New to Solaris, need help on installing a couple of servers[kinda long]
Ok so im 20 years old and i have never used linux, solaris or unix in a profesional way. Im working with some relatives this summer and a couple of days ago we got a call from a customer asking if we could help with the installation of some Sun servers, i dont know how but everyone pointed at me(i program a lot(php, java, ajax, jsp, you know) and config a lot of computers here at the office). So now i have this:
-1 Netra
-4 Sunfire Servers
-2 3Teras HD
All that in a rack, with no user interface.
So i talked to the guys in charge and they told me the netra should install the sunfires and admin them on the fly in a 3 layer confirgutation. Right will this is the first time i touch a rack like this(i have used hp and dell servers running on DotNOT). So i tried to conect to the netra and bang first problem, i didnt know the ip of it to telnet so i called the owner of the rack and they got the netra to sun and they format it, and lended us a workstation to intall the sunfires...
So what i need to do:
-Connect the workstation
-Somehow telnet the sunfires so they get installed
-Somehow connect to the netra and config it to admin the sunfires
Im not asking you guys to do my job, but i have been all over the sun site and google looking for manuals to real, tutorials to chug down and reference's to have around, and ive got no materials on how to get started, so any tip, idea, reference will help me a lot!
# 1
So far ive read how to set up an image of a Solaris DVD on a computer and i tried on a brand new SunBlade 100 and i alredy created the imagen, after that i typed : echo "win win win" because that made me so happy, i feel im 1 step ahead. Now whats next? i need to undertand whats happening with the DHCP... who should be doing that work? the netra? how to config that?
Anyway, im going to start the installetion tomorrow, i hope i have no problem on the booting system from the network and everything with a DVD image on the workstation with gnome running on it...
Its starting to look easier...
any advice?
# 2
What I'm going to say isn't going to help you a lot - but it's probably the truth and in the best interests of your company -
If you haven't configured anything other and a SunBlade 100 previously and the company that you work for/contracted you is asking you to install a "few sunfire servers and multi-terabytes of storage" -
I'd think it would be in the best interests of the company to ask Sun to come on site for a PS engagement, or ask a different person to set them up that has had the experience before.
This is NOT a knock against you, just that depending on the type of machines you're setting up, we could start a 50 post thread here trying to walk you through the details, and that would only serve to help you in a learning experience -
That being said - investigate the Solaris Installation Collection that pertains to your OS DVD that you have - Solaris 10 6/06 Release and Installation Collection (for instance, others if you don't have the doco can be found at docs.sun.com by searching -
That will have the steps of how to set up a vanilla Solaris install, which may or may not be acceptable for the purpose of the machines your company is asking to be installed. If you have a play machine, like that SunBlade 100, install the OS, tear it apart and install again.
My suggestion above still stands, pay the money, have Sun come in, watch them perform the installation, and it's *nearly* as good as taking training (if the PS person is willing to let you watch and take notes) - Ask as many questions as you need to so you feel comfortable doing this next time.
I know we've all been here and as much as the big group may chastise me for saying all this, it's probably in the best interests of the company.
# 3
Its pretty much true that it would be the best to have an expert doing this, but as its not their first priority, they wanted to give me the chance to do/learn and as we have some contact with sun experts they are doing this little experiment on how easy is to learn, how good the docu and the community around solaris. So far i read the 70 pages on how to do a LAN install, and alredy played on the sunBlade 100 how to do it, right now im just about to arrive to the data center where i will take a workstation to install the "intall_server" then ill try to go for the first sunFire. After i install the 4 sunfires ill be dealing with the IP problems and the multi Tera HD. After that ill somehow need the netra to connect to that and well then ill just work on containers.
Pretty much ive got the first step ready(on my mind) and the second one they told me it was easy(while i know the ip of each one i guess i can config some table or list so they know they exist), the las 3(multi tera HD, netra and containers) are pretty much something ill try to do tomorrow.
Do you think is really nuclear/rocket science? We/Im about to know...
# 4
Amen to Jeffrey's response!
Having been a Sun TSE in a past incarnation,
I hesitated to respond to this posting, because I had a hard time
believing that the company would send an inexperienced person
for such a task, and expect a good result.
They must not need anyone to return as a repeat customer.
Each hardware platform
.. .workgroup sunfire vs midrange sunfire,
... desktop system vs server systems,
... x86 architecture vs SPARC architecture,
... storage peripherals, Sun-branded vs 3rd party
needs proper training classes and then hours or weeks
of hands-on practice before you'd be a rank novice with the stuff.
That doesn't even begin to include whatever OS and other software skills
are necessary to configure and tune the full kit ...
Take Jeffrey's advice.
Get Sun to do the installations.It will be done correctly.
... and Jeff, your advice is in the interest of the customer,
not the company that sent him out to do the installs.
I'm not the least impressed with that vendor.
# 5
Well maybe you got me wrong, the customer get other services from us and they got the equipment but are not using it atm, they just wanted someone to go on and try to install them correctly, we are not charging for this, actually it was more like something cool for me to get hands on training and well some sun experts are couching me on a fast track training.... and i just wanted to get the best tutorials/docu links i could get from you guys and maybe some fast "explanation" on how to do some of the many task im involved on doing, like configuring ftp, containers and stuff like that....
So never mind if theres a better option, the thing is:
-I got acces and permision to do this
-I want to learn
-I want to do the best job while doing this
Any advice or tip or resource i must check out?
