About This Manual

This manual describes the Remote Installation Services (RIS) and Dataless Management Services (DMS) environments and utilities maintained on a Compaq Tru64 UNIX operating system.

Audience

This manual is  intended for anyone using RIS or DMS, especially those system administrators responsible for maintaining RIS and DMS environments on your LAN.

When you are using this manual, the following conditions apply:

New and Changed Features

The following changes have been made to this manual since the last version:

Previous versions of this manual are available on the World Wide Web at the following location:

http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/pub_page/pubs_page.html

Organization

This manual is organized as follows:

Chapter 1 Introduces the concept of servers and clients, explaining what they are and how they work together. It also describes the basic architecture of the server/client environment.
Chapter 2 Describes the relationship between the RIS server and RIS clients.
Chapter 3 Lists the formats in which distribution media are available and describes the preliminary setup procedures for RIS.
Chapter 4 Describes the procedure for setting up a RIS server, including installing and updating software.
Chapter 5 Describes networking-related files and daemons used by the remote installation services (ris) utility and the process a client goes through to boot over the network.
Chapter 6 Describes processes and procedures for maintaining and managing a RIS system, including adding, deleting, and modifying clients.
Chapter 7 Describes how to manage profile sets to support Full Installation and Installation Cloning.
Chapter 8 Provides information on troubleshooting RIS client problems.
Chapter 9 Introduces DMS and the dataless management utility (dmu).
Chapter 10 Describes how to prepare a server system for DMS.
Chapter 11 Describes the steps necessary to configure a DMS server including how to install software into a DMS environment.
Chapter 12 Describes how to use the dmu utility to add, modify, remove, and list DMS clients, and how to list or delete a DMS environment.
Chapter 13 Provides information on troubleshooting DMS client problems.
Appendix A Contains a worksheet to use when you install RIS.
Appendix B Contains worksheets to calculate space requirements on DMS servers and clients, and a DMS client setup worksheet.
Appendix C Describes the utilupdate utility, used to update the the ris and dmu utilities on a server that is running an older version of the operating system.
Appendix D Describes how to install a hardware update release into a DMS area serving an older version of the operating system.

Related Documentation

You should have the following documentation available:

Tru64 UNIX documentation is available on the World Wide Web at the following location:

http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/pub_page/pubs_page.html

Icons on Tru64 UNIX Printed Books

The printed version of the Tru64 UNIX documentation uses letter icons on the spines of the books to help specific audiences quickly find the books that meet their needs. (You can order the printed documentation from Compaq.) The following list describes this convention:

  G Books for general users
  S Books for system and network administrators
  P Books for programmers
  D Books for device driver writers
  R Books for reference page users

Some books in the documentation help meet the needs of several audiences. For example, the information in some system books is also used by programmers. Keep this in mind when searching for information on specific topics.

The Documentation Overview provides information on all of the books in the Tru64 UNIX documentation set.

Reader's Comments

Compaq welcomes any comments and suggestions you have on this and other Tru64 UNIX manuals.

You can send your comments in the following ways:

Please include the following information along with your comments:

The Tru64 UNIX Publications group cannot respond to system problems or technical support inquiries. Please address technical questions to your local system vendor or to the appropriate Compaq technical support office. Information provided with the software media explains how to send problem reports to Compaq.

Conventions

The following conventions are used in this manual:

%
$

A percent sign represents the C shell system prompt. A dollar sign represents the system prompt for the Bourne, Korn, and POSIX shells.

#

A number sign represents the superuser prompt.

% cat

Boldface type in interactive examples indicates typed user input.

file

Italic (slanted) type indicates variable values, placeholders, and function argument names.

[ | ]
{ | }

In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional and braces indicate items that are required. Vertical bars separating items inside brackets or braces indicate that you choose one item from among those listed. 


colored text

In syntax definitions, literal elements are colored green. Variable values, placeholders, and function argument names are colored red. No special colored text is used outside of syntax descriptions.

cat(1)

A cross-reference to a reference page includes the appropriate section number in parentheses. For example, cat(1) indicates that you can find information on the cat command in Section 1 of the reference pages.

[Return]

In an example, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press that key.

[Ctrl/x]

This symbol indicates that you hold down the first named key while pressing the key or mouse button that follows the slash. In examples, this key combination is enclosed in a box (for example, [Ctrl/C] ).