Thursday, September 16, 2010

Solaris 10 live upgrade to Solaris10 09/10 (update 9)

Solaris 10 09/10 (update 9) is the latest release of solaris. This release includes auto registration feature.
This feature needs to be disable before booting the server if you indent not to register the system.

While upgrading with luupgrade , registration can be disabled with -k keyword., where filename is a text file contain the keyword " auto_reg=disable " with out quotes.

On a Solaris 10 u9 system , regadm status shows like this after its disabled.

root# regadm status
Solaris Auto-Registration is currently disabled


Well the -k key is not included with the previous release of SUNWlucfg, so I installed it from the U9 dvd image.

1) Download the Solaris 10_u9 zip file and unzip it to the ISO image. Copy the file to the sun server.

2) lofi mount the ISO image

# lofiadm -a /export/home/jibby/sol-10-u9-ga-sparc-dvd.iso /dev/lofi/1

# mount -F hsfs -o ro /dev/lofi/1 /mnt

4) Remove the package and install the latest package from the dvd image , this needs to be done  else the -k   keyword wont work

# pkgrm SUNWlucfg SUNWluu SUNWlur
# cd /mnt/Solaris_10/Tools/Installers
# ./liveupgrade20 -noconsole - nodisplay

# pkgchk -v SUNWlucfg SUNWlur SUNWluu

Current root file system is on c0t0d0s0 (solenv1) and I'm copying it to the second disk c0t1d0s0 (solenv2)
I've a seprate /var FS , which I need to combine with / file system.
I've a /zone mounted for zones , which I'm not merging , instead using as a shared FS.
I've one zone installed called neo.

5) Creating a BE with name solenv2 and naming the current BE as solenv1, the merged keyword is used to indicate that we are merging it with the parent FS.

root# lucreate -c solenv1 -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0:ufs -m /var:merged:ufs -n solenv2


6) Upgrade the BE solenv2 with latest release by pointing it to the DVD image.

root# luupgrade -u -k /path/reg_file -n solenv2 -s /mnt/

7) Check the status with lustatus

root# lustatus

Boot Environment           Is       Active Active          Can    Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot Delete Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
solenv1                           yes       yes          yes           no          -
solenv2                           yes         no            no          yes        -

8) Activate the BE solenv2.

root# luactivate solenv2


root# lustatus

Boot Environment           Is       Active Active    Can    Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot Delete Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
solenv1                    yes      no     no        yes    -
solenv2                    yes      yes    yes       no     -


9) Reboot the system with init 6

root# init 6 ( dont use reboot)

10) The machine boots into the disk slice c0t1d0s0 and you can see the /var merged within the root FS. The release version shows the latest version, the zone neo is also upgraded to the latest release.

root# cat /etc/release
                   Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 s10s_u9wos_14a SPARC
     Copyright (c) 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
                            Assembled 11 August 2010
ahaa..just now I noticed , Oracle Solaris :)

11) Once confirmed everything is fine you can delete the solenv1

root# ludelete solenv1

Determining the devices to be marked free.
Updating boot environment configuration database.
Updating boot environment description database on all BEs.
Updating all boot environment configuration databases.
Boot environment deleted.

root# lustatus


Boot Environment           Is       Active Active          Can     Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot  Delete Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
solenv2                           yes       yes           yes          no        -

So thats it , we are upgraded to the latest release. I never copied swap filesystem. you can specify seprate swap FS.
I did it with out proper planning and now I'm utilizing 2 disks. I realized i need everything on c0t0d0s0 and I want to merge /zones with the root filesystem., well start again , but this time no need to upgrade.

 root# lucreate -c solenv2 -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0:ufs -m /zones:merged:ufs -n solenv1

root# lustatus

Boot Environment           Is       Active Active         Can     Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot Delete  Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
solenv2                          yes      yes        yes             no       -
solenv1                         yes      no          no              yes       -

root# luactivate solenv1

root# lustatus

Boot Environment           Is       Active   Active       Can    Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot Delete Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
solenv2                           yes      yes         no        no         -
solenv1                          yes      no           yes       no         -

 # init6

root# lustatus

Boot Environment           Is       Active Active    Can    Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot Delete Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
solenv2                    yes      no     no        yes    -
solenv1                    yes      yes    yes       no     -

# ludelete solenv2

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

ESXi 4.1- Windows 2008 server console. Poor mouse performance.

I provisioned a new Windows 2008 server and after installing  the vmware tools I found that the mouse performance was not optimal. This is due to the wrong graphics driver installed by the vmware tools. A solution for this is to install the correct graphics driver manually ( vmware SVGA 3D). the steps are as follows. You need a reboot, so plan it.

1) Right click on the desktop and select screen resolution or personalize/display settings) and choose advance settings link.













2) Choose the adapter tab, it will show the current adapter. Here it is VMware SVGA II , click on properties












3)  Select the driver tab and click the update driver tab  as shown in the figure.












4)  Click on browse my computer to install the driver software. the location of the driver is
c:/Program Files/Common Files/ VMware/Drivers/wddm_video























5)  Click Next , this will install the driver and display the next screen below. You need to reboot the computer to take effect.

















Thats it , after reboot the mouse performance is optimal and I heard this issue is with window 7 too.