# 6
After all Sun and Solaris is supposed to be community based, so... what do the community have to say about this?
# 7
quote -
Do you think is really nuclear/rocket science? We/Im about to know...
quote -
DFectuoso17 - I'm not saying you can't do the job, I'm just saying that since you haven't even identified the type of hardware other than SunFire, there's an awfully large amount of play to consider.
If you believe it is so easy, than you're discounting the value and experience of a lot of admins that frequently post on these forums, so please be careful on the ground that you're treading on.
Now then, if we set aside all of the potential complexity in this thread, then YOU have the following things to consider when determining how to install the OS on each machine -
Purpose of each machine (App Server, DB Server, Web Server, multipurpose, other)
Hardware configuration of each machine
Service Processors?
Any considerations for network specifics
Will the server have console or run headless
RSC cards, will they be used and their setup
"rootdisk" filesystem layout of each machine
Logical volume management if so desired
Are they going to be internally used machines or will they have exposure to the outside world (considerations for hardening/armoring)
Are any of the machines going to need a compiler and goodies/additional tools
User management
I will cut this list short and simply state that if you're going to build a workstation, the default/generic disk layout is quite sufficient (as presented) on the DVD with some customizations (though you may want to increase the root filesystem depending on the tools you plan to install and where they'll be installed - such as /opt or /usr/local)
If you're going to build a server, you need to determine a fair number of requirements in advance, or else you'll be rebuilding that box pretty soon.
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/self_help.jsp
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-5775
docs.sun.com is your friend if you've got the time -
# 8
quote -
DFectuoso17 - I'm not saying you can't do the job, I'm just saying that since you haven't even identified the type of hardware other than SunFire, there's an awfully large amount of play to consider.
If you believe it is so easy, than you're discounting the value and experience of a lot of admins that frequently post on these forums, so please be careful on the ground that you're treading on.
quote -
I think theres a diference between getting the job done and being a guru. Obviusly theres no way to compare 5+/10+/20+ year of experience to first time touching a sun server, if you are a valuable and exped admin posting on this forum, you know that. And you can share that, and thats the point of the internet, so after we say something is community bassed, like java and all the guys developing and posting and creating content, then... the diference betwen a new guy and a guru, is in how it participates, but not in the result of their work. Thats the reason i posted here, coz i dont know and you guys know, so i feel bad if my comment made some noise there. But after all the know-how youve got in so many years of experience can be used in 2 ways:
-Share it with people so new people get to use the same sistem and maybe the next generation implements new stuff going to new places(hey opensolaris.... )
-Keep it so your 20 years of experience is worth a lot of money and your the uber needed system admin that wrote spaguetti code in the 80s and still gets paif for not doing nothing...
If your on this forum i guess you chose the first one... so i can say if you <b>can</b> and want to help me, it wont be nuclear science...
Now then, if we set aside all of the potential complexity in this thread, then YOU have the following things to consider when determining how to install the OS on each machine -
Purpose of each machine (App Server, DB Server, Web Server, multipurpose, other)
1Netra will be Web Server
2 SunFire App Servers
2 SunFire DB Servers with (each) one connected to a fiber hub and then to a StoreEdge T3(each).
Thats what i meant 3 layer config
Hardware configuration of each machine
Service Processors?
Any considerations for network specifics
ALL this have been taken care of
Will the server have console or run headless
dont know what you mean
RSC cards, will they be used and their setup
i guess not(dunno want a RSC card is)
"rootdisk" filesystem layout of each machine
Alredy got the filesystem layout i should used.
Logical volume management if so desired
Are they going to be internally used machines or will they have exposure to
the outside world (considerations for hardening/armoring)
outside world
Are any of the machines going to need a compiler and goodies/additional tools
Apache for JSP
PHP for PHP
and maybe some java compiler would be good...
User management
I will cut this list short and simply state that if you're going to build a workstation, the default/generic disk layout is quite sufficient (as presented) on the DVD with some customizations (though you may want to increase the root filesystem depending on the tools you plan to install and where they'll be installed - such as /opt or /usr/local)
If you're going to build a server, you need to determine a fair number of requirements in advance, or else you'll be rebuilding that box pretty soon.
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/self_help.jsp
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-5775
docs.sun.com is your friend if you've got the time -
Ive been there, i got the time, the energy and the will to do this... some problems with docs.sun.com is that its hard to get the good docs... and easy to get lost in million of stuff...
# 9
ok, here are some thoughts on this -
T3s - if you have builtin SC connections on the back of the sunfires (such as a v880) you can use native fiber connection to connect to the hubs (assuming fcal) and you'll need to connect in serially to the t3s to configure them. You can set them up on the network, but you'll need to connect directly to them first for configuration of the luns if not previously configured.
Outside world - look at - Armoring Solaris - (it may not be 100% relevant on Sol 10, but it's a good starting place for hardening your machine for outside world usage) - http://www.windowsecurity.com/whitepaper/Armoring_Solaris.html
- also check into JASS or YASP (other popular security programs, potentially available on sunfreeware.com)
If you're going to run some sort of "production" application, I'd suggest using Solaris Volume Manager to mirror the rootdisk (if you have spare capacity to do so) - if not, then when that drive dies, you'll have to go and recover from tape (if you're going to back things up)
Hopefully that helps you a bit on this request -
