Preface
This book is one of an ongoing series of books collectively known as the Sun BluePrints[tm] Program. The Boot Disk Management BluePrint focuses on the boot disk of the Solaris Operating Environment (OE) and serves as a replacement for the Sun BluePrints book, Guide to High Availability, Configuring boot/root/swap. This book will explain how to select a boot device, partition and lay out a file system, select and use a volume manager, and recover from service events and outages.
Sun BluePrints Program
The mission of the Sun BluePrints program is to empower Sun's customers with the technical knowledge required to implement reliable, extensible, and secure information systems within the data center using Sun products. This program provides a framework to identify, develop, and distribute best practices information that applies across the Sun product lines. Experts in technical subjects in various areas contribute to the program and focus on the scope and advantages of the information.
The Sun BluePrints program includes books, guides, and online articles. Through these vehicles, Sun can provide guidance, installation and implementation experiences, real-life scenarios, and late-breaking technical information.
The monthly electronic magazine, Sun BluePrints OnLine, is located on the web at
http://www.sun.com/blueprints. To be notified about updates to the Sun BluePrints Program, please register on this site.
Who Should Use This Book
This book is primarily intended for system administrators, system/IT/enterprise architects, and integrators with moderate-to-advanced knowledge of the Solaris OE as well as basic knowledge of VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) or Solstice DiskSuite software.
Before You Read This Book
You should be familiar with the basic administration and maintenance functions of the Solaris OE.
How This Book is Organized
Chapters 1 through 3 of this book outline the boot process and installation methods, present methods for managing the on-disk operating system (OS), and introduce techniques for upgrading the Solaris OE.
Chapters 4 and 9 contain information about the reference configuration presented in this book and methods for selecting and using logical volume managers (LVMs). Chapters 5 and 6 provide VxVM-specific information, while Chapters 7 and 8 address Solstice DiskSuite software-specific issues. Read the appropriate chapters for information about the LVM in use at your site. Read Chapter 9 for best-practice recommendations for implementing LVMs in your datacenter.
Chapter 1 "Partitioning Boot Disks," examines the basics of boot disk selection, layout, and partitioning.
Chapter 2 "Managing On-Disk OS Images," provides best practices and recommendations for managing the on-disk OS image. It includes recommendations for installing, maintaining, and patching the Solaris OE with or without an LVM managing the boot disk.
Chapter 3 "Managing Solaris Operating Environment Upgrades," introduces Live Upgrade (LU) and provides best practices for using LU to upgrade the Solaris OE with minimal downtime and minimal impact to the user or applications. Most importantly, LU provides a safe and consistent fallback environment in case an upgrade or software installation fails.
Chapter 4 "Configuring Boot Disks," presents a reference configuration of the root disk and associated disks that emphasizes the value of configuring a system for high availability and high serviceability.
Chapter 5 "Configuring a Boot Disk With VERITAS Volume Manager," presents methodologies for designing and implementing a highly reliable, available, and serviceable configuration for recovering and repairing a damaged VxVM-managed boot disk that emphasizes simplicity, consistency, resilience, and recoverability.
Chapter 6 "Maintaining a Boot Disk With VERITAS Volume Manager," presents techniques for recovering and repairing a damaged VxVM-managed boot disk.
Chapter 7 "Configuring a Boot Disk With Solstice DiskSuite Software," presents methodologies for designing and implementing a highly reliable, available, and serviceable configuration for a Solstice DiskSuite software-managed boot disk that emphasizes simplicity, consistency, resilience, and recoverability.
Chapter 8 "Maintaining a Boot Disk With Solstice DiskSuite Software," presents techniques and procedures for recovering and repairing a damaged Solstice DiskSuite software-managed boot disk.
Chapter 9 "Using Multiple Logical Volume Managers," addresses the use of multiple LVMs on the same system and strongly recommends that you implement a single LVM on a system. Additionally, this chapter outlines several advantages to standardizing on one LVM, including minimizing system complexity and speeding recovering time.
Glossary is a list of words and phrases and their definitions.
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