Very Computer

Hi..

I do have a jumpstart server right now with Solaris 8 and 9 images and
I do install all my new boxes using jumpstart. Then I have to go
through a list of applications that I have to install..

1)wu-ftpd
2)tcp-wrappers
3)openssl and openssh
4)pine & stuff
5)sendmail

etc...

I would like to use install all these apps on a solaris box and create
a flasharchive out of it and use it for new installations via
jumpstart. Generally I install SUNWCxall and do the Recommended patch
cluster asap.

1) Does flasharchive has any size limitations?

2) Can I use the archive to install any 'sun4u' architecture clients?
   (or)
   If the archive was created out of Sun Fire V240 Can I use it only
for
   V240's?

3) I havent done flash install once.. I expect it to overwrite the
/etc/hosts
   and /etc/vfstab file etc with info from my jumpstart profiles But I
dont
   want it to overwrite my /etc/inetd.conf file and some others. How
can I
   avoid a file like /etc/inetd.conf from being overwritten?

4) Are there any apps that are not recommended to be a part of flash
archive
   (like sendmail / ssh)?

Thanks a lot,
Nicole.

Hi Nicole.

| 1) Does flasharchive has any size limitations?

Not to my knowledge but you also may wanna look at using more then a
simngle flash archive e.g. one common to all boxes, another one added for
servers, ... This keeps them more manageable. Beside, flash archices can be
compressed and are cpio-balls + additional info so they can be manipulated
easily.

| 2) Can I use the archive to install any 'sun4u' architecture clients?
|    (or)
|    If the archive was created out of Sun Fire V240 Can I use it only
| for
|    V240's?

Yes, you can apply a sun4u archive to all sun4u boxes. I usually create on
on a v100 test box and apply them to 6800 servers as well. The ONE BIG
THING you have to keep in mind is that SUNWCxall doesn't mean ALL by the
meaning of the word. For example drivers for non present hardware won't be
installed. Make sure to add all additional required drivers (GigE, SCSI,
IDE, video, USB, ...) in both 32 and 64 bit mode to your profile.

Example for adding the FC-AL adaptor drivers:

package SUNWqlc   add # Qlogic ISP 2200/2202 Fibre Channel Device Driver
package SUNWqlcx  add # Qlogic ISP 2200/2202 Fibre Channel Device Driver (6

| 3) I havent done flash install once.. I expect it to overwrite the
| /etc/hosts
|    and /etc/vfstab file etc with info from my jumpstart profiles But I
| dont
|    want it to overwrite my /etc/inetd.conf file and some others. How
| can I
|    avoid a file like /etc/inetd.conf from being overwritten?

What do you mean by overwritting? When you install the flash archive a few
files are altered afterwards like /etc/passwd, vfstab and so on. Inetd
isn't changed. Jumpstart provides hooks for scripts to be run before
deploying the archive and afterwards. Beside you can still use your well
known finish scripts. One thing to remember is that during the first reboot
after a flash install a number of scripts are executed and the deleted.
Here's a starting point:

<ROOT_OF_JUMPSTART_SERVER>/Solaris_9/Tools/Boot/usr/lib/flash/*

| 4) Are there any apps that are not recommended to be a part of flash
| archive
|    (like sendmail / ssh)?

You can, as said, keep them in a seperate archive if you want to. If you
gonna replace ssh, sendmail, ... anyway then there's usually no need for
adding them. Be aware, it may make a difference removing these packages
afterwards or not adding them (different install cluster) as the removal
won't remove packages only added because of some dependency in sendmail...
Never had an issue with that but for the sake of completeness.

Hope this helps
Thomas

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Hi Nicole,

Ooh lots of questions!  I'll answer quickly, more details can be found
here: http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/816-2411/6m8ou8s8p?a=view

1) Only the size of the disk.

2) Yes, if master system is 'sun4u' and clones are 'sun4u' that's
fine.  It's not limited to "models", only kernel architecture.

3) Actually all files will be overwritten, but then sys-unconfig and
sysidtool are used to sort out /etc/hosts etc.  No you can't get it to
ignore /etc/inet/inetd.conf, but you can overwrite that config
afterwards in your custom jumpstart scripts (you include a flash
archive in a normal jumpstart profile, then customise it).

4) Well, if some Sendmail config will differ, and SSH host keys don't
want to be the same etc., then you'll need to manually fix this
afterwards in your jumpstart scripts.  Have you discovered JET?  Makes
jumpstarts much easier to work with and includes a means to easily
config some of these products.  See:
http://wwws.sun.com/software/download/products/3f5e55d1.html

Best regards,
Mark.

It can get a little more dicey than that in some extreme examples.  For
instance, if you were to install the archive you created on your V240 on a
F15K domain.  There are F15K-specific tasks that the Solaris install
scripts will perform during a regular install, but not during a flash
install (e.g.  domain-side IPsec configuration for certain intraframe
communications).

I personally think that this is something of a bug, and have argued it
with Sun, due to the fact that if I can perform a flash install on an E10K
domain, and E10K-specific actions are still taken (e.g. setting of
ssphostname).  Sun doesn't see it that way, and if support issues come up
later, no matter how unrelated they may be, it's very likely that your use
of a flash archive to install Solaris on a different type of machine may
come up.

Anyway, my advice to Nicole is to reconsider using flash for the purpose
she describes, as I eventually did.  For the reason discussed above, and
also because it leads to difficult revision control of your server-build
stack.  I find it's much cleaner to simply use pure jumpstart, with finish
scripts and temporary startup scripts adding patches, packages, and making
other changes as necessary.  This way, if you need to change something in
your build (e.g. upgrade SSH), it's simply a matter of swapping out a
package (moving a new file into place in your jumpstart configuration), as
opposed to going through the process of performing a flash install on a
spare machine, updating that machine, and creating a new archive.

You can see this gets even nastier when a new MU or version of Solaris is
released and you want to begin using that new image.  You either have to
start from scratch and build a completely new flash archive (hope you kept
good notes!), or you need to perform an upgrade on an archive, as
described above, which effectively means that every machine you build
going forward will act as if it'd had an upgrade performed on it, as
opposed to a clean install, which isn't ideal.

I'm mainly speaking about flash technology as it existed a year or two
ago, so there may have been advancements I'm unaware of that mitigate some
of the situations I've described.

Hope this helps,

Ben

As far as I'm aware there's only one case where this is a problem (the
one you've mentioned) and there's a very simple work-around (pkgrm/pkgadd
the relevant package in a finish script).

There is a bug raised for this, although I'm not sure if/when it will
will be fixed...

Flash is also not offically supported on an F15K system controller,
although apparently it does work.

  Scott

I would stick with like for like (as mentioned by others), if you have a
lot of V240s etc then keep a flash for them, another for V480's and so on
as you can never tell when a platform specific pkg will be introduced

Quote:

> 3) I havent done flash install once.. I expect it to overwrite the
> /etc/hosts
>    and /etc/vfstab file etc with info from my jumpstart profiles But I
> dont
>    want it to overwrite my /etc/inetd.conf file and some others. How
> can I
>    avoid a file like /etc/inetd.conf from being overwritten?

This is one of those times I will suggest the use of JET
(http://www.sun.com/downloads) as it gives you flexable control over
adding/amending files during the JumpStart via the "custom" module. It
also helps overcome a few minor bugs in flash.

Quote:

> 4) Are there any apps that are not recommended to be a part of flash
> archive
>    (like sendmail / ssh)?

Most apps can be installed with JumpStart.

--

        Bruce
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Thanks for all your suggestions. Hopefully I will have fun with this stuff ahead.