Data … as usual

Solaris is an OS with many tools like dtrace. In my case, I installed it because I would like to test Oracle 12c and solaris specific views that detect long IO operation: V$KERNEL_IO_OUTLIER.

First of all, you need to download the installation medium which is available at https://edelivery.oracle.com. You need to download the Interactive text install medium :

Next, you have to create a new VM. This can be done by following steps below:

Ok, the VM is created, now let’s configure it by attaching the S11.1 installation media, and adding a network adapter (I will add a another NIC later for my LAN access) :

And boot the VM …

After booting the VM, the installation process will prompt you for many information (keyboard, hostname etc.):

Select your keyboard layout

And the language for your installation.

Select 1 to install Oracle Solaris

During the installation process, you can go to the next step by pressing F2 and go back by pressing F3. Everything you can do is mentioned on the bottom of the screen :

In the next screen, I will use the local discovery method because my disk is locally attached.

Select the discovered disk where you want to install S11 and then press F2.

In this screen, I choose to use the entire disk for my installation. You can select another partition by selecting “Use a GPT partition of the disk”.

Enter the computer name (short name), and choose how you want to configure your network. I decided to configure my network automatically (DHCP).

No alternative naming service.

Ok, now it’s time to configure time related information, first of all … Time zone

Ok timezone set.

next, set date and time.

Set the root password and eventually, create a user account.

No need to register your system … it’s a VM

Next screen is to configure the method to access oracle servers for OCM and Automatic SR features. Here it doesn’t make sense.

Review your configuration and press F2 to install.

Install in progress …

At the end of the process, you have to reboot your VM by pressing F8. In my case, instead of rebooting the server, I shut it down and took the time to detach the installation medium and to configure another Network adapter plugged into my LAN.

Now I can boot my VM … I’m ready to configure it.

To configure network, I used the same method I described in this blog post : https://laurent-leturgez.com/2012/08/01/build-a-basic-network-configuration-on-solaris-11/

Net1/v4 has to be configured

Link is up,so we can configure this NIC.

As we configured DHCP client on a NAT Virtualbox NIC, we retrieved DNS information:

Now I can access to my VM from a putty client. But root access is disabled by default in sshd config. So you have to modify the sshd config  and restart the daemon

Next thing I recommend to configure is the package repository. By default, if you have an internet access configured to your machine (which is my case because of my NATted network adapter), you don’t have to configure anything because your default repository is already configured to access Oracle remote repository.

root@S11:~# pkg publisher
PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
solaris                     origin   online F http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/

root@S11:~# pkg publisher solaris

            Publisher: solaris
                Alias:
           Origin URI: http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/
              SSL Key: None
             SSL Cert: None
          Client UUID: ddee2130-0292-11e2-b9e5-80144f013e20
      Catalog Updated: November  9, 2011 03:34:27 PM
              Enabled: Yes

Maybe you will need to install basic XWindow libraries (for example, if you want to export a display to your local X Server). If your repository is configured, you can execute the commands below:

root@S11:~# pkg install SUNWarc SUNWbtool SUNWhea SUNWlibms SUNWmfrun SUNWxorg-client-programs SUNWxorg-clientlibs SUNWxwfsw pkg://solaris/SUNWxwplt truetype/fonts-core
           Packages to install: 65
       Create boot environment: No
Create backup boot environment: No
            Services to change:  5

DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED
Completed                              65/65     5045/5045    40.9/40.9  280k/s

PHASE                                          ITEMS
Installing new actions                     6797/6797
Updating package state database                 Done
Updating image state                            Done
Creating fast lookup database                   Done

Then logoff and re-login, you can now export your display and launch X Programs:

$ ssh root@192.168.99.130
Last login: Wed Oct 16 14:14:47 2013 from 192.168.99.1
Oracle Corporation      SunOS 5.11      11.1    September 2012
root@S11:~# echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0
root@S11:~# xlogo

root@S11:~# pkg install slim_install

           Packages to install: 315
       Create boot environment:  No
Create backup boot environment: Yes
            Services to change:  13

DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED
Completed                            315/315   50633/50633  524.2/524.2  259k/s

PHASE                                          ITEMS
Installing new actions                   81666/81666
Updating package state database                 Done
Updating image state                            Done
Creating fast lookup database                   Done