collection of sol net boot & jumpstart stuff

http://gdwarner.blogspot.com/2010/02/solaris10-sparc-jumpstart-from-linux.html
Solaris10 (sparc) jumpstart from Linux

This got me started:

http://www.5dollarwhitebox.org/wiki/index.php/Projects_Linux_Jumpstart_Installer#Linux_Server_Configuration_Files

Intro

Where I work, we have several Sun T1000s. These machines lack usb ports and cdrom drives, so installing Solaris on them is a pain. The process involves using another machine to jumpstart the target machine. Most instructions on the web tell you how to do this using Solaris as the jumpstart server.

One of the great benefits of jumpstarting, is you can completely configure the install process using configuration files. You can set root passwords, specify packages to be installed, run custom shell commands, add users, etc.

I needed a way to be able to manage all of these configurations in CM (perforce) and then reliably and consistently build my jumpstart server. Previously this involved following written instructions that went something like this: 1) Create Solaris VM 2) Move this files over 3) Configure this, that, etc. It was highly error prone and many times a little step here or there would get skipped.

Enter Linux.

Besides the fact that I really dislike Solaris, I saw many advantages to trying to make a Linux jumpstart server. Primarly was the fact that I could programatically make a Linux jumsptart server by making a Live CD (maybe more on this in another blog post). Also, Linux for me, is easier to manage, debug, configure, etc.

In the sections that follow, I'll try to explain the steps I took to create a Linux jumpstart server on a RHEL 5.4 system. As alluded to before, I eventually ported this to an ArchLinux livecd, so I could pop the live cd in a x86 PC, boot, and serve Solaris installs!

And lastly, I should note that this post is mostly a collection of notes. I don't expect a newbie to jumpstart to understand anything by reading this. This will be mostly helpful to someone who is already familiar with the basics of jumpstart, has probably already tried to get it to work on Linux, but just needs a few hints.

Install a minimal RHEL 5.4

Add dhcpd and tftp-server packages, if necessary

Configure dhcpdHere is my config file. My server's ip is 192.168.1.1.

ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
option routers 192.168.1.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;

default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

next-server 192.168.1.1;

# Jumpstart Support
option space SUNW;
option SUNW.root-mount-options code 1 = text;
option SUNW.root-server-ip-address code 2 = ip-address;
option SUNW.root-server-hostname code 3 = text;
option SUNW.root-path-name code 4 = text;
option SUNW.swap-server-ip-address code 5 = ip-address;
option SUNW.swap-file-path code 6 = text;
option SUNW.boot-file-path code 7 = text;
option SUNW.posix-timezone-string code 8 = text;
option SUNW.boot-read-size code 9 = unsigned integer 16;
option SUNW.install-server-ip-address code 10 = ip-address;
option SUNW.install-server-hostname code 11 = text;
option SUNW.install-path code 12 = text;
option SUNW.sysid-config-file-server code 13 = text;
option SUNW.JumpStart-server code 14 = text;
option SUNW.terminal-name code 15 = text;


subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.100;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
#option routers 192.168.1.1;

option host-name "solaris10-jumper1";
vendor-option-space SUNW;
option SUNW.sysid-config-file-server "jumpstartserver:/home/jumpstart/config";
option SUNW.JumpStart-server "jumpstartserver:/home/jumpstart/config";
option SUNW.install-server-hostname "jumpstartserver";
option SUNW.install-server-ip-address 192.168.1.1;
option SUNW.install-path "/home/jumpstart/install";
option SUNW.root-server-hostname "jumpstartserver";
option SUNW.root-server-ip-address 192.168.1.1;
option SUNW.root-path-name "/home/jumpstart/install/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot";
}

Configure NFS

For some reason, you have to disable NFSv4 on the server. See this page:

http://www.jroller.com/jasonf/entry/solaris_10_nfs_client_connecting

Pay special attention to the comment left by Lars Rohrbach.

My /etc/exports file looks like this:

/home/jumpstart/install 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(ro,sync,no_root_squash)
/home/jumpstart/config 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(ro,sync,no_root_squash)

TFTP

Enable tftp by editing the /etc/xinet.d/tftp file.

Tftp files (at least with RHEL5) are served by default from /tftpboot. The Solaris sparc bootloader(?) needs to be copied to this directory. In my situation, I copied /install/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot/platform/sun4v/inetboot from the Solaris10 install dvd and renamed it SUNW.Sun-Fire-T1000. If you're not installing a T1000, you will rename it to something different. Also, the folder that inetboot was in, sun4v, may change too. I deduced the filename, SUNW.Sun-Fire-T1000, by looking at tcpdump output and I figured out the architecture(?), sun4v, by googling.

