Installation Features

The following installation methods are available:

• x86: GUI installation with the Live Media – The GUI installer can be used to install Oracle Solaris 11 on x86 platforms only. The GUI installer is capable of functioning with a minimum 1.5 GB of memory. The exact minimum requirement varies depending on system specifications. See Installing Oracle Solaris by Using Installation Media for details.

• Interactive text installation (From media or over the network) – The text installer enables you to install Oracle Solaris on SPARC and x86 based systems from media or over a network.

• Automated installation on single or multiple systems – The Automated Installer (AI) installs Oracle Solaris 11 on a single or multiple client systems from an installation server on a network. Similar to JumpStart, AI provides a hands-free installation. You can also perform automated installations that boot from media. See Installing Oracle Solaris by Using AI.

  AI also supports the installation of zones. See Oracle Solaris 11 Zone Features.

• Customized installation image creation with the Distribution Constructor – The Distribution Constructor tool creates preconfigured installation images. See Oracle Solaris Installation Methods.

These installation tools and methods are no longer available:

• Oracle Solaris Flash Archive Installation – For information about recovering from a system failure, see System Boot, Recovery, and Platform Changes.

• JumpStart feature of Oracle Solaris – AI replaces JumpStart in this release. See Installing Oracle Solaris by Using AI.

• Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade feature – The suite of commands (lu) that are part of the Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade feature are also no longer supported. The beadm utility provides similar capability. See Tools for Managing Boot Environments.

See Chapter 2, Transitioning to an Oracle Solaris 11 Installation Method.

Automated Installer Enhancements

The following automated installation enhancements are introduced in this release:

• installadm command options – The installadm command has three new options: update-service, update-profile, and set-service. These options enable you to maintain a set of installation services. The ability to specify a manifest location with a system boot argument has also been added in this release. See Part III, Installing Using an Install Server, in Installing Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems.

• Installer support for connecting to Oracle support services – The Oracle Configuration Manager and the Oracle Auto Services Request utility are enabled by default for the purpose of collecting system configuration information during an installation. Both services are enabled through two new Oracle Solaris 11.1 installation screens. See Appendix A, Working With Oracle Configuration Manager, in Installing Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems.

• Interactive installation on iSCSI Targets – The ability to install to iSCSI target logical unit numbers (LUNs) in included in the Oracle Solaris 11.1 interactive text and Live Media installers. You can choose between installing on local disks or connecting to a remote iSCSI disk by using DHCP auto-discovery or by manually specifying a target IP address, iSCSI target name and LUN, and an initiator name. This feature change enables installed OS images to be maintained in a central location. See Installing With the GUI installer in Installing Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems.

• Role-based access control (RBAC) profiles and authorizations for managing the Automated Install service – Many of the commands that are used with an automated installation require increased privilege. Use one of the following methods to gain more privilege:

  • Use the profiles command to list the privileges that are assigned to you.

  • Use the sudo command with your user password to execute a privileged command. Use of the sudo command is dependent upon the security policy at your site.

  • Use the roles command to list the roles that are assigned to you. If you have the root role, you can use the su command to assume that role.

  See Install Server Requirements in Installing Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems.