Installation Considerations

This section provides general information that you need to consider when installing Oracle Solaris 11.1.

System Requirements for Installing Oracle Solaris 11.1

Prior to installing Oracle Solaris 11.1, review the following memory and disk space requirements.

Table 1-2 Installation System Requirements

For information about the supported systems and implementation differences between the platform types, see the Oracle Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility Lists at http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/hcl/index.html.

Initial Root Password Expires After Live Media Installation

After a Live Media installation, the root password is initially set to the same password as the user account that is created during installation, but it is created in an expired state. The first time you assume the root role, you should authenticate using your own password. At this point, you will receive a message that the password for the user root has expired, and you will be requested to provide a new one.

If you are prompted to assume the root role after starting an administrative command from a GNOME menu item, you will be prompted to supply a new root password. If you are using the su command to assume the role, the command sequence will be as follows:

$ su
Password:
su: Password for user 'root' has expired
New Password:
Re-enter new Password:
su: password successfully changed for root.

SPARC: System Requires Firmware Update to Boot Oracle Solaris 11.1

Some of the SPARC systems require a firmware update in order to boot Oracle Solaris 11.1. On systems that have not been updated, the following error message might be displayed when the system is booted:

os-io Cross trap sync timeout:

Workaround: Update your affected system's firmware to the version listed in Table 1-3 before you install the Oracle Solaris 11.1 OS. The following table describes the minimum firmware level required for affected SPARC systems when running Oracle Solaris 11.1.

Table 1-3 Firmware Levels Required for SPARC Systems

Note that T4 systems were released with firmware version 8.1.4 and do not require any firmware upgrade to boot Oracle Solaris 11.1 . For more information about the required firmware levels for SPARC systems, see My Oracle Support.

Oracle VM Server for SPARC: WAN Boot During an Automated Install of Guest Domains Is Slower on Older System Firmware

Users of the SPARC T-Series servers from Oracle might experience a slow WAN boot during an automated installation of a guest domain if they are running an older version of the system firmware.

Workaround: For System Firmware 8.x, you must have at least version 8.1.1.b or greater. For System Firmware 7.x, you require at least version 7.4.0.d or greater. The following information shows the platforms and the required firmware version.

System Firmware 8.x supports the following platforms:

• Netra SPARC T3-1

• Netra SPARC T3-1B

• Sun SPARC T3-1

• Sun SPARC T3-2

• Sun SPARC T3-4

• Sun SPARC T3-1B

• Sun SPARC T4-1

• Sun SPARC T4-1B

• Sun SPARC T4-2

• Sun SPARC T4-4

System Firmware 7.x supports the following platforms:

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440

• Sun Blade T6320 - Sun Blade T6340

The following platforms do not have the required firmware version available:

• Netra CP3260

• Netra SPARC T3-1BA

For more information about specific versions of system firmware, see Oracle VM Server for SPARC Release Notes available at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/vm-sparc-194287.html.