DVD Contents

For simplicity, I mounted (instead of copying) the Solaris 10 sparc dvd at /home/jumpstart/install.

Configuration

/home/jumpstart/config/any_machine:

install_type initial_install
system_type server
partitioning explicit
filesys rootdisk.s0 10000 /
filesys rootdisk.s1 1000 swap
filesys rootdisk.s4 10000 /home
filesys rootdisk.s5 free /var

cluster SUNWCreq

/home/jumpstart/config/sysidcfg:

system_locale=en_US
timezone=US/Pacific
terminal=vt100
timeserver=localhost
network_interface=e1000g0 {hostname=client1
netmask=255.255.255.0
protocol_ipv6=no
default_route=192.168.1.1}
name_service=NONE
security_policy=NONE
nfs4_domain=dynamic

/home/jumpstart/config/rules:

#
# The following rule matches any system:

any - - any_machine -

/home/jumpstart/config/rules.ok:

any - - any_machine -
# version=2 checksum=num

Start the Install

From the Solaris ">" prompt, issue a "boot net:dhcp - install"

That's it!

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http://web.archive.org/web/20100407085448/http://www.5dollarwhitebox.org/wiki/index.php?title=Projects_Linux_Jumpstart_Installer&printable=yes

Summary

This document lays out how to configure and automate Solaris Jumpstart installations from a Linux Server. For our demonstration, we have used Debian Sarge 3.1, however any other distro should work similarly. The goal is to provide a completely automated and standardized Solaris installations.

Why not create a Jumpstart Solution from a Solaris server? Well, the standard jumpstart is based on a one time install where you must use the “add_install_client” and “rm_install_client” scripts to add the servers IP and MAC address to perform an install (uses RARP/Bootparamd). Using Linux we pass all the install options by way of DHCP which enables us to plug in a server, type “boot net:dhcp – install” and watch it go without making any changes on the Jumpstart server.

Alot of this work was handed on to me from my good friend Ed... thank you thank you.

• Author: BJ Dierkes
• Last Updated: December 2nd, 2005
• Contact: wdierkes [at] 5dollarwhitebox [dot] org

Overview and Preparation

The System

• Debian Stable 3.1 (Sarge)

• 1 Public NIC
  • 10.1.101.x for our example

• 1 Private NIC for each Solaris Distribution served
  • 192.168.1.254 – Solaris 8 distribution NIC
  • 192.168.2.254 – Solaris 9 distribution NIC

Filesystem Diagram

The following is a brief layout of the files involved here. As we have both Solaris 8 and Solaris 9, please substitute "X" with either "8" or "9":

/jumpstart/X	Holds all Solaris X jumpstart install, post install, and companion cd files
rules	File used to determine machine type, and is read by the ‘check’ script.
rules.ok	File created by the ‘check’ script, and read by the installer to determine the profile file, and pre/post scripts to use.
check	Script that is ran to read the ‘rules’ file, and create the ‘rules.ok’ file.
any_machine	Generic profile file, used to automate the installer.
install	Data from Solaris X Software CD’s 1 and 2
config/sysidcfg	Config file to automate installation
post_install/ccd_install.pl	Custom Post Install script to install the Companion CD
post_install/companioncd/Packages	Copied from Companion CD

Linux Packages required

The following Debian packages will need to be installed:

atftpd	TFTP Server Daemon provides the Solaris Netboot Kernel
pdksh	Shell required to execute certain Solaris scripts off the CD’s
tcpdump	Useful for debugging
nfs-kernel-server	Serves the Installation files
nfs-common	Additional NFS package
dhcp3-server	Provides boot parameters needed for Solaris Jumpstart install
bind9	Required during install to provide reverse lookup on the private network (192.168.x.x)

Solaris Software Media Used

• Solaris 8 2/04 Software CD 1 of 2
• Solaris 8 2/04 Software CD 2 of 2
• Solaris 8 2/02 Software Companion CD

• Solaris 9 7/04 Software CD 1 of 2
• Solaris 9 7/04 Software CD 2 of 2
• Solaris 9 7/04 Software Companion CD

Linux Server Configuration Files

DHCP3: /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

Because the DHCP boot parameters determine where the installation and sysidcfg files are, each distribution requires its own NIC and network. As you see below, any box DHCP booting to the 192.168.1.0 network will perform a Solaris 8 Jumpstart installation, and any box on the 192.168.2.0 network will perform a Solaris 9 Jumpstart installation. There is most likely a cleaner way to do this, but I have not been able to determine it.

