pfinstall(1M) System Administration Commands pfinstall(1M)NAMEpfinstall - tests installation profiles
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D | -d disk_config [ -c CDpath] profile
DESCRIPTION
After you create a profile, you can use the pfinstall command to test
the profile and see if it does what you want before using it to install
or upgrade a system. pfinstall enables you to test a profile against:
· The system's disk configuration where pfinstall is being run.
· Other disks by using a disk configuration file that represents a
structure of a disk. See NOTES on how to create a disk configura‐
tion file.
To successfully and accurately test a profile for a particular Solaris
release, you must test a profile within the Solaris environment of the
same release. For example, if you want to test a profile for Solaris
2.10, you have to run the pfinstall command on a system running Solaris
2.10.
So, on a system running Solaris 2.10, you can test Solaris 2.10 initial
installation profiles. However, if you want to test a Solaris 2.10
upgrade profile on a system running a previous version of Solaris, or
if you don't have a Solaris 2.10 system installed yet to test Solaris
2.10 initial installation profiles, you have to boot a system from a
Solaris 2.10 CD image and temporarily create a Solaris 2.10 install
environment. Then, you can run pfinstall in the Solaris 2.10 install
environment to test your profiles.
To create a temporary Solaris operating system install environment,
boot a system from a Solaris CD image (just as you would to install),
answer any system identification questions, choose the Solaris Interac‐
tive Installation program, and exit out of the first screen that is
presented. Then, from the shell, you can execute the pfinstall command.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-c CDpath The path to the Solaris installation image. This is
required if the image is not mounted on /cdrom. (For
example, use this option if you copied the installation
image to disk or mounted the CD-ROM on a directory
other than /cdrom.) When testing a profile on an x86
machine, the miniroot needs to be unpacked before using
-c option. See EXAMPLES, below, for the procedure to
unpack the miniroot.
-d disk_config pfinstall uses a disk configuration file, disk_config,
to test the profile. See NOTES on how to create a disk
configuration file. You must specify either this option
or the -D option to test the profile (see WARNINGS).
This option cannot be used with an upgrade profile
(install_type upgrade). You must always test an upgrade
profile against a system's disk configuration ( -D
option).
-Dpfinstall uses the system's disk configuration to test
the profile. You must specify either this option or the
-d option to test the profile (see WARNINGS).
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
profile The file name of the profile to test. If profile is not
in the directory where pfinstall is being run, you must
specify the path.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Testing an Upgrade Profile
The following example tests an upgrade profile, upgrade.prof, on a sys‐
tem with a previous version of the Solaris software installed.
1. Boot the system to be upgraded from the Solaris image chosen for
the upgrade, just as you would to install. The image can be located
in the system's local CD-ROM or on an install server.
2. Answer the system configuration questions, if prompted.
3. If you are presented with a choice of installation options, choose
the Solaris Interactive Installation program.
4. Exit from the first screen of the Solaris Interactive Installation
program.
After the Solaris Interactive Installation program exits, a shell
prompt is displayed.
5. Create a temporary mount point:
example# mkdir /tmp/mnt
6. Mount the directory that contains the profile(s) you want to test.
If you want to mount a remote NFS file system (for systems on the
network), enter:
example# mount -F nfs server_name:path /tmp/mnt
If you want to mount a UFS-formatted diskette, enter:
example# mount -F ufs /dev/diskette /tmp/mnt
If you want to mount a PCFS-formatted diskette, enter:
example# mount -F pcfs /dev/diskette /tmp/mnt
7. Change directory to /tmp/mnt where the profile resides:
example# cd /tmp/mnt
8. Test the upgrade.prof profile:
example# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D upgrade.prof
Example 2: Testing the basic.prof Profile on an x86 Machine (Includes
Unpacking miniroot)
The following example tests the basic.prof profile against the disk
configuration on a Solaris 8 system where pfinstall is being run. The
path to the Solaris CD image is specified because Volume Management is
being used.
example# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D -c /cdrom/cdrom0/s0 basic.prof
When testing a profile on an x86 machine, before using pfinstall with
-c option, use the following procedure to unpack the miniroot:
1. Uncompress the miniroot archive into a temporary file. The miniroot
archive is under /cdrom/cdrom0/s0.
# /usr/bin/gzcat /cdrom/cdrom0/boot/x86.miniroot > \
/tmp/x86_miniroot_gz
2. Create the miniroot device using lofiadm(1M):
/usr/sbin/lofiadm -a /tmp/x86_miniroot_gz
/dev/lofi/1
3. Mount the miniroot under miniroot directory using the lofi device
returned by lofiadm in the previous step:
# /usr/sbin/mount -F ufs /dev/lofi/1 \
/cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot
4. Now run pfinstall with -D option:
# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -D -c /cdrom/cdrom0/ jumpstart.profile
5. After pfinstall testing is completed, unmount the lofi device:
# /usr/sbin/umount /dev/lofi/1
6. Delete the lofi device:
# /usr/sbin/lofiadm -d /tmp/x86_miniroot_gz
Example 3: Testing the basic.prof Profile Against Disk Config File
The following example tests the basic.prof profile against the 535_test
disk configuration file. This example uses a Solaris CD image located
in the /export/install directory, and pfinstall is being run on a
Solaris 2.6 system.
example# /usr/sbin/install.d/pfinstall -d 535_test \
-c /export/install basic.prof
EXIT STATUS
0 Successful (system rebooted).
1 Successful (system not rebooted).
2 An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWinst │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOfdisk(1M), lofiadm(1M), prtvtoc(1M), attributes(5)
Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Basic Installations
WARNINGS
If the -d or -D option is not specified, pfinstall may perform an
actual installation on the system by using the specified profile, and
the data on the system may be overwritten.
NOTES
You have to test a profile on a system with the same platform type for
which the profile was created.
SPARC
To create a disk configuration file (-d option) for a SPARC based sys‐
tem:
1. Locate a SPARC based system with a disk that you want to test.
2. Create a disk configuration file by redirecting the output of the
prtvtoc(1M) command to a file.
example# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 > 535_disk
3. (Optional.) Concatenate disk configuration files into a single file
to test a profile against multiple disks. The target numbers in the
disk device names must be unique.
example# cat 535_disk 1G_disk > mult_disks
x86
To create a disk configuration file (-d option) for an x86 based sys‐
tem:
1. Locate an x86 based system with a disk that you want to test.
2. Create part of the disk configuration file by saving the output of
the fdisk(1M) command to a file:
example# fdisk -R -W 535_disk /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0p0
3. Append the output of the prtvtoc(1M) command to the disk configura‐
tion file.
example# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 >> 535_disk
4. (Optional.) Concatenate disk configuration files into a single file
to test a profile against multiple disks. The target numbers in the
disk device names must be unique.
example# cat 535_disk 1G_disk > mult_disks
To test a profile with a specific system memory size, set SYS_MEMSIZE
to the specific memory size (in Mbytes) before running pfinstall:
example# SYS_MEMSIZE=memory_size
example# export SYS_MEMSIZE
SunOS 5.10 9 May 2006 pfinstall(1M)
