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Key Terms

Exercises

2.1. Preparing to Install the Solaris 10 Operating Environment

In this exercise, you will perform the steps necessary to prepare for a Solaris 10 operating system install on a networked standalone system.

Estimated time: 15 minutes

1.
Identify your system type using the following command:

uname -m

Is it a supported platform type listed in Table 2.1, and do you have the Solaris 10 Installation media kit for that platform?

2.
Identify the peripherals connected to your system and determine the device name for the CD-ROM and the disk drive that will be used as the boot device. Use the prtconf, sysdef, and dmesg commands to identify these devices.

Make sure your system meets the minimum system requirements for Solaris 10. If it does not meet the minimum requirements, you will not be able to install Solaris 10. Check the amount of RAM as follows:

prtconf|grep Memory

Does the system have a CD-ROM?

Check the amount of disk space using the format command and listing the size of slice 2, making sure that you select the correct device name for your boot disk.

Note

The format Command Chapter 4 describes the use of the format command.

3.
Determine the software cluster that you want to install and determine the amount of disk space it will require. Compare this value with the total size of your disk, which was determined in the previous step. For example, if the size of disk slice 2 is 1.3GB, and I want to install the Entire Distribution cluster, I do not have enough disk space to complete the installation.

4.
Plan your storage requirements as described in the "Disk Storage" section of this chapter. Determine the file systems and slice sizes that you will want the installation program to create.

5.
Obtain the following information that will be required by the Solaris 10 installation program:

  • What is the hostname of the system? Use the hostname command to determine the hostname on an existing system or ask your network administrator to assign a hostname.

  • Does it have a static IP address or DHCP? Use the ifconfig command to determine the IP address on an existing system or ask your IP coordinator to assign an IP address. For more information on using the ifconfig command to determine a system's IP address, see Chapter 8, "The Solaris Network Environment."

  • Does Ipv6, the next generation Internet protocol, need to be enabled?

    Note

    Enabling the IPv6 Services Enabling IPv6 will have no effect if this machine is not on a network that provides IPv6 service. IPv4 service will not be affected if IPv6 is enabled.

  • Is a name service used, such as NIS, NIS+, DNS, or LDAP? See Chapter 12, "Naming Services," for more information on name services.

  • Should Kerberos security be configured? Ask your in-house security personnel if this is required.

  • What is the geographic region of your time zone (Eastern, Central, Alaska)?

  • During the installation, you will be asked to assign a password to the root user account.

  • Determine the language to be used to install the Solaris 10 operating environment.

2.2. Installing Solaris 10 Using the Interactive Installation Program

For this exercise, you'll use the interactive installation program to install the Solaris 10 operating environment onto your system.

Estimated time: 12 hours depending on the speed of your system and CD-ROM

Warning: This exercise will destroy all data on your hard drive.

1.
Insert the Solaris 10 CD #1 into the CD-ROM drive.

2.
If the system is currently running, either log in as root and shut the system down or abort the operating system by pressing Stop+A.

3.
Boot the operating system from the CD as follows:

boot cdrom <return>

4.
The interactive installation program will begin. Refer to the section titled "Using the Interactive Installation Process (suninstall)" in this chapter, and follow the steps outlined in that section for installing the operating system.

2.3. Software Package Administration

This exercise takes you through the task of installing, verifying, and removing software on a Solaris system using the command line.

Estimated time: 20 minutes

1.
List the software packages that are currently installed on your system by typing the following:

pkginfo

2.
Display a long-format listing of information for the SUNWman package installed on your system:

pkginfo -l SUNWman

What is listed for the status, install date, number of files, and number of blocks used by this package?

3.
Remove the SUNWman package from your system with the following:

pkgrm SUNWman

Verify that the software package has been removed by repeating step 1.

Now, we'll reinstall the software package. Log in as root and insert Solaris 10 CD #4 into the CD-ROM drive. Use pkgadd to spool the SUNWman package into the default spool area as follows:

pkgadd -d /cdrom/sol_10_305_sparc_4/Solaris_10/Product\
-s /var/spool/pkg SUNWman

4.
Use the following commands to verify the presence of SUNWman in the default spool area:

pkginfo -d /var/spool/pkg

5.
Observe the messages displayed and verify that the package is installed in /var/spool/pkg.

6.
Reinstall the SUNWman package from the spool area as follows:

pkgadd

7.
Select the SUNWman package when you are prompted and the package will be reinstalled.

8.
To remove the SUNWman package from the spool area, type the following:

pkgrm -s /var/spool/pkg

Select the SUNWman package and it will be removed from the spool directory.

9.
You can now use the pkgchk command to check the completeness, pathname, file contents, and file attributes of the SUNWman package:

pkgchk SUNWman

Exam Questions

1.

What is the minimum amount of RAM required to install Solaris 10?

  1. 256MB

  1. 64MB

  1. 96MB

  1. 128MB


2.

What is the best command used to find out the name of your hardware's platform group and name?