/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

# option definitions common to all supported networks...
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
option domain-name "jumpstart.mydomain.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.254;

option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

# Jumpstart Support
option space SUNW;
option SUNW.root-mount-options code 1 = text;
option SUNW.root-server-ip-address code 2 = ip-address;
option SUNW.root-server-hostname code 3 = text;
option SUNW.root-path-name code 4 = text;
option SUNW.swap-server-ip-address code 5 = ip-address;
option SUNW.swap-file-path code 6 = text;
option SUNW.boot-file-path code 7 = text;
option SUNW.posix-timezone-string code 8 = text;
option SUNW.boot-read-size code 9 = unsigned integer 16;
option SUNW.install-server-ip-address code 10 = ip-address;
option SUNW.install-server-hostname code 11 = text;
option SUNW.install-path code 12 = text;
option SUNW.sysid-config-file-server code 13 = text;
option SUNW.JumpStart-server code 14 = text;
option SUNW.terminal-name code 15 = text;


subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.100;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255; 
        option routers 192.168.1.254; 

        option host-name "sol8-jumper1";
        vendor-option-space SUNW;          
        option SUNW.sysid-config-file-server "sol8-installer:/jumpstart/8/config";
        option SUNW.JumpStart-server "sol8-installer:/jumpstart/8";
        option SUNW.install-server-hostname "sol8-installer";
        option SUNW.install-server-ip-address 192.168.1.254;
        option SUNW.install-path "/jumpstart/8/install";
        option SUNW.root-server-hostname "sol8-installer";
        option SUNW.root-server-ip-address 192.168.1.254; 
        option SUNW.root-path-name "/jumpstart/8/install/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot";
}

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.2.1 192.168.2.100;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.2.255; 
        option routers 192.168.2.254; 

        option host-name "sol9-jumper1";
        vendor-option-space SUNW;          
        option SUNW.sysid-config-file-server "sol9-installer:/jumpstart/9/config";
        option SUNW.JumpStart-server "sol9-installer:/jumpstart/9";
        option SUNW.install-server-hostname "sol9-installer";
        option SUNW.install-server-ip-address 192.168.2.254;
        option SUNW.install-path "/jumpstart/9/install";
        option SUNW.root-server-hostname "sol9-installer";
        option SUNW.root-server-ip-address 192.168.2.254; 
        option SUNW.root-path-name "/jumpstart/9/install/Solaris_9/Tools/Boot";
}

DHCP3: /etc/default/dhcp3-server

/etc/default/dhcp3-server

INTERFACES="eth1 eth2"

NFS: /etc/exports

/etc/exports

/jumpstart              192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(ro,sync,no_root_squash)
/jumpstart              192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0(ro,sync,no_root_squash)

NOTE: I’ve had problems installing Solaris 8 with the NFS shared as “ro”. For some reason it needs to write something on the share (which is all together a bad deal). I haven’t figured that out yet, however the issue doesn’t seem to happen on a Solaris 9 Jumpstart.

Bind9: Generic Configuration

Bind9 DNS Server was required for reverse DNS lookups during Jumpstart. Multiple times throughout the install, Jumpstart hangs if it cannot locate the specified DNS Server and hostname. Therefore, I setup a generic Bind9 configuration for the 192.168.x.x networks. I am no Bind guru by any means, but it seemed to fix the glitch.

Copying the Solaris Software

Since Sun uses partitions on some of there installation media… its not always as simple as copying directories off of a CD. There are different ways that this can be done; however the easiest way I found was to use the “install_jumpstart_server” and “add_to_jumpstart_server” scripts off of the CD’s.

These commands are performed on an installed Sun Solaris Server. The idea is to use the jumpstart install scripts from the installation media, and then copy those directories across the network to the Linux NFS server. The scripts will not allow install across the network directly to the NFS share.

# mkdir –p /local_jumpstart/8/install
# mkdir –p /local_jumpstart/9/install

Solaris 8

All commands are on the Solaris box.

