UNIX admin wrote: > Excellent document; the author has nailed it. > Thank you!
> However, if I may add two things, which concern me regarding the > document: > > 1. with an increased acceptance of Solaris, I believe that automated > installs in the form of flash + JumpStart combination will become the > preferred way to install; this combination is already a defacto > standard in large enterprises that already have the necessary Solaris > expertise. > > However, one weak point of this approach remains to be the DHCP and > PXE. While DHCP installations provide a platform independent booting > environment on both SPARC and i86pc (via PXE), it is currently very > painful to implement a DHCP server properly. > > I've been working with Solaris for more than ten years now, most of > which were spent as either a sysadmin or as a system engineer, and I > feel that DHCP server which supports booting / installation via > JumpStart is very difficult to properly configure; furthermore, it is > overly complicated. > > May I therefore suggest to the author of the paper, to revisit the > DHCP problem? > I agree that it's overly complicated, the reasons why aren't particularly relevant to share anymore, and I'm guilty of not having taken more action to fix it, since it's an area where I have had at least partial responsibility for a while. Addressing this is probably a combination of: - introduce GRUB on SPARC to reduce the reliance on DHCP vendor options - modify the default DHCP server setup so that the basic things you do need defined are there to begin with and it's just site-specific work that's needed - replace add_install_client and so on with tools that do a complete job of configuring installation service But I'm certainly interested in additional ideas. > > 2. and I quote: > > "Unlike the existing Solaris installer, the user will not be asked to > select slices and mount points for a more detailed filesystem layout. > This is because the default installation will use ZFS pools and > filesystems to construct the basic filesystem layout. Advanced user > options will allow the continued use of UFS as the installation > filesystem for those customers who require it, but our direction is > to de-emphasize this legacy technology. The usage of ZFS as the > default filesystem simplifies our ability to offer safe patching and > upgrades with rollback, and will allow for faster provisioning of > zones." > > Exactly this has been my concern throughout the author's essay: while > I agree that Solaris will benefit from an easier installer, I suggest > that there are also "Advanced" buttons for system administrators > which enable one to configure the installation exactly as one sees > fit, i.e.: > > I don't want the installer being "smart" and deciding for me how many > ZFS pools or which FileSystems to configure on top of ZFS; same goes > for UFS FileSystems. What I do want and need is very fine grained > control over that. I feel that this is critical for an advanced > installation. There's no intention to prevent you from having that fine-grained control on the advanced installation path, I'll certainly make that more clear in the next iteration. As we move into design of that path, we'll certainly be looking for help in defining what capabilities are required. Dave
