Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition - Mike Eisler [107]
client # cd /tmp/scratch
client # rm -rf usr
client # find . -print | cpio -dump /
Swapping on a local disk
In this configuration option, the client's root and /usr filesystems are NFS-mounted, but swap is from a local disk. The AdminSuite software doesn't provide an option for diskless client accessing local swap, but again it is surmountable. The steps are:
If not already done, add the diskless client to the boot server via the AdminSuite software. Go ahead and define a swap partition on the server so that you don't run the risk of confusing the AdminSuite software.
Boot the client from the boot server.
Identify and create the swap partition from the local disk. In Solaris, the easiest way to this is via the format command. When you invoke the format command, it will display the list of disks attached to the client. You then select one of the local disks and then use the "partition" command from inside format to find an existing partition and resize it, or create a partition with the desired size.
Edit /etc/vfstab on the client to mount swap from the partition you identified in the previous step. For example you might change the two NFS-related swap vfstab entries from: wahoo:/export/swap/honeymoon - /dev/swap nfs - - -
/dev/swap - - swap - - -
to:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 - - swap - no -
Reboot the client via diskless boot.
In general, the swap partition should cover most, if not all, of the local disk.
Of course, if you followed the example in Section 8.4, then you know you ought to be able to switch from NFS swap to local swap without a client reboot. This is only possible if the local swap partition is at least as big as the NFS-mounted swap file. Instead of rebooting the client in step 5, you would do:
honeymoon# swap -a /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7
honeymoon# swap -d /dev/swap
Brief introduction to JumpStart administration
Diskless NFS was conceived in the mid-1980s during a time when disks for desktops were bulky, small in capacity, and expensive. Much has changed since then. Because so much disk space comes with desktop systems today, you may want to utilize it, despite most of the advantages of diskless operation. One advantage of diskless—ease of administration—is still quite critical. If you decide that aside from ease of administration, you'd prefer to have your clients be disk-full or even dataless, you can still leverage the inherent diskless support in your desktops to centralize many administration tasks, including:
Upgrading and patching the desktop operating systems
Modifying configuration files
Consider that you can install the operating system on your desktop's local disk by booting from the network interface instead of a disk, i.e., a netinstall. On a SPARC system, at the boot prompt you would do:
ok boot net - install
Solaris NFS servers have a feature known as JumpStart installation that lets you customize the configuration of your desktops. The difference between JumpStart-driven configuration and diskless driver configuration is that with the former, the onus is on the user to shut down and boot the desktop over the network to let JumpStart configuration take effect. With diskless configuration, the system administrator can make changes on the server and have the changes take immediate effect. However, as discussed earlier in this chapter, often such changes on the NFS server have to be coordinated with the desktop user. Thus, you can argue that in terms of ease of administration, there's no qualitative difference between JumpStart and diskless operation.
It is beyond the scope of this book to describe the JumpStart feature in detail. The Solaris documentation and the book Automating Solaris Installations, by Paul Anthony Kasper and Alan L. McClellan (Prentice Hall PTR/Sun Microsystems Press, 1995), are extensive treatments of the subject. Once you've grasped the theory of JumpStart installation, of particular interest will be the section "Bypassing the Installation Software" in Chapter 10 of Kasper's and McClellan's book. This section describes how you can use