Solaris 8 2/04 Software CD 1 of 2:

# /cdrom/sol_8_204_sparc/Solaris_8/Tools/setup_install_server /local_jumpstart/8/install

Solaris 8 2/04 Software CD 2 of 2:

# /cdrom/sol_8_204_sparc_2/Solaris_8/Tools/add_to_install_server /local_jumpstart/8/install

Solaris 8 2/02 Companion CD:

# cp –R /cdrom/s8_software_companion/components/sparc/Packages /local_jumpstart/8/companioncd.orig

Solaris 9:

All commands are on the Solaris box.

Solaris 9 7/04 Software CD 1 of 2:

# /cdrom/sol_9_704_sparc/Solaris_9/Tools/setup_install_server /local_jumpstart/9/install

Solaris 9 7/04 Software CD 2 of 2:

# /cdrom/sol_9_704_sparc_2/Solaris_9/Tools/add_to_install_server /local_jumpstart/9/install

Solaris 9 7/04 Companion CD:

# cp –a /cdrom/s9_software_companion/components/sparc/Packages /local_jumpstart/8/companioncd.orig

Copy Files To The Linux NFS Server

From the Solaris box:

# mount –F nfs linux-jumpstart-server:/jumpstart /mnt/jumpstart
# cp -a /local_jumpstart/* /mnt/jumpstart

There may be a better was to do this… like with ‘tar’, however I had an issue copying one of the CD’s with ‘tar’ so I just stuck with the easy option, ‘cp’.

Jumpstart Configuration Files

All commands are on the Linux server.

Netboot Kernels

There is a specific Netboot kernel for each type of Sun Box. The kernels seem to work for Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 the same, and were copied from the Solaris 8 media.

# cd /jumpstart/8/install/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot/usr/platform

Sun 280R 4U Server Inetboot Kernel:

# cp SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot /tftpboot/SUNW.Sun-Fire-280R

Sun v120 1U Server Inetboot Kernel:

# cp SUNW,UltraAX-i2/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot /tftpboot/SUNW.UltraAX-i2

These are the only two servers that I am working with at the moment, but the other kernels are there.

Jumpstart Sample Configuration

The files that I have here were built from the Solaris sample files in the Solaris 8 Media. The files appear to be the same for Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 (and maybe even 10).

# cp –a /jumpstart/8/install/Misc/jumpstart_sample/* /jumpstart/8
# cp –a /jumpstart/9/install/Misc/jumpstart_sample/* /jumpstart/9

From there, the main configuration files are described next.

The Rules File: /jumpstart/XX/rules

This file contains rules so that you can control how Jumpstart runs on different types of machines. For my needs, all installs are generally going to be the same. Therefore, I setup up one single configuration that should work on all hardware that I have available.

/jumpstart/XX/rules

any -   pre-install.sh   any_machine post-install.sh

There can be multiple lines, with multiple ‘rules’. The idea is to ‘match’ a box to a rule set, and then proceed accordingly.

any	Describes the type of hardware architecture that the current machine has.
-	The next field I believe describes the Kernel architecture??? But ‘-‘ is all you need.
pre-install.sh	This script is executed before the OS is installed
any_machine	This is the name of the file that is used if this rule matches.
post-install.sh	This script is executed after the OS is installed

The rules.ok File: /jumpstart/XX/rules.ok

This file is created by the ‘check’ script in the same directory ‘/jumpstart/XX’ after copying the sample_jumpstart files. The ‘check’ script reads the ‘rules’ file, and then creates ‘rules.ok’ which is read by the installer.

/jumpstart/XX/rules.ok

any -   pre-install.sh   any_machine post-install.sh 
# version=2 checksum=4738

It obviously just adds a checksum that is used to “verify” the rules file for the installer. To run the ‘check’ script, you may need to mount the NFS share, and run the script from an installed Solaris box (at least I had to, but I don’t remember if I really needed to or not).

The Profile: /jumpstart/XX/any_machine

The Profile holds a little bit of information in order to automate the installer. This file tells it how to partition the disk, which packages to install, the type of install, etc.

/jumpstart/XX/any_machine

install_type    initial_install
system_type     standalone
partitioning    explicit
filesys any free /
filesys any 1024 swap
filesys any 32
geo N_America
cluster         SUNWCall

This profile basically performs an Initial Install on a standalone system. The partitioning looks like the following:

Slice 0	Free space left on disk (mounted on ‘/’)
Slice 1	1024M (swap)
Slice 2	Reserved
Slice 3	32M (no mount point. Used for Software mirroring)

The line “cluster SUNWCall” tells Jumpstart to install the “Entire Distribution”. You could substitute this line with “cluster SUNWreq” to only install the CORE OS, and then add specific packages with additional lines like “package SUNWbash”. The packages are found in ‘/jumpstart/XX/install/Solaris_XX/Product’.