  1. uname -a

  1. sysdef

  1. arch

  1. uname -m


3.

What is a software group?

  1. A group of files and directories that describe a software application

  1. A logical collection of software packages

  1. Any software that can be installed on Solaris

  1. A collection of files that make up a software application


4.

What is a software package?

  1. A group of files and directories that describe a software application

  1. A logical collection of software packages

  1. A collection of files that make up a software application

  1. A collection of files and directories


5.

Which is not one of the six software groups in Solaris 10?

  1. Entire system support

  1. Reduced networking support

  1. Developer system support

  1. Entire distribution plus OEM system support


6.

What are the default file systems created by the Solaris installation program?

  1. /, /opt, /usr, /var, and swap

  1. /, /usr, /var, and swap

  1. /, /usr, and swap

  1. / and swap


7.

Which of the following is not a valid method of installing Solaris 10?

  1. Installing over a wide-area network using HTTP

  1. Interactive

  1. Installing from a remote CD-ROM on a system on the same subnet

  1. Web Start


8.

Which of the following statements is not true of a software package?

  1. A software package is a group of files and directories that describe a software application, such as manual pages and line printer support.

  1. A software package is a standard way to deliver bundled and unbundled software.

  1. Software packages are grouped into software clusters.

  1. Software packages are administered using the installf command.


9.

On a Sun system, what is the first step in installing a new operating system?

  1. Informing the users

  1. Repartitioning the hard drive

  1. Finding the source distribution media

  1. Performing a full backup


10.

Which is not a valid software configuration group to choose during installation of the Solaris 10 operating environment?

  1. Core

  1. Client

  1. End-User

  1. Developer


11.

For which of the following is custom JumpStart used?

  1. To install the Solaris software on 50 identical systems

  1. To start a system that refuses to boot

  1. To set up AutoClient systems on a server

  1. To interactively guide you, step by step, in installing the Solaris software


12.

Which of the following is a system that provides services to other systems in its networked environment?

  1. Server

  1. Client

  1. File server

  1. AutoClient server


13.

Which of the following is a system that uses remote services from a server, has limited disk space, and requires a server to function?

  1. AutoClient server

  1. File server

  1. Client

  1. Standalone


14.

Which type of installation preserves data and system configuration information?

  1. Initial

  1. Upgrade

  1. Preserve

  1. Interactive


15.

What are the three phases of the installation process?

  1. System configuration, installation, and post installation

  1. Power on, boot from CD, execute the installation program

  1. Boot from CD, start installation program, post installation

  1. Boot from CD, system configuration, software installation


16.

During installation, what is the default software group that is selected to be installed?

  1. End-user distribution

  1. Core distribution

  1. Developer distribution

  1. Entire distribution


17.

What is the kernel architecture of an ultra 5?

  1. sun4m

  1. sun4c

  1. sun4u

  1. sun4


18.

Which information is not required to install a server system?

  1. The server's Ethernet address

  1. The server's hostname

  1. The server's IP address

  1. The server's geographic region


19.

Which of the following commands is used to show software package information?

  1. pkgadd

  1. pkgchk

  1. pkgparam

  1. pkginfo


20.

Which of the following commands verifies the accuracy of a software package installation?

  1. pkgadd

  1. pkgchk

  1. pkgask

  1. pkginfo


21.

Which of the following methods are used to remove software packages from a system?

  1. pkgrm

  1. rm -r

  1. AdminTool

  1. All of the above


22.

What do software packages names usually start with?

  1. An abbreviation of the software package

  1. The company's stock symbol

  1. SUNW

  1. Anything the vendor chooses


23.

Which of the following commands prepares a compressed tar patch file (with a ".Z" extension) for installation and saves approximately 25% on temporary disk space usage?

  1. installpatch -u 104945-02.tar.Z

  1. installpatch -f 104945-02.tar.Z

  1. /usr/bin/zcat 104945-02.tar.Z | tar xvf -

  1. unzip 104945-02.tar.Z | tar xvf -


24.

Which of the following commands show(s) all patches applied to a system? Choose all that apply.

  1. patchadd -p

  1. pkginfo

  1. showrev -p

  1. smpatch


25.

Which of the following commands is used to remove a patch from a system?

  1. uninstall

  1. pkgrm -s

  1. patchrm

  1. rm -r /var/sasdm/pkg/<pkgname>/save


26.

Sun distributes software patches in which of the following forms? Choose all that apply.

  1. Sun FTP site

  1. Email

  1. CD-ROM

  1. Magnetic tape


27.

The Solaris Product Registry enables you to do which of the following? Choose all that apply.

  1. View a list of installed software.

  1. Uninstall software.

  1. Launch the installer.

  1. Directly edit software packages with the registry editor.


28.

When installing a patch using the patchadd command, which of the following options does not create a backup of the files to be patched?

  1. -f

  1. -p

  1. -B

  1. -d


29.

Select all of the conditions that will prevent a patch from being installed.

