Silent Installation - Solaris Master Server - Is it possible?

[timob12]

We are performing a D/R Drill and trying to determine if possible to automate the Master Server installation which runs on Solaris. 

Is this possible and if so could someone provide any insight or documentation of how this can be accomplished. Thanks1

[Jaime_Vazquez · Accepted solution]

I have seen this done by several companies going to a DR site. Seems to work but I am sure somebody would have some heartburn over it.

1. On the source Master Server, stop all NBU services. 

2. cd to /usr/openv and tar up everything.

3. Get a copy of /etc/inittab. 

4. Collect both the tar file and the inittab file onto some transportable media. 

4. At the DR site, set up the target host system to have the EXACT SAME HOSTNAME AND IP. (and OS).

5. cd to /usr/openv and untar the file into it.

6. Modify/copy the /etc inittab on the target system to have NBU services entries.

7. Start services.

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I have an AIX 7.1 Master Server that I do tests on for work. I have the normal AIX rootvg installed.  I created two more volume groups, called nbu75vg and nbu76vg on separate disks as well as a mkdir of /usr/openv. Both of the data volume groups have two data logical volumes. On nbu75vg, I created 'lvnbu75' and 'lv75data'. I created a jfgs2 file system on each and specified that they are not to be be automatically mounted. I used a mount point of "/NBU75" for lvnbu75 and "/nbudata75" for the lv75data (keeps SMIT happy).. I then manually mounted /dev/lvnbu75 to /usr/openv and installed NBU 7.5 and NBU 7.5.0.7 upgrade on it. When done, I fully stopped services and unmounted the file system. The /nbudata75 file system is a disk storage unit. I don't hang tapes off the test Master server.

In the nbu76vg volume I did the same, but with NBU 7.6 name tags (lvnbu76, lv76data). I again manually mounted /lvnbu76 to the /usr/openv mount point and installed 7.6.0.1 and 7.6.0.2 upgrade to it. 

To switch between both, I stop all NBU services and unmount the two logical volumes, followed by a varyoffvg of the volume group.  I then do a varyonvg of the other volume group, manually mount the logical volumes to /usr/openv and the /nbudata7? mount points and then start NBU services (bp.start_all).

To help with this I wrote a small shell scrip to automate the process. OK, why the long explanation for this? Because,as you can see, all of the NBU magic lives in the /usr/openv directory.

[Jaime_Vazquez]

OK, for another possible way of doing it:

1. Copy the install files to a directory on the target Master..

2. All of the installation activity is driven by shell scripts, starting with the top level "install" script.

3. Modify the shell scripts to automatically "answer" all of the prompts with valid information.

4. Execute the install script.

And as always, "your mileage may vary".

[timob12]

Thanks so much! Our team test both of your recommendation.