Monday June 19, 2006

Hands free sun management center server installation Sun Management Center installation has improved a lot from the first version 3.0 when it was named SunMC, to the latest version 3.6.1.

Installation and configuration is the usual pain point with almost every software that is platform specific and has a mix of components based on many technologies. It takes a lot of decision making to put the right bits in right places, plus do the necessary configuration changes. Like any other systems management tool, sunmc is not a software that 'needs the platform' but that 'is for the platform'. So it obviously has platform specific components plus it's built using technologies ranging for TCL and scripts to java, jato. SunMC version 3.5 came with major enhancements in the installation area and I am sure it improved the quality of life of most of the sunmc sys admins :)

Besides many features like agent update, one feature that works beautifully well is the automated install. Basically one can record all user inputs during installation using es-inst -C that creates a install config file. The file can be used as an input for es-inst -A to playback the same installation. It's mainly useful for agent installs, since agent installs are more in number than anything else. But sys admins won't mind a hands free server install, would they ?

Here is an example of a typical 3.5 install response file that can be used for server install. It does not automate security seed, snmpv1 string and PRM database dir setup inputs, but it does everything else.

For automating snmpv1 string and security seed, one can store it in a file that has read only permissions for root. ( A new 3.6 feature )

The OSVERS and PRTOUT don't matter, they are simple placeholders.

OSVERS=8
PRTOUT=  Sun Microsystems  sun4u Sun Ultra 60 UPA/PCI (2 X UltraSPARC-II 450MHz)SUNMC_VERSION=3.5
TARGET_DIRECTORY=/opt
ENVIRONMENT=1
LAYER.SERVER=1
LAYER.AGENT=1
LAYER.CONSOLE=1
SERVER_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=1
INSTALL_LOCALES=0
PRODUCT.ADVANCEDMONITORING=1
PRODUCT.DESKTOP=1
PRODUCT.ESERVICE=1
PRODUCT.NETRA=0
PRODUCT.PRM=1
PRODUCT.SERENGETIDOMADMIN=0
PRODUCT.SUNFIREDRSER=0
PRODUCT.SERENGETIPLTADMIN=0
PRODUCT.STARFIRE=0
PRODUCT.STORAGE=0
PRODUCT.STARCAT=0
PRODUCT.WCI=0
PRODUCT.SUNFIRECLSDR=0
PRODUCT.SUNFIRESUN4DCONFIGREADER=0
PRODUCT.SYSMANAGEMENT=1
PRODUCT.TNG=0
PRODUCT.TIVOLI=0
PRODUCT.WORKGROUPSERVER=1
PRODUCT.ELS=0
PRODUCT.SCM=1
PRODUCT.LW8=0
PRODUCT.VSM=1
PRODUCT.X86CONFIGREADER=1
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.WCI:COMPONENT.WCISERVER=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.WCI:COMPONENT.WCIAGENT=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.WCI:COMPONENT.WCIXAGENT=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.WCI:COMPONENT.WCIRSM=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.WCI:COMPONENT.WCICONSOLE=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.TNG:COMPONENT.TNGEVENTADAPTOR=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.TNG:COMPONENT.TNGHOSTDETAILS=0
OPTIONAL_COMPONENT:PRODUCT.TNG:COMPONENT.TNGSERVER=0
ADDONS_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=1
SETUP_NOW=1
OPTIONAL_DB_PORT=2521
agent_OPTIONAL_PORT=DEFAULT
CUSTOMER_ORGANIZATION=sun
CUSTOMER_LOCATION=india
HTTP_SERVER_OPTIONAL_PORT=8080
DISABLE_SNMPDX_DAEMON=1
STOP_SNMPDX=1
PRESERVE_DATA=0
START_SUNMC=1
SUNMC_USERNAME=n1admin
INSTALL_DOCS=1
CONTINUE_IF_SMA_PRESENT=1
PRODUCT.SCM:SCM_DIR=/export
PRODUCT.SCM:SCM_ZONEADM_USERLIST=n1admin
SECURITY_KEY_SEED=
SUNMC_SERVER=