Chapter 3 Solaris Installation and Upgrade (Planning)

This chapter describes system requirements to install or upgrade to the Solaris OS. General guidelines for planning the disk space and default swap space allocation are also provided. This chapter contains the following sections:

• System Requirements and Recommendations

• Allocating Disk and Swap Space

• Upgrade

• How to Find the Version of the Solaris OS That Your System Is Running

• Locale Values

• Platform Names and Groups

• Installing and Upgrading When Using Non-global Zones

• SPARC: 64–bit Packaging Changes

• x86: Partitioning Recommendations

System Requirements and Recommendations

You can choose to install the software with a GUI or with or without a windowing environment. If there is sufficient memory, the GUI is displayed by default. Other environments are displayed by default if memory is insufficient for the GUI. You can override defaults with the nowin or text boot options. But, you are limited by the amount of memory in your system or by installing remotely. Also if the Solaris installation program does not detect a video adapter, it automatically displays in a console-based environment. Table 3–3 describes these environments and lists minimal memory requirements for displaying them.

Allocating Disk and Swap Space

Before you install the Solaris software, you can determine if your system has enough disk space by doing some high-level planning.

General Disk Space Planning and Recommendations

Planning disk space is different for everyone. Consider allocating space for the following conditions, depending on your needs.

Disk Space Recommendations for Software Groups

The Solaris software groups are collections of Solaris packages. Each software group includes support for different functions and hardware drivers.

• For an initial installation, you select the software group to install, based on the functions that you want to perform on the system.

• For an upgrade, you must upgrade to a software group that is installed on the system. For example, if you previously installed the End User Solaris Software Group on your system, you cannot use the upgrade option to upgrade to the Developer Solaris Software Group. However, during the upgrade you can add software to the system that is not part of the currently installed software group.

When you are installing the Solaris software, you can choose to add or remove packages from the Solaris software group that you selected. When you are selecting which packages to add or remove, you need to know about software dependencies and how the Solaris software is packaged.

The following figure shows the grouping of software packages. Reduced Network Support contains the minimal number of packages and Entire Solaris Software Group Plus OEM Support contains all the packages.

Figure 3–1 Solaris Software Groups

Table 3–6 lists the Solaris software groups and the recommended amount of disk space that you need to install each group.

The disk space recommendations in Table 3–6 include space for the following items.

• Swap space

• Patches

• Additional software packages

You might find that the software groups require less disk space than the amount that is listed in this table.

Upgrade

You can upgrade a system by using one of three different upgrade methods: Solaris Live Upgrade, the Solaris installation program, and custom JumpStart.

Upgrade Limitations

Upgrade Programs

You can perform a standard interactive upgrade with the Solaris installation program or an unattended upgrade with the custom JumpStart installation method. Solaris Live Upgrade enables you to upgrade a running system.

Installing a Solaris Flash Archive Instead of Upgrading

The Solaris Flash installation feature provides a method of creating a copy of the whole installation from a master system that can be replicated on many clone systems. This copy is called a Solaris Flash archive. You can install an archive by using any installation program.

A Solaris Flash archive cannot be properly created when a non-global zone is installed. The Solaris Flash feature is not compatible with Solaris Zones partitioning technology. If you create a Solaris Flash archive, the resulting archive is not installed properly when the archive is deployed under these conditions:

• The archive is created In a non-global zone

• The archive is created in a global zone that has non-global zones installed

For information about installing an archive, see the following table.

Upgrading With Disk Space Reallocation

The upgrade option in the Solaris installation program and the upgrade keyword in the custom JumpStart program provide the ability to reallocate disk space. This reallocation automatically changes the sizes of the disk slices. You can reallocate disk space if the current file systems do not have enough space for the upgrade. For example, file systems might need more space for the upgrade for the following reasons:

• The Solaris software group that is currently installed on the system contains new software in the new release. Any new software that is included in a software group is automatically selected to be installed during the upgrade.

• The size of the existing software on the system has increased in the new release.

The auto-layout feature attempts to reallocate the disk space to accommodate the new size requirements of the file system. Initially, auto-layout attempts to reallocate space, based on a set of default constraints. If auto-layout cannot reallocate space, you must change the constraints on the file systems.

Auto-layout does not have the ability to “grow” file systems. Auto-layout reallocates space by the following process:

1. Backing up required files on the file systems that need to change.

2. Repartitioning the disks on the basis of the file system changes.

3. Restoring the backup files before the upgrade happens.

• If you are using the Solaris installation program, and auto-layout cannot determine how to reallocate the disk space, you must use the custom JumpStart program to upgrade.