The Config File: /jumpstart/XX/config/sysidcfg

The ‘sysidcfg’ file provides answers to questions in the installer. Without this file, and the profile ‘any_machine’ the installer is not automated and will prompt for answers.

/jumpstart/XX/config/sysidcfg

name_service=NONE
network_interface=PRIMARY{dhcp protocol_ipv6=no}
root_password=15y8hPKSuXZ6A
security_policy=NONE
system_locale=en_US
terminal=vt100
timezone=US/Central
timeserver=localhost

These answers are obvious if you are familiar with performing CD based installs. The encrypted ‘root_password’ is ‘password’. Setting the ‘timeserver’ to ‘localhost’ assumes that the system time is accurate. The smart thing to do would be to setup a time server on the jumpstart installer, and then this line will change to ‘timeserver=192.168.1.254’ or whatever the IP of the Jumpstart server is. I haven’t gotten to that point yet.

Post Install Config

Solaris Software Companion Packages

Related Project: Solaris Companion CD Installer Script

Because there is no feasible way to add the Solaris Software Companion to the installation, it needs to be added by way of custom scripts. To do this, the ‘components/sparc/Packages’ directory was copied off of the Solaris Software Companion CD. The script I wrote that handles these packages is ‘post_install/ccd_install.pl’, and installs the packages from ‘post_install/companioncd/Packages’. You can add/remove packages from the Companion CD and the script should not need to be edited.

Additionally, the original Companion CD’s ‘Packages’ directory was copied to ‘/jumpstart/8/companioncd.orig’ and ‘/jumpstart/9/companioncd.orig’. This directory exists so you can pull packages and place them back into the ‘post_install/companioncd/Packages’ directory for the post install script to install them.

For documentations sake, I have removed the following packages ‘post_install/companioncd/Packages’:

SFWcdrec
SFWxmms
SFWxeyes
SFWethrl
SFWsnort
SFWxfce
SFWkde
SFWsamba
SFWgimp
SFWesd
SFWfvwm
SFWfnlib
SFWgnome
SFWgtk
SFWgtken
SFWgv
SFWimlib
SFWolvwm
SFWqt
SFWtdmp
SFWtk
SFWxaw3d
SFWxcpus
SFWxmacs
SFWxmcd
SFWxmp
SFWxterm
SFWgphto
SFWgplot
SFWnmap

How It All Works

sol-jumper	Server being jumped (192.168.1.1)
jumpstart-dev	Linux Jumpstart Server (192.168.1.254)

The new Sun server is connected to a specific Jumpstart VLANs. For this type of setup, There needs to be a separate VLAN for each version of Solaris. (Crossover cable directly in our example).

From the Open Boot Prompt (“ prompt”) type:

 boot net:dhcp – install

• sol-jumper calls for a DHCP Address, and boot parameters. The DHCP Server provides the IP, and Jumpstart Server information. (this part takes place of RARP/Bootparamd in a typical Jumpstart environment)

• sol-jumper mounts the NFS share ‘jumpstart-dev:/jumpstart/8’ and finds the configuration files, notably the sysidcfg file.

• Jumpstart read the ‘rules.ok’ file to find a match, then read the corresponding config files and scripts that are attached to it.

• Jumpstart executes the ‘pre-install.sh’ script that is specified in the ‘rules.ok’ file

• Jumpstart runs several other scripts as well (not specified by our files).

• Jumpstart then begins to partition the disk, and then install whatever packages are specified in our profile ‘any_machine’.

• After the OS is installed, Jumpstart installs any patches that are located in ‘/jumpstart/XX/install/Solaris_X/Patches’.

• Jumpstart then executes the ‘post-install.sh’ script which was specified in our ‘rules.ok’ file.

• In my config, the ‘post-install.sh’ script then executes ‘post_config/ccd_install.pl’ which is a custom perl script I wrote to install the Solaris Companion CD.

• The box will then reboot, and you’ll have a login. Root password is ‘password’ as specified in the sysidcfg file.

At this point you could then implement a custom post install script to config the system to your liking.

That is basically it.

Known Problems

Differences in TCP/IP Stack

It appears that there may be differences between the Solaris and Linux TCP stacks. This problem hasn’t quite been researched completely, however throughout the install the following NFS data transfer error is continuous: “reply ERR 1460”. I am not completely sure how this effects the installation, or if it just delays it slightly. There doesn’t appear to be any problems with the installation after it is complete.

