[rescue] Help with SunFire V240 Server

[microcode at zoho.com]

On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 09:57:03AM -0400, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> How do I:
> 
>  - configure mirrored boot drive? Data drive? Is it something to do when I
> select the drives to install on? (I've been in Windows-land so long I
> forgot how, if I ever actually knew!)

I mailed you off-list about this. Did you see it?

If you want to create a ZFS root mirror you have to select one of the "text
installer" options. It's not exactly text, it's a CDE-based installer. It
will give you the option to select which drive(s) you want for your root
filesystem. This is the ZFS filesystem you boot from. When your new system
comes up you can create (man zpool) new pools on your extra drives.

I recommend a root mirror and then using your other two drives as a mirror
for another pool you can create. Since the box only has 4 drives, there's
really no other good/safe way to use them.

>  - configure naming services in a home setting? I selected "No Naming
> Services" this time around, but when I ran through the configuring "DNS"
> naming service I had to specify a domain, which I don't have.

Select the none box on the screen that lists the naming options and do your
/etc/hosts as per normal.

> 
>  - Sun used to offer a "Solaris Freeware" ISO full of shareware that was
> easily installed, is that just long-gone?

No, the CD images are available on sunfreeware.com. Those and
Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird are the only "free" stuff left on Sun Freeware,
it has moved to a pay subscription service.

> How do folks access shareware/open software?

I just compile everything locally. The first thing I download after the
installation image is the latest Solaris Studio. It's really nice and the
code generation is said to be much superior to gcc for UltraSparc. You get a
nice gui for dbx too, beats ddd etc.

> Which repositories? What is the install process -
> is it typically just download, unzip, run a shell script?

If you want prepackaged software opencsw looks pretty good.

> Thanks in advance - apologies for asking questions 'on topic'... ;^)

Try not to do that again ;-)

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