Solaris (SunOS 5.x) Operating System Installation

Booting the Solaris Installation CDROM

To boot from the local CD-ROM, you will need to power on the system (or bring down the system using the command shutdown if it is currently on). If you are powering on the system, after the testing period, press Stop-A to get to the PROM ok prompt. If you are halting the system, type su root (enter password when prompted) and type halt. On some systems you will be at the ok prompt, on others you will be at a > prompt. If your system is a SPARCstation, then at the > prompt, type: n to get to the ok prompt. To boot from the CD-ROM device you will need to refer to the following table:

	System Type			Boot Command
	Sun-4/1*			b sd(0,30,1)
	Sun-4/2*
	Sun-4/3*
	Sun-4/4*

	SPARCstation 1 (4/60)		boot sd(0,6,2)
	SPARCstation 1+ (4/65)
	SPARCstation SLC (4/20)
	
	SPARCengine 1E			boot sd(0,6,5)
	
        SPARCstation 4			boot cdrom
        SPARCstation 5
        SPARCstation 10
        SPARCstation 20
	(all newer models)

Use the boot command for the system type that is being installed. For example, a SPARCstation 5 workstation would require:

boot cdrom

The booting will take several minutes while the hardware and system components are checked. Once the system components are checked, Openwindows will launch and a installation window will appear.

Installing Solaris: Interactive

This is a menu-driven, interactive program that will guide the installation process. A series of OpenWindow panels will step you through this installation. The first panel is The Solaris Installation Program and describes the process briefly. You will have a number of different choices on each panel and can use the help panels at any time to assist you in your selection. Follow the steps below and carefully fill out the worksheet to assist you after installation with any problems.

Host Name

Supply your Unix machine's hostname. This must be a unique name on your network.
For example: circus.ucs.indiana.edu

Network Connectivity

Will this system be connected to the network? Yes or No.
The machines will be on the network so select Yes.

IP Address

Enter the IP address that was assigned. Remember, your hostname and IP address must be added to the local nameserver for your Unix machine to be fully functional. (For IU Bloomington the IP address is USUALLY of the form 129.79.xxx.yyy; where xxx is your subnet number and yyy is your workstation number.)
For example: 129.79.17.231
where 129.79 is the network number, 17 is the subnet and 231 is the host number of circus.ucs.indiana.edu.
Confirm Information: If the information correct? Continue, Change, Help. If the information is correct, select Continue.

Name Service

Will the system be using any naming services to get information such as passwords, hostnames, etc. The choices here are: NIS+, NIS, Other, None. If you want to setup NIS+ to administer passwords, etc. then select NIS+. In Solaris 2.x you cannot be a NIS server, only a client. If you are using NIS already on your network, you can add your Solaris 2.x machine to the naming service on your network by selecting NIS. If you will be using some other type of naming service, such as DNS, select Other. None means no naming service.
Select Other. (Note: This does not behave like the worksheet information suggests. We will need to do some post-installation clean to set up DNS correctly.)

Subnets

Is your network subnets? Yes or no. If so, you must make sure the netmask is set correctly. Select Yes.

Netmask

Enter the netmask for your subnet. The netmask is used to specify the amount of the IP address to reserve for the network. The network portion will be all 1's and the host portion will be 0. At IU we have subnets so we must have a netmask of:
255.255.255.0
Confirm Information: If the information correct? Continue, Change, Help. If the information is correct, select Continue.

Time Zone

You will be asked to specify the time zone by, Geographic Region, Offset from GMT, Time Zone file. Select Geographic Region.
Our Geographic Region is: United States/East-Indiana

Date and Time

Enter the date and time fields Year, Month, Day, Hour and Minute. This will set the clock. If the information is correct, select Continue.

Install Solaris Software

Initial: A panel will ask if you want to start installation. Select Continue.