I have found comments in Solaris Forums that suggest the Linux NFS Servers sends data “backwards” compared to how Solaris reads it.

Transfer Speeds

Even with 10/100 NICs connected with a direct Cross-over cable, the Jumpstart install appears very sluggish. I believe this may be a minor adjustment, such as enable Full Duplex on the Sun box or something similar to that. I haven’t had time to look into this yet. This may also be because of the Difference in TCP/IP stack.

Suggestions

Native Solaris Jumpstart

Personally, I am thinking that the best Solaris solution is to setup a solid Solaris Jumpstart server utilizing the Solaris Security Toolkit (very advanced). This would take extensive configuration, which I have not looked into. This would require setting up an environment that did not require the use of “add_install_client” and “rm_install_client” as our main focus is automation.

Web Interface to Prep for Install

One Idea I had was to setup a Web Interface that displayed the detected MAC address’s. You could then select the MAC of the server, and then select which version of Solaris to install. The web interface would then use that information to execute a custom script in place of the “add_install_client” script. The main thing that ‘add_install_client’ does is adds info to ‘/etc/hosts’, ‘/etc/ethers’, and ‘/etc/bootparams’.

This is a shaky idea, but it had run across my mind. Haven’t thought it out, or if it would work. Would need to customize the config to have a DHCP Server regardless.

FreeBSD Jumpstart Server

The procedures in this document could be tested on a FreeBSD system. This may resolve the issues that are being seen during the NFS reads, as the FreeBSD TCP stack may be more compatible with Solaris.

Resources

Jumpstart HowTo’s:

• http://www.docbert.org/Solaris/Jumpstart/linux.htm
• http://www.transposed.org/techstuff/linux-jumpstart.html
• http://www.pimpworks.org/sun/jumpstart-howto.html
• http://www.amorin.org/professional/jumpstart.php

How to create a Raid 1 during installation. (Didn’t quite get to try this)

• http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-5506/6mkv6ki9v?a=view

Custom Jumpstart Environment Variables:

• http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-5506/6mkv6ki9t?a=view

Solaris 8 Package Lists:

• http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/content/packagelist/s8PkgList/p2.html
• http://www.geo.lsa.umich.edu/IT/os/sol8/sfw.html

Solaris 8 Advanced Installation Guide:

• http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/806-0957?q=solaris+8+advanced+installation

Solaris 8 Companion CD Package Dependency List:

• http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/freeware/s9u7dependencies.xml

Advanced Solaris Jumpstart Configs (For Sun Jumpstart Server, not Linux)

• http://www.sun.com/software/security/jass/

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Solaris Network Install from Linux

I was able to successfully install Solaris 8 on my SPARCstation 10 using my Red Hat 7.3 Linux machine as a boot server. I downloaded the Solaris 8 CD images from Sun. I don't have a SCSI CD-ROM for the SS 10. But I do have CD-RW drive on my Linux machine and a network to connect them together. I connected to the serial console on the SS10.

Network Boot

The Solaris Install CD isn't needed for the install; it is for booting from the CD drive and doing a graphical install. The Software 1 CD CD contains the root filesystem and core packages. The Software 2 CD contains optional packages that can be copied over for the main install, or installed later.

The Solaris_8/Tools directory contains some shell scripts that are used on Solaris machine to setup a boot server. These don't work under Linux but inspecting them shows how a boot server can be setup on other Unix machines.

Setup network booting as described in my Network Boot Server for SPARC article.

Root Files

The root filesystem is on the Software 1 CD in the Solaris_8/Tools/Boot directory. It needs to be copied to the boot server using either tar or cpio commands to preserve all the file attributes.

# cd /mnt/cdrom/Solaris_8/Tools
# find . -depth -print | cpio -pdmu /pub/solaris/Solaris_8/Tools

TFTP

The network boot file for loading over TFTP is the usr/platform/platform/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot file in Solaris_8/Tools/Boot. Copy the file for your platform to the /tftpboot directory and symlink it to the file for the client.

# cd /pub/solaris/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot
# cp usr/platform/sun4m/lib/fs/nfs/inetboot /tftpboot
# cd /tftpboot
# ln -sf inetboot C0A8010C.SUN4M

Product Files

The core packages are also on the Software 1 CD in the Solaris_8/Product directory. This directory must be available over NFS. It can be copied from the CD-ROM to the hard drive. If you want to install the packages from the Software 2 CD, also copy them to the same location onto the hard disk with the same command.