• If you are using the custom JumpStart method to upgrade and you create an upgrade profile, disk space might be a concern. If the current file systems do not contain enough disk space for the upgrade, you can use the backup_media and layout_constraint keywords to reallocate disk space. For an example of how to use the backup_media and layout_constraint keywords in a profile, refer to Profile Examples.

Backing Up Systems Before Upgrading

Backing up your existing file systems before you upgrade to the Solaris OS is highly recommended. If you copy file systems to removable media, such as tape, you can safeguard against data loss, damage, or corruption. For detailed instructions to back up your system, refer to Chapter 24, Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

How to Find the Version of the Solaris OS That Your System Is Running

To see the version of Solaris software that is running on your system, type either of the following commands.

$ uname -a

The cat command provides more detailed information.

$ cat /etc/release

Locale Values

As a part of your installation, you can preconfigure the locale that you want the system to use. A locale determines how online information is displayed in a specific language and specific region. A language might also include more than one locale to accommodate regional differences, such as differences in the format of date and time, numeric and monetary conventions, and spelling.

You can preconfigure the system locale in a custom JumpStart profile or in the sysidcfg file.

Platform Names and Groups

When you are adding clients for a network installation, you must know your system architecture (platform group). If you are writing a custom JumpStart installation rules file, you need to know the platform name.

Some examples of platform names and groups follow. For a full list of SPARC based systems, see Solaris Sun Hardware Platform Guide at http://docs.sun.com/.

On a running system, you can also use the uname -i command to determine a system's platform name or the uname -m command to determine a system's platform group.

Installing and Configuring Zones

The following introduction provides high-level planning information for global and non-global zones. For overview and planning information and specific procedures, see Chapter 16, Introduction to Solaris Zones, in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones.

Solaris Zones Partitioning Technology (Overview)

After the Solaris OS is installed, you can install and configure zones. The global zone is the single instance of the operating system that is running and is contained on every Solaris system. The global zone is both the default zone for the system and the zone that is used for system-wide administrative control. A non-global zone is a virtualized operating system environment.

Solaris Zones are a software partitioning technology used to virtualize operating system services and provide an isolated and secure environment for running applications. When you create a zone, you produce an application execution environment in which processes are isolated from all other zones. This isolation prevents processes that are running in one zone from monitoring or affecting processes that are running in any other zones. Even a process running in a non-global zone with superuser credentials cannot view or affect activity in any other zones. A process running in the global zone with superuser credentials can affect any process in any zone.

Understanding Global and Non-Global Zones

The global zone is the only zone from which a non-global zone can be configured, installed, managed, or uninstalled. Only the global zone is bootable from the system hardware. Administration of the system infrastructure, such as physical devices, routing, or dynamic reconfiguration (DR), is only possible in the global zone. Appropriately privileged processes running in the global zone can access objects associated with any or all other zones. The following table summarizes the characteristics of both global and non-global zones.

For more information, see the following:

• Chapter 16, Introduction to Solaris Zones, in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones

• Installing and Configuring Zones

Solaris Zones (Planning)

After the Solaris OS is installed, you can install and configure zones. The global zone is the single instance of the operating system that is running and is contained on every Solaris system. The global zone is both the default zone for the system and the zone that is used for system-wide administrative control. A non-global zone is a virtualized operating system environment.

Any command that accepts an alternate root (/) file system by using the -R option or equivalent must not be used if the following are true:

• The command is run in the global zone.

• The alternative root (/) file system refers to any path within a non-global zone.

An example is the -R root_path option to the pkgadd utility run from the global zone with a path to the root (/) file system in a non-global zone.

For a list of utilities that accept an alternate root (/) file system and more information about zones, see Restriction on Accessing A Non-Global Zone From the Global Zone in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones.

Installing and Upgrading When Using Non-global Zones

When the Solaris OS is installed, the software group installed in the global zone is the set of packages that is shared by all the non-global zones. For example, if you install the Entire software group, all zones contain these packages. By default, any additional packages installed in the global zone also populate the non-global zones. You can segregate into non-global zones any applications, namespaces, servers, and network connections such as NFS and DHCP as well as other software. Each non-global zone is unaware of other non-global zones and each can operate independently. For example, you might have installed the Entire software group on the global zone and have running on separate non-global zones the Java Enterprise System Messaging Server, a database, DHCP, and a web server. When installing non-global zones remember the performance requirements of the applications running in each non-global zone.

A Solaris Flash archive cannot be properly created when a non-global zone is installed. The Solaris Flash feature is not compatible with Solaris Zones partitioning technology. If you create a Solaris Flash archive, the resulting archive is not installed properly when the archive is deployed under these conditions:

• The archive is created In a non-global zone

• The archive is created in a global zone that has non-global zones installed

Upgrading When Non-Global Zones Are Installed

Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release, when you are upgrading the Solaris OS, you can upgrade a system that has non-global zones installed. The Solaris interactive installation program and custom JumpStart programs enable an upgrade.

