SUMMARY : installing N (big number) stations

From: Jacques Beigbeder (Jacques.Beigbeder@ens.fr)
Date: Wed Dec 11 1996 - 03:22:04 CST


The question was:

        I have a lot (20) of workstations (SS4) to install with Solaris 2.5.

        I think about the following procedure:
        Step 1: install Solaris 2.5 on an external device (I have);
        Step 2: install Solaris 2.5 on the 1rst SS4, and configure;
        Step 3: on this 1rst SS4, build 4 files with:
                        dd if=/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 of=/external/root
        Step 4: - put the external disk on another SS4, boot with the OS
                on this external disk;
                - using format, partition the internal of the 2nd SS4
                - using dd, restore the 4 partitions (s0, s3, s4, s5)
                        dd if=/external/root of=/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0

        Will this procedure work?
        I'm confident about the file systems. But what about
        the defect list, the partition table? Are they on
        /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0?

21 persons answered... 20 said to use Jumpstart. It seems
to take 30 minutes to 1 hour for one station.

Someone told me to use the slice 2 instead of the 4 slices
of the 4 file-systems.
2 persons said that I should use dump/restore: no, that's
talk a long time! dd is very fast.

Only one person answered the question about the defect list:
this list is in embedded PROM, not on the physical disk.
No one answered about the partition table? Is it on
the slice 0, or somewhere else???

I did the install last Friday. It worked, I'll do the
same procedure next week for 10 SS4 with SunOS 4.1.4
(no Jumpstart here...).
It worked except for 1 thing: sometimes, on the Step 4:
        - 4.1: format the disk;
        - 4.2: dd if=/external/root of=/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0
this dd said :
        write: No such device or address.
Another try, and it worked. Why???

-------------------

Thanks to:
        John Stoffel
        Marc S. Gibian
        Gary W. Cook
        Tim Carlson
        Jeff Popp
        Michael Salehi
        J.M. Franco
        David Pitkin
        Paul J. Bogdan
        Mike Varney
        Alberto Begliomini
        Fletcher B. Cocquy
        Rich Kulawiec
        David Montgomery
        Matt Bottrell
        Kevin Davidson
        Cyril GODON
        Mike Clarke
        Stephen P Richards
        Daniel Hermans
        Stuart Little

Jacques Beigbeder | Internet: beig@ens.fr
Service de Prestations Informatiques |
Ecole normale superieure |
45 rue d'Ulm | Tel : 01 44 32 37 96
F75230 Paris Cedex 05 | Fax : 01 44 32 20 80



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