Preparing for a Custom JumpStart Installation

The first step in preparing a custom JumpStart installation is to decide how you want the systems at your site to be installed. Here are some questions that need to be answered before you begin:

• Will the installation be an initial installation or an upgrade?

• What applications will the system support?

• Who will use the system?

• How much swap space is required?

These questions will help you group the systems when you create the class and rules files later in this chapter.

Additional concerns to be addressed include what software packages need to be installed and what size to make the disk partitions. After you answer these questions, group systems according to their configuration (as shown in the example of a custom JumpStart near the end of this chapter).

The next step in preparing a custom JumpStart installation is to create the configuration files that will be used during the installation: the rules.ok file (a validated rules file) and a class file for each group of systems. The rules.ok file is a file that should contain a rule for each group of systems you want to install. Each rule distinguishes a group of systems based on one or more system attributes. The rule links each group to a class file, which is a text file that defines how the Solaris software is to be installed on each system in the group. Both the rules.ok file and the class files must be located in a JumpStart directory that you define.

The custom JumpStart configuration files that you need to set up can be located on either a diskette (called a configuration diskette) or a server (called a configuration server). Use a configuration diskette when you want to perform custom JumpStart installations on non-networked, standalone systems. Use a configuration server when you want to perform custom JumpStart installations on networked systems that have access to the server. This chapter covers both procedures.