• With the Solaris interactive installation program, you can upgrade a system with non-global zones by selecting the Upgrade Install on the Select Upgrade or Initial Install panel. The installation program then analyzes your system to determine if your system is upgradable, and provides you a summary of the analysis. The installation program then prompts you to continue the upgrade. You can use this program with the following limitations:

  • You cannot customize your upgrade. For example, you cannot install additional software products, install additional locale packages, or modify the disk layout.

  • You must use the Solaris Operating System DVD or a DVD-created network installation image. You cannot use the Solaris Software CDs to upgrade a system. For more information about installing with this program, see Chapter 2, Installing With the Solaris Installation Program (Tasks), in Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Basic Installations.

• With the custom JumpStart installation program, you can upgrade by using only the install_type and root_device keywords.

  Because some keywords affect non-global zones, some keywords cannot be included in a profile. For example, using keywords that add packages, reallocate disk space, or add locales would affect non-global zones. If you use these keywords, they are ignored or cause the JumpStart upgrade to fail. For a list of these keywords, see Limiting Profile Keywords When Upgrading With Non-Global Zones.

You cannot use Solaris Live Upgrade to upgrade a system when non-global zones are installed. You can create a boot environment with the lucreate command, but if you use the luupgrade command, the upgrade fails. An error message is displayed.

Disk Space Requirements for Non-Global Zones

When installing the global zone, be sure to reserve enough disk space for all of the zones you might create. Each non-global zone might have unique disk space requirements. The following description is a brief overview of planning information. For complete planning requirements and recommendations, see Chapter 18, Planning and Configuring Non-Global Zones (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones.

No limits are placed on how much disk space can be consumed by a zone. The global zone administrator is responsible for space restriction. Even a small uniprocessor system can support a number of zones running simultaneously.

The characteristics of the packages installed in the global zone affect the space requirements of the non-global zones that are created. The number of packages and space requirements are factors. The following are general disk space guidelines.

• Approximately 100 Mbytes of free disk space is suggested when the global zone has been installed with all of the standard Solaris packages. Increase this amount if additional packages are installed in the global zone. By default, any additional packages installed in the global zone also populate the non-global zones. The directory location in the non-global zone for these additional packages is specified through the inherit-pkg-dir resource.

• Add 40 Mbytes of RAM per zone if the system has sufficient swap space. This addition is recommended to make each zone operational. When planning your system size, consider this addition of RAM.

SPARC: 64–bit Packaging Changes

In previous Solaris releases, the Solaris OS was delivered in separate packages for 32-bit and 64-bit components. In the Solaris 10 OS, packaging has been simplified with the delivery of most 32-bit and 64-bit components in a single package. The combined packages retain the names of the original 32-bit packages, and the 64-bit packages are no longer delivered. This change reduces the number of packages and simplifies installation. This change means that you might need to modify your custom JumpStart script or other package installation scripts to remove references to the 64-bit packages.

The 64-bit packages are renamed with the following conventions:

• If a 64-bit package has a 32-bit counterpart, the 64-bit package is named with the 32-bit package name. For example, a 64-bit library such as /usr/lib/sparcv9/libc.so.1 previously would have been delivered in SUNWcslx, but now is delivered in SUNWcsl. The 64-bit SUNWcslx package is no longer delivered.

• If a package does not have a 32-bit counterpart, the “x” suffix is removed from the name. For example, SUNW1394x becomes SUNW1394.

x86: Partitioning Recommendations

When using the Solaris OS on x86 based systems, follow these guidelines for partitioning your system.

The Solaris installation program uses a default boot-disk partition layout. These partitions are called fdisk partitions. An fdisk partition is a logical partition of a disk drive that is dedicated to a particular operating system on x86 based systems. To install the Solaris software, you must set up at least one Solaris fdisk partition on an x86 based system. x86 based systems allow up to four different fdisk partitions on a disk. These partitions can be used to hold individual operating systems. Each operating system must be located on a unique fdisk partition. A system can only have one Solaris fdisk partition per disk.

Default Boot-Disk Partition Layout Preserves the Service Partition

The Solaris installation program uses a default boot-disk partition layout to accommodate the diagnostic or Service partition. If your system currently includes a diagnostic or Service partition, the default boot-disk partition layout enables you to preserve this partition.

If you install the Solaris OS on an x86 based system that does not currently include a diagnostic or Service partition, the installation program does not create a new diagnostic or Service partition by default. If you want to create a diagnostic or Service partition on your system, see your hardware documentation.