Greg Jumper wrote: > Hi Glenn, > > You write: > > So, what exactly are people not understanding when we (the install team > working on this stuff) say 'provide us with concrete *requirements* of > what you *need* and not what you want'? And saying 'we want jumpstart' > doesn't count. Technology changes and moves on (and hopefully evolves > and gets better). > > To maintain the functionality I have today, I require: > > - The ability to run Solaris commands to restore, create, edit, > rename, and otherwise customize the installed files. > > Probably everything I personally do from a Jumpstart finish script > could be done from a first-boot script (and I already do some things > that way, although not by choice). However, that approach has at > least three drawbacks: > > 1) The system is not available in its final-use configuration until > some indeterminate time after the installation "completes". > (I.e., installation and customization are distinct sequential > processes.) > 2) In general, restarting of multiple services (so the script must > capture the relationships between customized files and services) > or an additional reboot is required. > 3) When the system customizations include hardening, the system is > vulnerable during the first boot until the first-boot script > completes those customizations. >
Direct manipulation of the as-laid down image prior to first boot generally presupposes an unsupportable level of knowledge of exactly how each Solaris subsystem configures itself, and the environment in which overall installation occurs. For example: What binaries do you expect to have available on the boot image to manipulate those files? Do you expect the same OS version to be running during installation as is being installed? Same patch level? > Beyond its existence, I know nothing about IPS, so I'm a newbie. > Is the implication that one Jumpstart finish script would have to be > replaced by multiple IPS scripts? For non-package-related > customizations, do I just randomly pick an IPS package to piggyback on? What subsystems are you trying to customize? Please give examples. - Bart -- Bart Smaalders Solaris Kernel Performance barts at cyber.eng.sun.com http://blogs.sun.com/barts "You will contribute more with mercurial than with thunderbird."
