on the clone. These scripts can protect local customizations from being overwritten by the Solaris Flash software.

  • Identify nonclonable, host-dependent data that enables you to make the flash archive host independent. Host independence is enabled by modifying such data or excluding the data from the archive. An example of host-dependent data is a log file.

  • Validate software integrity in the archive during creation.

  • Validate the installation on the clone system.

For further information, see the Solaris 9 4/04 Installation Guide. This guide also includes information on how to use Solaris Live Upgrade to install a differential archive.

Customizing Content in a Solaris Flash Archive

This feature is new in the Solaris 9 12/02 release and has been revised in the Solaris 9 4/03 release.

The flarcreate command is used to create a Solaris Flash archive. In this Solaris release, this command has been updated with new options that increase your flexibility to define archive contents when creating an archive. You now can exclude more than one file or directory. From an excluded directory, you can add back a subdirectory or file. This feature is useful when you want to exclude large data files that you do not want cloned.

For information on how to use these options, see the Solaris 9 4/04 Installation Guide.

Note the following name change: Solaris Flash (formerly Web Start Flash).