Upgrade System?: A panel will ask if you are upgrading your system. To upgrade you must be currently running Solaris 2.1, Solaris 2.2 or Solaris 2.3. You can not upgrade from SunOS 4.1.x (Solaris 1.1.x).
We will be doing a complete installation not an upgrade. Select Initial.
System Type: Select the type of system. Standalone, Server, or Dataless Client. See above for descriptions of each system type. Select Standalone.
Software: There are 4 software groups to choose from, Entire Distribution, End User System Support, Developer System Support, Core System Support. Select the system type that you need based on your applications and disk space.
Select Developer System Support. If you want to you can customize the Developer System Support software group by selecting Customize. Select Continue when the software selections are completed.
Disks: You will be asked to select the disks that you will be installing Solaris onto. A panel will display the disks attached to your system and ask you to add it to the installation. A required and recommended disk space requirement will be displayed at the bottom. Remember, this does not include swap space, and any spooling space (mail, printers, log files.)
Since we will configure this system on the internal disk. Select c0t3d0 and add it to the list.
Preserve Data?: You can preserve the data on individual disk slices that the installation will not be updating during the Solaris installation. For example: you can preserve /home as the installation does not put files into the users home directories space. This is a new installation, please select Continue.
Automatically Layout File Systems?: You can have the installation program select your file system layout. The installation program will size the file systems based on your system configuration and software group selected. Or you can select manually layout the file systems.
Select Automatically Layout.
File System and Disk Layout: A panel will appear showing you the automated file system layout. Select /, /usr, swap, /opt and /var to be on separate disk slices.
Customize Disks?: The file systems and their sizes in MB will be displayed. You will see something similar to this layout.
Next, you will see a screen looking something like this:
```
	Slice	Mount Point			Size (MBs)
	0		/			20
	1		swap			64
	2		overlap			1002
	3		/var			90
	4					0
	5		/opt			90
	6		/usr			103
	7					0
```
You can select Customize to modify this auto layout. Please select Continue. As indicated earlier, these values change depending upon total available space on the drive and upon the selected software configuration. Again, these values listed above reflect SPARCstation with 32MB of RAM and a 1G hard drive and using the default Developer System Support configuration.
As a rule, the "swap" partition should be TWICE the amount of installed RAM for optimal performance on small memory systems. On systems with larger amounts of RAM, swap should be the amount of RAM + 32MB. If your system has 424MB of disk space or more, at least 32MB of space should be reserved for "/var" since future system changes and additional applications software will quickly fill up the "/var" partition. However, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that "/var" be larger than 32MB in size.
About the HOME Partition... Notice that the above table lists no partition for home directories. Unless your HOME directories are to be NFS mounted from another system on the network, you MUST have a HOME partition setup on your system. Traditionally, Unix places these directories on "/home".
However, Solaris 2 suggests that instead the user should mount HOME directories on the mounting point "/export/home" for reasons to be discussed later. Provided that sufficient disk space exists in the other partitions to meet your present AND FUTURE disk space requirements, this is fine. However, if you are not sure if your other partition sizes will meet your future needs, and if you don't have other disk space reserves available, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you use the mounting point "/export"for the remaining space on your drive. This provides the system administrator maximum flexibility while preserving directory naming conventions. Thus, if space becomes limited on "/opt" (or any other directory), then you may create an "expansion directory" in "/export" (such as "/export/opt" in the example above) and create the symbolic links necessary to meet system needs.
Mount Remote File Systems?: You can add any remote file systems you will be mounting via NFS. This will edit the /etc/vfstab file for you. This DOES NOT work correctly as the installation program does not ask you to add your default router information. The default router is the gateway off of your subnet to the rest of the network.
Do NOT add any remote mounts. Please select Continue.
In general, you will not need the Remote Mount option. However, should you have the need to permanently mount filesystems from other workstations on the network, these mounts can be defined here. Unless you are defining a diskless/dataless client, there is usually no reason to establish permanent NFS mounts and thus this option is NOT RECOMMENDED. Instead, once the systems has been set up, the administrator should utilize the "automounter" to meet these NFS filesystem requirements.
Profile: A panel will appear with a description of the installation you have selected. You have the option of beginning installation, change, exit or help.
If you are satisfied with the profile, Select Begin Installation.
Ok to Reboot after Installing Solaris: Reboot or No. There are patches that must be installed before rebooting. Select No.
Installation will take between 1/2 hour and 2 hours depending on your software group and system configuration.

Notes and Tips on Installation

Once installation is complete, you will be prompted to supply the system's ROOT password. It is IMPORTANT that the systems administrator abide by the following guidelines to insure that the new system will not become vulnerable to intrusion.
Pick a password which is UNIQUE. Sharing passwords among multiple systems means two things. The likelihood that the password will be guessed goes up. (Just as it goes up with each additional individual that knows the password.) If one machine becomes vulnerable to intrusion, ALL machines sharing the same password also become vulnerable.

Share the system password with only people who need to have root access. Access to the ROOT account on any Unix system should be limited to persons on a "need to know" basis. When more than one person has ROOT (also called SuperUser) access, strict procedures need to be in place to make sure that information about changes made by anybody other than the primary systems administrator be conveyed to that person on a timely basis. Otherwise, it is simply too easy to lose track of the system's status.