Chapter 6

Gathering Information Before Installation or Upgrade (Planning)

This chapter contains checklists and worksheets to help you gather all of the information that you need to install or upgrade your system.

Checklist for Installation

Use the following checklist to prepare to install the Solaris operating environment.

If you intend to install the Solaris software on a system through a tip(1) line, ensure that your window display is at least 80 columns wide and 24 rows long.

To determine the current dimensions of your tip window, use the stty command. For more information, see the man page, stty(1).
If the system is part of a network, verify that an Ethernet connector or similar network adapter is plugged into your system.
If you are installing with the Solaris Web Start program by using the Solaris 9 Installation CD, review "Requirements When Using the Solaris 9 Installation CD".
Verify that you have enough disk space. For more information, refer to Chapter 5, Guidelines for Allocating Disk Space (Planning).
When you are using DVD media and are asked to boot from the ok prompt, always type the following command: boot cdrom.
Review the Solaris 9 Release Notes and vendor release notes to ensure that the software you use is supported in the new Solaris release.
Review the Solaris 9 Sun Hardware Platform Guide to ensure that your hardware is supported.
Review the documentation that came with your system to ensure that your system and devices are supported by the Solaris release.

Worksheet for Installation

Use the following worksheet to gather the information that you need to install the Solaris operating environment. You do not need to gather all of the information that is requested on the worksheet. You only need to collect the information that applies to your system.

Note - Ignore the shaded rows if you are installing a standalone, non-networked system.

Table 6-1 Installation Worksheet

Info Needed to Install	Description/Example	Enter Your Answers Here:
Network	Is the system connected to a network?	Yes/No
DHCP	Can the system use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to configure its network interfaces?	Yes/No
Host Name	Host name that you choose for the system.
IP Address	If you are not using DHCP, supply the IP address for the system. Example: 129.200.9.1
Subnet	If you are not using DHCP, is the system part of a subnet? If yes, what is the netmask of the subnet? Example: 255.255.0.0	Yes/No
IPv6	Do you want to enable IPv6 on this machine?	Yes/No
Kerberos	Do you want to configure Kerberos security on this machine? If yes, gather this information:	Yes/No
Kerberos	Default Realm: Administration Server: First KDC: (Optional) Additional KDCs:
Name Service	Which name service should this system use?	NIS+/NIS/DNS/LDAP/None
Domain Name	If the system uses a name service, supply the name of the domain in which the system resides.
NIS+ and NIS	Do you want to specify a name server or let the installation program find one? If you want to specify a name server, provide the following information.	Specify One/Find One
	Server's host name:
	Server's IP Address:
DNS	Provide IP addresses for the DNS server. You must enter at least one IP address, but you can enter up to three addresses.
	Server's IP Address(es):
	You can enter a list of domains to search when a DNS query is made.
	Search Domain: Search Domain: Search Domain:
LDAP	Provide the following information about your LDAP profile.
	Profile Name:
	Profile Server:
	IP Address:
Default Router	Do you want to specify a default IP router (gateway) or let the Solaris Web Start installation program find one? If you want to specify a default router, provide the following information.	Specify One/Find One
Default Router	Router IP address:	Specify One/Find One
Time Zone	How do you want to specify your default time zone?	Geographic region Offset from GMT Time zone file
Locales	For which geographic regions do you want to install support?
Power Management	Do you want to use Power Management?	Yes/No
Proxy Server Configuration (only available in the Solaris Web Start program)	Do you have a direct connection to the Internet or do you need to use a proxy server to gain access to the Internet? If you use a proxy server, provide the following information.	Direct Connection/Proxy Server
	Host: Port:	Direct Connection/Proxy Server
Automatic reboot or CD/DVD ejection	Reboot automatically after software installation? Eject CD/DVD automatically after software installation?	Yes/No Yes/No
Software Group	Which Solaris Software Group do you want to install?	Entire Plus OEM Entire Developer End User Core
Custom Package Selection	Do you want to add or remove software packages from the Solaris Software Group that you install? Note - When you select which packages to add or remove, you need to know about software dependencies and how Solaris software is packaged.
64-bit	Do you want to install support for 64-bit applications?	Yes/No
Select Disks	On which disks do you want to install the Solaris software? Example: `c0t0d0`
Preserve Data	Do you want to preserve any data that exists on the disks where you are installing the Solaris software?	Yes/No
Auto-layout File Systems	Do you want the installation program to automatically lay out file systems on your disks? If yes, which file systems should be used for auto-layout? Example: `/`, `/opt,` `/var` If no, you must provide file system configuration information.	Yes/No
Mount Remote File Systems (only available in the Solaris `suninstall` program)	Does this system need to access software on another file system? If yes, provide the following information about the remote file system.	Yes/No
	Server:
	IP Address:
	Remote File System:
	Local Mount Point:

Checklist for Upgrading

Use the following checklist to prepare to upgrade the Solaris operating environment.

If you intend to upgrade the Solaris software on a system through a tip(1), line ensure that your window display is at least 80 columns wide and 24 rows long.

To determine the current dimensions of your tip window, use the stty command. For more information, see the man page, stty(1).
If the system is part of a network, verify that an Ethernet connector or similar network adapter is connected to your system.
If you are using the Solaris Web Start program from the Solaris 9 Installation CD, verify that you have a 512-Mbyte slice on the disk.
If you are using Solaris Live Upgrade, determine your resource requirements for creating a new boot environment and upgrading it. For detailed information, refer to Chapter 31, Solaris Live Upgrade (Planning).
If you are using Solaris Live Upgrade with Solaris Volume Manager, turn root mirroring off. For detailed information, refer to "Guidelines for Selecting Slices for File Systems".
Verify that you have enough disk space. For more information, refer to Chapter 5, Guidelines for Allocating Disk Space (Planning).
When you are using DVD media and are asked to boot from the ok prompt, always type the following command: boot cdrom.
Review the Solaris 9 Release Notes and vendor release notes to ensure that the software you use is still supported in the new release.
Review the Solaris 9 Sun Hardware Platform Guide to ensure that your hardware is supported.
Review the documentation that came with your system to make sure your system and devices are supported by the Solaris release.
Review vendor and third-party software documentation for additional upgrade instructions.
Check for all of the available patches that you might need. The most recent patch list is provided at http://sunsolve.sun.com.
Check the system for the existence of Prestoserve software. If you begin the upgrade process by shutting down the system with the init 0 command, you might lose data. Refer to the Prestoserve documentation for shutdown instructions.