# cd /mnt/cdrom/Solaris_8 
# find Product -depth -print | cpio -pdmu
# /pub/solaris/Solaris_8

Alternatively, the CD-ROM can be exported directly over NFS. One snag with this is that you won't be able to unmount or eject the CD while it is exported. The solution is to not add a line to the/etc/exportfs file, but use the exportfs -i command to export it and then do exportfs -r to remove it.

# exportfs -v -i -o ro,no_root_squash 192.168.1.0/24:/mnt/cdrom

Bootparams

All the locations for directories above needed to be exported through NFS. They also need to be transmitted to the client with the bootparamd file. Add the configuration for the client to the/etc/bootparams file.

# cat >> /etc/bootparams
balrog root=kraken:/pub/solaris/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot \
        install=kraken:/pub/solaris \
        rootopts=:rsize=32768 boottype=:in 

Problems

Some people have reported problems with interaction between the Linux NFS daemon and Solaris. I didn't have any trouble with the Linux 2.4.18 kernel so this may have been fixed in more recent kernels. You can try changing the rsize option to 8192 if you run into problems.

The first couple of times that I tried booting Solaris, the boot process would hang after loading the kernel but before loading the installer. After some investigation of the scripts in /sbin in the root filesystem, I discovered that the /sbin/get_netmask program was handing. Since it didn't seem to be doing anything important (the interface has already been properly configured), I moved it out the way.

# cd /pub/solaris/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot
# cd sbin
# mv get_netmask get_netmask.boot

Booting

Now you are ready to boot the Solaris installer over the network. Enter the boot command from the OpenPROM prompt.

ok boot net-tpe - install

Install

If everything is working correctly, the Solaris interactive installer should appear on the console. Most of the questions it asks are pretty straightforward and I didn't have any trouble installing Solaris once I got it to boot.

It should be possible to automate the installation using Jumpstart. Jumpstart uses a couple of files to configure the install. These are also exported through NFS and parameters added to the bootparams file. The scripts used to set this up automatically won't work on Linux but it should be possible to do it manually.

http://znark.com/tech/solarisinstall.html

---

Network Boot Server for SPARC

It is pretty easy to a Linux machine to act as a boot server for a Sun SPARC machine. I used a Red Hat 7.3 Linux machine to boot a SPARCstation 10 for installing various operating systems. Other Unix operating systems should be pretty similar. Obviously, you should change the hostnames, addresses, and paths to fit your configuration.

The server needs to have the rarpd, tftpd, bootparamd, and nfsd servers installed. The boot process follows the following steps: discoveres the IP address through RARP; fetches the boot-loader through TFTP; determines the root filesystem with bootparams; and mounts the root filesystem through NFS.

RARP

The Sun machine gets its IP address using RARP from the rarpd server. The /etc/ethers file lists the mapping between Ethernet address and hostname.

# cat >> /etc/ethers
08:00:20:12:81:71  192.168.1.12
# /etc/init.d/rarpd start

TFTP

The boot process downloads the boot loader or kernel through TFTP. The TFTP server looks in /tftpboot by default. The boot file is named with the client as the client IP address in hex followed by a period and the architecture. For example, the boot file for the SS10 at 192.168.1.12 is C0A8010C.SUN4M. This is normally a symlink to the boot loader for each operating system.

# cd /tftpboot
# ln -sf inetboot C0A8010C.SUN4M

Bootparamd

Bootparamd is used to convey boot parameters to the boot loader or kernel. The most of important of these is the root filesystem. This is normally mounted over NFS. The /etc/bootparams is used to configure this. Hostnames can be used in this file as long as they are listed in the server's /etc/hosts file.

# cat >> /etc/bootparams
balrog root=kraken:/pub/solaris/Solaris_8/Tools/Boot
# /etc/init.d/bootparamd start

# cat >> /etc/hosts
192.168.1.10    kraken
192.168.1.12    balrog

NFS

The root filesystem needs to be exported through NFS. For most operating systems, it can be read-only and needs to have the no_root_squash option.