  1. The patch being installed requires another patch that is not installed.

  1. The patch is incompatible with another, already installed patch.

  1. The patch was removed.

  1. The patch version is not the most up-to-date version.

  1. All of the above.


30.

Which method of installation creates a copy of the OS, upgrades the copy, and allows you to fall back to the original version of the OS if you encounter problems?

  1. Custom JumpStart

  1. Upgrade

  1. Live upgrade

  1. Solaris Flash Archive


Answers to Exam Questions

1.

C. The system on which you will be installing Solaris 10 must have a minimum of 128MB of RAM; however, 256MB of RAM is recommended. For more information, see the "Minimum System Requirements" section.

2.

D. To determine your system type, use the uname -m command. The system will respond with the platform group and the platform name for your system. For more information, see the "Requirements and Preparation for Installing the Solaris 10 Software" section.

3.

B. Software packages are grouped into software clusters, which are logical collections of software packages. For more information, see the "Software Terminology" section.

4.

A. A software package is a collection of files and directories in a defined format. It is a group of files and directories that describe a software application. For more information, see the "Software Terminology" section.

5.

A. The six software groups are reduced networking support, core system support, end-user support, developer system support, entire distribution, and entire distribution plus OEM system support. For more information, see the "Software Groups" section.

6.

D. The default partition scheme setup with the interactive installation program is root (/) and swap. For more information, see the "Disk Storage" section.

7.

D. Web Start is not a method of installing the OS. Web Start installers are used to install software packages, and Solaris Flash Archives are used when cloning systems. For more information on the methods of installation, refer to the section titled "Methods of Installing the Solaris 10 Software."

8.

D. The installf command is used to add a file to the software installation database, not to administer software packages. For more information, see the "Software Terminology" section.

9.

D. The first step in installing the operating system, or a patch, is to run a full backup to tape because the installation process destroys all data on the disk. For more information, see the "The Solaris Installation Prechecklist" section.

10.

B. The six configuration groups are reduced networking support, core system support, end-user support, developer system support, entire distribution, and entire distribution plus OEM system support. For more information, see the "Software Groups" section.

11.

A. Custom JumpStart allows you to automatically and identically install many systems with the same configuration without having to configure each of them individually. For more information, see the "Custom Jumpstart" section.

12.

A. A server is a system that provides services or file systems, such as home directories or mail files, to other systems on the network. For more information, see the "Servers" section.

13.

C. A client is a system that uses remote services from a server. Some clients have limited disk storage capacity, or perhaps none at all; these clients must rely on remote file systems from a server to function. For more information, see the "Servers" section.

14.

B. The Upgrade option updates the Solaris software to the new release, preserving data, and saving as many modifications to the previous version of Solaris software as possible. For more information, see the "Upgrading the Operating System" section.

15.

A. The three phases of the installation process are system configuration, installation, and post installation. For more information, see the "Introduction" section.

16.

D. During the interactive installation, the entire distribution software group is selected by default. For more information, see the "Using the Interactive Installation Process (suninstall)" section.

17.

C. sun4u is the kernel architecture for all Sun UltraSPARC systems. For more information, see the "Requirements and Preparation for Installing the Solaris 10 Software" section.

18.

A. The server's Ethernet address is not required to install a server system. During the installation, you will be prompted to enter the IP address, the hostname, and the geographic region. For more information, see the "The Solaris Installation Prechecklist" section.

19.

D. The pkginfo command displays software package information. For more information, see the "Tools for Managing Software" section.

20.

B. The pkgchk command checks the accuracy of a software package installation. For more information, see the "Tools for Managing Software" section.

21.

A. The pkgrm command removes software packages from the system. For more information, see the "Tools for Managing Software" section.

22.

B. Software package names usually start with the company's stock symbol. For more information, see the "Adding and Removing Software Packages" section.

23.

C. Patches might come in compressed tar format, for example 104945-02.tar.Z. Use the zcat command to decompress this type of patch file. For more information, see the "Installing a Patch" section.

24.

A, C. Use the patchadd -p command or the showrev -p command to show all patches that have been applied to a system. For more information, see the "Installing a Patch" section.

25.

C. Use the patchrm command to remove a patch from a system. For more information, see the "Installing a Patch" section.

26.

A, B, C. Software patches are delivered to the customer in the following ways: from Sun's FTP site, via email, or on CD-ROM. For more information, see the "Installing a Patch" section.

27.

A, B, C. The Solaris Product Registry enables you to view all installed software, uninstall software, or launch the installer to install additional software. For more information, see the "Tools for Managing Software" section.

28.

D. The -d option for the patchadd command does not create a backup of the files to be patched. For more information, see the "Installing a Patch" section.

29.

A, B. The following conditions can prevent a patch from being installed:

  • The patch being installed requires another patch that is not installed.

  • The patch is incompatible with another, already installed patch.

For more information, see the "Installing a Patch" section.

30.

C. Live upgrade allows you to create a copy of the current operating environment and upgrade the copy while the system is running in the original environment.

For more information, see the "Solaris Live Upgrade" section.


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