Tips & techniques for Users of Sunsoft Solaris
As you probably know, you can install Solaris on a machine that doesn't have a local CD-ROM drive by installing the software "over the network." In order to do so, you must set up one or more machines on the network to serve as "boot" and "install" servers for the target machine on which you want to install Solaris. Then, you can boot the target machine over the network from the boot server and install Solaris over the network from the install server.
Until recently, system administrators who used this technique typically used Sparc workstations as boot and install servers for other Sparc workstations. However, allocating Sparc hardware to the low-priority task of serving as boot and install servers isn't exactly cost-effective. With the release of Solaris 2.4 x86, you now have a much more attractive option. You can dedicate a single low-cost PC to serve as both a boot and install server for all your Solaris workstations on the local network.
In this article, we'll show you how to set up a PC to act as a boot and install server for a Sparc workstation. We'll walk through the entire process, pointing out a few pitfalls along the way. Incidentally, the Installing Solaris Software manual that comes with Solaris explains the basic procedure we'll use here; however, it contains a few inaccuracies and fails to address a significant fatal error in one of the installation programs.
Because installation procedures are understandably dependent on the hardware involved, we'll base our example on a specific hardware configuration. Namely, the Sparc workstation upon which we want to install Solaris 2.4 is a SPARCstation LX and the PC that we'll use as a boot and install server is a Dell 486D/50 with 16 MB of RAM and a 500-MB hard drive.
Because we don't intend to use the PC for anything other than a boot and install server, we've gotten by with a very minimal-and very inexpensive-configuration. For instance, we're using the Paradise/WD VGA adapter on the PC's motherboard, which Solaris supports only in 640x480 mode. In addition, since we'll be installing Solaris onto the Sparc workstation directly from the PC's CD-ROM drive, the PC has a relatively small hard drive. However, be aware that you need approximately 50 MB of free hard drive space for each type of Sparc architecture for which you want the PC to be able to act as a boot and install server.
You may want to increase the amount of hard disk space on your PC so you can install Solaris from the PC's hard drive instead of from its CD-ROM drive. To do so, you must copy the entire contents of the Solaris CD-ROM to the PC's hard drive. There are two advantages to installing from the PC's hard drive: It's faster, and the hard drive can hold several versions of Solaris at the same time. This latter point is important if you frequently install Solaris at locations far from the PC-based boot and install server: You'll never find yourself at the far end of the building wondering whether the correct CD is in the PC's CD-ROM drive.
Finally, we'll assume that both machines reside on the same subnet. If they don't, the process gets a little more complicated: The install server can reside anywhere on the network, but the boot server must reside on the same subnet as the target workstation. Since the PC is both boot and install server in our example, it must be on the same subnet as the target machine. In addition, we'll perform a normal-not a jumpstart-installation on the Sparc workstation.
The first step in the process is setting up the PC as an install server. To do so, Solaris 2.4 x86 must first be properly installed and running on the PC. In addition, the PC must be configured to use your network's standard naming service (NIS+, NIS, DNS, or the hosts file). Then, you must log on the PC as root and start OpenWindows. Next, you need to identify the Sparc workstation to the network by adding an entry to the hosts database.
You use the Host Manager program to add the Sparc workstation to the hosts database. (If you're reinstalling Solaris on an active workstation, you can skip this step because the hosts database will already contain information for the workstation.) To update the hosts database, first start Administration Tool by using the command
and in the Administration Tool window, click the Host Manager icon.
When Host Manager starts, you'll see the window shown in Figure A. Click the button for the naming service that your network uses. If your network uses DNS, click None. After you select a naming service, click Apply.
When the main Host Manager window opens, click the Edit button and select Add Host... from the resulting button menu. When you do, you'll see the Host Manager: Add Host window, shown in Figure B.
Using the fields in this window, you enter information that identifies the Sparc workstation. Table A explains each of these fields in more detail.
Field/Description
__________ _____________________________________________________________________________
Client Type -- Leave this field set to standalone unless the workstation will be a server.
Host Name -- Enter the unique machine name you want to use to identify the workstation. (Your administrator may assign a host name for you.)
IP Address -- Enter an IP address consistent with your IP addressing scheme. (Your administrator will normally assign an IP address for you to use.)
Ethernet Address -- Enter the ethernet address (a string such as 8:0:20:1e:16:60) for the Sparc workstation. The workstation displays its ethernet address at boot time.
Timezone Region -- Select the time zone region in which the workstation resides.
Timezone -- Select the time zone in which the workstation resides.
Remote Install -- Select Disable.
When you've entered or selected the correct information for all fields, click Add to add the workstation to the hosts database. Then, click the pushpin to close the window and quit both Host Manager and Administration Tool. Now that the PC knows how to identify the Sparc workstation, you're ready to set up the install server on the PC.