# cat > /etc/exports
/pub 192.168.1.0/24(ro,no_root_squash)
# /etc/init.d/nfs start

Related

• Solaris Network Install from Linux

http://znark.com/tech/netbootsparc.html

---

Jumpstart server for Solaris 10 x86

1. Standard Preparation
To be able to install Solaris 10 for x86 architecture, the Jumpstart server is requiring help from DHCP/PXE service.
This procedure is well documented on Sun BigAdmin

Follow the BigAdmin documentation to set the directories to be exported using NFS…

# cd /cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools
# ./setup_install_server /export/install/10_x86_u4

and so on…

2. Some tunning
2.1. Why this tunning?
Once the DVD has been copied to the hard drive, and exported, here are some settings i’ve used, mainly due to the fact the DHCP server in my network is not running on the Jumpstart server.

Note that TFTP and NFS services are running on the Jumpstart server (let’s call itjmpsvr)
The DHCP server will be named dhcpserver.

The PXE configuration needs to be set, e.g. the TFTP server configuration is to be updated, as well as the DHCP server.
Here are the modification that have been done:

2.2. TFTP settings
Create of a specific folder under the /tftpboot directory to store Solaris bootloader:

root@jmpsvr:/# mkdir /tftpboot/sol10-x86-u4

Copy the Solaris bootloader files to the previously created folder:

root@jmpsvr:/# cp -rf /export/install/10_x86_u4/boot* /tftpboot/sol10-x86-u4/

Create the required files under /tftpboot:

root@jmpsvr:/tftpboot# cp sol10-x86-u4/grub/pxegrub pxegrub.sol10-x86-u4
root@jmpsvr:/tftpboot# vi menu-sol10-x86-u4.lst

The menu.lst file is used by PXE grub to know what to boot.
Here is the content:

default=0
timeout=10
title Solaris 10 x86 U4 Jumpstart
  kernel /sol10-x86-u4/multiboot kernel/unix - install dhcp -B \ 
         install_config=jmpsvrIP:/export/config/config-sol10-x86-u4/,\
         sysid_config=jmpsvrIP:/export/config/sysidcfg-sol10-x86-u4/,\
         install_media=jmpsvrIP:/export/install/10_x86_u4/,\
         install_boot=jmpsvrIP:/export/install/10_x86_u4/boot
  module /sol10-x86-u4/x86.miniroot

where jmpsvrIP needs to be replaced by the IP address of jmpsvr.

...

2.3. Jumpstart configuration
Specific directories have been created under /export/config to store the sysidcfg andconfig files for x86 machines:

root@jmpsvr:/# mkdir /export/config/sysidcfg-sol10-x86-u4/
root@jmpsvr:/# mkdir /export/config/config-sol10-x86-u4/

The following files have been created here:

root@jmpsvr:/# ls -l /export/config/sysidcfg-sol10-x86-u4/
total 2
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         392 Mar 12 07:35 sysidcfg
root@jmpsvr:/# ls -l /export/config/config-sol10-x86-u4/
total 144
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root         512 Mar 12 08:01 .
drwxr-xr-x  13 root     root        1536 Mar 12 07:02 ..
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root     root       59701 Mar 11 14:06 check
drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         512 Mar 12 07:06 config
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         575 Mar 11 18:00 hdd30gb
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         512 Mar 12 07:05 patches
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          43 Mar 12 07:53 rules
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          69 Mar 12 07:53 rules.ok
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root          54 Mar 11 15:13 client_begin
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        3484 Mar 12 07:10 client_finish

The rules file is to be updated for each server you want to add, by adding a new line with the name of the server to install. However, it is also possible to have a rule matching any machine.
If you want to use specific profile, beginning and finishing scripts for each server, you can use the following syntax for the rules file

hostname mytarget client_begin client_profile client_finish

Here is how to match any x86 target:

karch i86pc client_begin client_profile client_finish

A remark regarding the profile syntax is available in this post.

3. DHCP configuration
The dhcpd.conf file needs to be configured so that the target server to install is given a PXE instruction.

        host targetserver {
                hardware ethernet XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX;
                fixed-address www.xxx.yyy.zzz;
                next-server jmpsvrIP;
                filename "/pxegrub.sol10-x86-u4";
        }

On the jmpsvr server, in /tftpboot, create a link between menu-sol10-x86-u4.lstand menu.lst.XXXXXXXXXXXX (This is required as the pxegrub from Solaris is lookinf for this file) where XXXXXXXXXXXX is the MAC address of the target server.

root@jmpsvr:/tftpboot# ln -sf menu-sol10-x86-u4.lst menu.lst.01XXXXXXXXXXXX

You are now ready to boot the client on the LAN and proceed with the installation.

http://blog.mc-thias.org/?title=jumpstart-server-for-solaris-10-x86&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1