Installing and Administering Solaris Flash Archives (Tasks)

This chapter provides references to procedures for installing Solaris Flash archives on clone systems and procedures for administering an archive.

• References to Procedures for Installing Solaris Flash Archives

• Administering Solaris Flash Archives

References to Procedures for Installing Solaris Flash Archives

You can use any of the Solaris installation methods to install Solaris Flash archives for an initial installation. You must use custom JumpStart to install a Solaris Flash differential archive.

• For an initial installation to install a Solaris Flash archive, see the following references.

  • Solaris Live Upgrade - See Installing Solaris Flash Archives on a Boot Environment.

  • The Solaris Web Start program - See SPARC: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris Web Start Program or x86: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris Web Start Program.

  • The Solaris suninstall program - See SPARC: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris suninstall Program or x86: Performing an Installation or Upgrade With the Solaris suninstall Program.

  • Custom JumpStart installation program - See Creating a Profile and To Prepare to Install a Solaris Flash Archive With a Custom JumpStart Installation.

  • WAN boot installation method - See Chapter 41, WAN Boot (Overview).

• For an update with a Solaris Flash differential archive, see the following references.

  • Custom JumpStart installation program - See Creating a Profile and To Prepare to Install a Solaris Flash Archive With a Custom JumpStart Installation.

  • Solaris Live Upgrade - See To Install a Solaris Flash Archive With a Profile (Command-Line Interface).

Administering Solaris Flash Archives

The flar command enables you to administer archives. You can split an archive into sections. Those sections can be modified, added to, or deleted, and then merged to create an archive. You can also obtain information about the archive.

Caution - Do not modify the Archive Files section or you compromise the integrity of the archive.

Splitting a Solaris Flash Archive

You can split an archive into sections, which enables you to modify some sections, add new sections, or delete sections. After you have modified the sections, you need to merge the sections to create an new archive. For example, you might want to add a User-Defined section or modify the Archive Identification section. Do not modify the Archive Files section or you compromise the integrity of the archive.

The flar split command splits a Solaris Flash archive into sections. The flar command copies each section into a separate file in the current directory or specified directory. The files are named after the sections, for example, the archive cookie is saved in a file that is named cookie. You can specify that the flar split command save only one section. The syntax of the command is as follows:

flar split[-d dir] [-u section] [-f archive] [-S section] [-t [-p posn] [-b blocksize]] filename

Example 22-1 Splitting an Archive

In the following example, archive1.flar is split into three files:

• cookie - The first line of the archive, which identifies the version of the archive format. Do not change this identifier.

• identification - A copy of the Archive Identification section with all keyword-value pairs.

• archive - The cpio archive itself. This file can be compressed.

# flar split archive1.flar

After the archive is split, you can modify the Archive Identification section or add a User-Defined section. The sections can then be merged to recreate the archive.

Merging a Solaris Flash Archive

After you have split an archive into sections, you can combine the sections to create a new archive.

The flar combine command creates a Solaris Flash archive from individual sections. Each section is assumed to be in a separate file, the names of which are the section names. At a minimum, these three files must be present:

• Archive Cookie (cookie)

• Archive Identification (identification)

• Archive Files (archive)

When combining sections, remember the following points:

• If archive is a directory, flar uses cpio to archive the directory before including it in the combined archive.

• If the Archive Identification section specifies to compress the archive, flar compresses the contents of the newly combined archive.

• No validation is performed on any of the sections. In particular, no fields in the Archive Identification section are validated or updated.

flar combine [-d dir] [-u section] [-t [-p posn] [-b blocksize]] filename