From this point on, you use the host name to identify the Sparc workstation onto which you want to install Solaris 2.4. For purposes of discussion, we'll use the host names widget1 and widget2 for the PC and Sparc workstation, respectively.
To set up the install server on the PC, you first insert the Solaris 2.4 Sparc CD in the PC's CD-ROM drive. Since you're running OpenWindows, the volume manager will automatically mount the CD for you. Then, change to the directory on the CD where the install scripts reside. To do so, open a Command Tool window, move to the new window and type
At this point, you can copy the Solaris CD to the PC's hard drive if you have enough free space on the drive. (The Solaris 2.4 Sparc CD requires approximately 350 MB of disk space.) To do so, you use the command
where target_dir is the directory on the hard drive where you want the image of the Solaris 2.4 Sparc CD to reside. We'll skip this step since we'll be installing Solaris directly from the CD-ROM drive. However, the remaining steps for setting up the install server are identical whether or not you copy the Solaris CD to the hard drive.
In order to install Solaris on the Sparc workstation over the network, you must first be able to boot the workstation over the network. This means that another Solaris workstation on the same subnet must be able to provide a compatible Solaris kernel for the Sparc workstation to load.
The beauty of this arrangement is that the workstation that provides the kernel can have a completely different architecture than the workstation that boots from the kernel. That's why a Sparc workstation can use a PC as a boot server.
Before you install on the PC the boot kernel for the Sparc workstation, you need to decide on a location for the kernel. The Solaris documentation recommends using the directory /export/install. (Note that you must create this directory manually before proceeding.)
To install the boot kernel for the Sparc workstation, you'd type a command of the form
./setup_install_server -b \ boot_dir architecture
where boot_dir is the directory on the PC that will hold the boot kernel and architecture is a code, such as i86pc, sun4c, or sun4m, that identifies the family of workstations to which the Sparc workstation belongs. (Appendix C of Installing Solaris Software contains a complete list of the architecture codes.)
The architecture code for a SPARCstation LX is sun4m. Therefore, to install the boot kernel in /export/install on the PC, you use the command
While this script runs, you'll see a series of prompts such as
Verifying target directory...
Copying sun4m root hierarchy...
Install Server setup complete
Because this script copies over 30 MB of data from the Solaris 2.4 Sparc CD to the PC's hard drive, it may take several minutes to run. After this script finishes, you're ready to define the install client.
At this point, you need to add system architecture information about the Sparc workstation to the install server's configuration files. You do this by running the add_install_client script. To run this script, you type a command of the form
./add_install_client server:install_path \client architecture
where server is the host name of the PC (widget1), install_path is the absolute pathname of the mounted Solaris CD (/export/install), client is the host name of the Sparc workstation (widget2), and architecture identifies the architecture of the client workstation.
Therefore, in our example, you'd type the command
Unfortunately, when you type this command, you'll immediately receive the error
df: Could not find mount point for /cdrom/solaris_2_4_sparc
./add_install_client: test: argument expected
This is the pitfall to which we referred earlier. To get around this problem, you need to make a short detour and edit the mnttab file in the /etc directory.
Once you've edited the mnttab file, re-issue the command
As the script works, you'll see a series of messages such as
making /tftpboot
updating /etc/bootparams
copying inetboot to /tftpboot
When the script finishes, you're ready to try booting the Sparc workstation over the network.
Once you've set up the PC as a boot and install server and set up the Sparc workstation as an install client, you can test your work. To do so, first turn on the Sparc workstation. If the system starts to boot from its hard drive, press [L1]A or [Stop]A. When you see the ok prompt, type boot net and press [Enter].
As the machine boots over the network, you'll see a series of prompts similar to those shown below:
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@4,8400010/le@4,8c00000 File and args:
2bc00
hostname: widget2
domainname: cobb.ziff.com
root server: widget1
root directory: /export/install/export/exec/kvm/sparc.sun4m.Solaris_2.4
SunOS Release 5.4 Version generic [UNIX(R) System V Release 4.0]
Copyright (c) 1983-1994, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Configuring the /devices directory
Configuring the /dev directory
Starting OpenWindows...
Then, you'll see the familiar Solaris logo screen followed by the first of many installation windows. After you answer all the installation questions, the Sparc workstation will install Solaris 2.4 Sparc on its hard drive from the PC's CD-ROM drive.
Although CD-ROM drives are becoming more essential pieces of workstation equipment, many existing Sparc workstations still don't have their own CD-ROM drive. You can install Solaris on these machines by installing over the network from another workstation's CD-ROM drive.
In this article, we showed how you can install Solaris on a Sparc workstation from a PC running Solaris 2.4 x86. In addition, we explained that using a PC as a Solaris boot and install server is much more cost efficient than using a Sparc workstation for the same purpose.
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