What's New in the Solaris 10 8/07 Release for Installation

Upgrading the Solaris OS When Non-Global Zones Are Installed

Starting with the Solaris 10 8/07 release, you can upgrade the Solaris OS when non-global zones are installed without most of the limitations found in previous releases.

The only limitation to upgrading involves a Solaris Flash archive. When you use a Solaris Flash archive to install, an archive that contains non-global zones is not properly installed on your system.

Changes to accommodate systems that have non-global zones installed are summarized below.

• For the Solaris interactive installation program, you can upgrade or patch a system when non-global zones are installed with CDs, as well as DVDs. Or you can use a network installation image for either the DVD or CDs. Previously, you were limited to upgrading with a DVD. The time to upgrade or patch might be extensive, depending on the number of non-global zones that are installed.

• For an automated JumpStart installation, you can upgrade or patch with any keyword that applies to an upgrade or patching. In previous releases, a limited number of keywords could be used. The time to upgrade or patch might be extensive, depending on the number of non-global zones that are installed.

• For Solaris Live Upgrade, you can upgrade or patch a system that contains non-global zones. If you have a system that contains non-global zones, Solaris Live Upgrade is the recommended upgrade program or program to add patches. Other upgrade programs might require extensive upgrade time, because the time required to complete the upgrade increases linearly with the number of installed non-global zones. If you are patching a system with Solaris Live Upgrade, you do not have to take the system to single-user mode and you can maximize your system's uptime.

  Solaris Live Upgrade creates a copy of the OS on the inactive boot environment. The inactive boot environment can be upgraded or patched when non-global zones are installed. The inactive boot environment can then be booted to become the new boot environment. Changes to accommodate systems that have non-global zones installed are the following:

  • A new package, SUNWlucfg, is required to be installed with the other Solaris Live Upgrade packages, SUNWlur and SUNWluu. This package is required for any system, not just a system with non-global zones installed.

    These three packages comprise the software needed to upgrade by using Solaris Live Upgrade. These packages include existing software, new features, and bug fixes. If you do not install these packages on your system before using Solaris Live Upgrade, upgrading to the target release fails.

  • Creating a new boot environment from the currently running boot environment remains the same as in previous releases with one exception. You can specify a destination disk slice for a shared file system within a non-global zone.

    The argument to the -m option has a new optional field, zonename. This new field enables creating the new boot environment and specifying zones that contain separate file systems. This argument places the zone's file system on a separate slice in the new boot environment.

  • The lumount command now provides non-global zones with access to their corresponding file systems that exist on inactive boot environments. When the global zone administrator uses the lumount command to mount an inactive boot environment, the boot environment is mounted for non-global zones as well.

  • Comparing boot environments is enhanced. The lucompare command now generates a comparison of boot environments that includes the contents of any non-global zone.

  • Listing file systems with the lufslist command is enhanced to display a list of file systems for both the global zone and the non-global zones.

For step-by-step procedures for upgrading a system with non-global zones installed or for information on the Solaris Zones partitioning technology, see the following references.

New sysidkdb Tool Prevents Having to Configure Your Keyboard

This feature is new in the following releases:

• For SPARC, starting with the Solaris 10 10/06 release

• For x86, starting with the Solaris 10 8/07 release

The sysidkdb tool configures your USB language and its corresponding keyboard layout.

The following procedure occurs:

• If the keyboard is self-identifying, the keyboard language and layout automatically configures during installation.

• If the keyboard is not self-identifying, the sysidkdb tool provides you, during the installation, a list of supported keyboard layouts during installation, so that you can select a layout for keyboard configuration.

SPARC: Previously, the USB keyboard assumed a self-identifying value of 1 during the installation. Therefore, all of the keyboards that were not self-identifying always configured for a U.S. English keyboard layout during installation.

PS/2 keyboards are not self-identifying. You are asked to select the keyboard layout during the installation.

Prevent Prompting When You Use the JumpStart Program

If the keyboard is not self-identifying and you want to prevent being prompted during your JumpStart installation, select the keyboard language in your sysidcfg file. For JumpStart installations, the default is for the U.S. English language. To select another language and its corresponding keyboard layout, set the keyboard keyword in your sysidcfg file.

For more information, see one of the following:

• Preconfiguring With the sysidcfg File in Solaris 10 10/08 Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations

• sysidtool(1M) man page

• sysidcfg(4) man page

NFSv4 Domain Name Configurable During Installation

Starting with the Solaris 10 8/07 release, the NFS version 4 domain can now be defined during the installation of the Solaris OS. Previously, the NFS domain name was defined during the first system reboot after installation.

This new feature affects installation as follows:

• The sysidtool command includes an enhanced sysidnfs4 program. The sysidnfs4 program now runs during the installation process to determine whether an NFSv4 domain has been configured for the network.

  For further information, see the sysidtool(1M) and sysidnfs4(1M) man pages.

  During an interactive installation, the user is provided with the default NFSv4 domain name that is automatically derived from the OS. The user can accept this default. Or, the user can specify a different NFSv4 domain.

• As part of a Solaris JumpStart installation, a new keyword is available in the sysidcfg file. The user can now assign a value for the NFSv4 domain by using the new keyword, nfs4_domain.

  • For further information about this new keyword, see the sysidnfs4(1M) man page. This man page also provides an example of how to use this new keyword

  • For further information about the NFSv4 domain name configuration, see the System Administration Guide: Network Services