4    Setting Up a RIS Area

This chapter describes how to use the ris utility to configure a RIS server. This chapter includes the following topics:

4.1    Overview

The ris utility can be invoked in two ways:

This chapter describes how to use the ris utility's menu-driven interface. Chapter 6 describes how to use individual ris commands. For additional information on the ris utility, refer to the ris(8) reference page.

4.2    Installing Software into a New RIS Area

After you create a RIS area and install the first software kit there, you can install more kits into that area or create other areas as you need them. Section 4.3 describes how to install additional software into an existing RIS environment.

Follow these steps to create a new risN .alpha environment and install the operating system:

  1. Log in as root or use the su command to gain superuser privileges.

  2. Insert the Operating System Volume 1 CD-ROM into the drive, then mount the CD-ROM.

    Note

    You can use a Network File System (NFS) mount point to install software from a Remote Installation Services (RIS) area or Operating System Volume 1 CD-ROM from another processor. Refer to Section 4.5 for more information about using an NFS mounted RIS area.

  3. Enter /usr/sbin/ris to start the ris utility. You see the RIS Utility Main Menu: 

    *** RIS Utility Main Menu ***
 
Choices without key letters are not available.
 
 ) ADD a client
 ) DELETE software products
i) INSTALL software products
 ) LIST registered clients
 ) MODIFY a client
 ) REMOVE a client
 ) SHOW software products in remote installation environments
x) EXIT
 
Enter your choice:

    The RIS Utility Main Menu does not display option letters for menu items that cannot be accessed. As you add environments, software, and clients to the system, other menu options become available.

  4. Enter i to select Install software products. You see the following prompt: 

    RIS Software Installation Menu:
 
1)  Install software into a new area
2)  Add software into an existing area
3)  Return to previous menu
 
Enter your choice:

  5. Enter 1 to select Install software into a new area. You see the following prompt: 

    You have chosen to establish a new remote installation
environment.
 
Enter the device special file name or the path of the directory 
where the software is located 
(for example, /mnt/ALPHA/BASE):

  6. Enter the full pathname or the device special file name for the distribution media.

    You see the following prompt: 

    Select the type of operating system base product to create. If the software you
are offering supports add-on hardware that is needed to boot the client
system, select "boot-link" as the type of RIS area to create. Otherwise,
select "standard". If you select "boot-link", the software will be extracted
(or copied) to the RIS area because symbolically linked RIS areas do not
support this feature.
 
Choose one of the following options:
 
    1)  Standard boot method
    2)  Boot-Link method
 
Enter your choice:

  7. Select one of the available options.

If you are installing a product that is not part of the base operating system in the RIS environment, the ris utility tries to determine the system architecture. If it cannot, you see a prompt similar to the following example: 

Choose the architecture of the clients that the environment
will serve:
 
    1) alpha
    2) custom
    3) mips
 
Enter your choice: 1
 
The new environment is in /usr/var/adm/ris/ris0.alpha.

Once you set up the RIS areas and register clients in those areas, the clients can access the areas they need. Refer to Chapter 6 for a discussion of client registration.

4.3    Installing Software into an Existing RIS Area

Follow these steps to install software subsets into an existing RIS environment. The subsets must be compatible with the setld utility. This means that the kit was produced in accordance with the instructions in the Guide to Preparing Product Kits.

  1. Log in as root or use the su command to gain superuser privileges.

  2. Enter /usr/sbin/ris to start the ris utility. You see the RIS Utility Main Menu: 

    *** RIS Utility Main Menu ***
 
Choices without key letters are not available.
 
a) ADD a client
d) DELETE software products
i) INSTALL software products
 ) LIST registered clients
 ) MODIFY a client
 ) REMOVE a client
s) SHOW software products in remote installation environments
x) EXIT
 
Enter your choice:

  3. Enter i to select INSTALL software products. You see the RIS Software Installation Menu: 

    RIS Software Installation Menu:
 
    1)  Install software into a new area
    2)  Add software into an existing area
    3)  Return to previous menu
 
Enter your choice:

  4. Enter 2 to select Add software into an existing area. You see a list of the existing RIS areas, similar to the following example: 

    You have chosen to add a product to an existing environment.
 
Select the remote installation environment:
 
1) /usr/var/adm/ris/ris0.alpha
      'POLYCENTER Advanced File System'
      'DECsafe Available Server Environment (ASE)'
      'System V Environment'
 
2) /usr/var/adm/ris/ris1.alpha
      'Sort Runtime Library'
      'Free Software Foundation GNU Source (Rev nnn)'
      'DEC Ada Support Library'
 
Enter your choice or press RETURN to quit:

  5. Enter a number to select the corresponding RIS area.

  6. Continue to mount distribution media and choose subsets as described in Section 4.2 . Press the [Return] key if you want to return to the RIS Utility Main Menu.

Repeat this procedure for each additional group of subsets you want to install.

4.4    Including Hardware Product Kits into a RIS Area

In addition to the base operating system, you may need to install hardware product kits onto client systems from the RIS server. For example, a hardware product kit can be a third-party driver for a device not supported in the base operating system. The ris utility lets you include hardware product kits into a RIS area for subsequent installation onto a client system.

Setting up a RIS area to serve hardware product kits is subject to the following requirements:

Follow this procedure to install a hardware product kit into an existing RIS environment:

  1. Log in as root or use the su command to gain superuser privileges.

  2. Start the ris utility: 

    # /usr/sbin/ris

    You see the RIS Utility Main Menu: 

    *** RIS Utility Main Menu ***
 
Choices without key letters are not available.
 
a) ADD a client
d) DELETE software products
i) INSTALL software products
l) LIST registered clients
m) MODIFY a client
r) REMOVE a client
s) SHOW software products in remote installation environments
x) EXIT
 
Enter your choice:

  3. Enter i to select INSTALL software products. You see the RIS Software Installation Menu: 

    RIS Software Installation Menu:
 
    1)  Install software into a new area
    2)  Add software into an existing area
    3)  Return to previous menu
 
Enter your choice:

  4. Enter 2 to select Add software into an existing area. You see the following prompt, including all available RIS environments: 

    You have chosen to add a product to an existing environment.
Select the remote installation environment:
 
    1)  /var/adm/ris/ris1.alpha
          'Tru64 UNIX V5.0A Operating System (Rev nnn )'
 
Enter your choice or press RETURN to quit:

  5. Enter 1 (in this example) to specify the RIS environment where you will add the hardware product kit. You see the following prompt: 

    Enter the device special file name or the path of the directory where
the software is located (for example, /mnt/ALPHA/BASE):

  6. Enter the location of the hardware product kit you are adding, for example: /HWKIT/MYVGA. You see the following prompt: 

    The kit you have specified has been identified as a kernel kit.
This type of kit may contain software which is needed during the booting of
the kernel for the installation due to required hardware support. If you need
to add this kit to the base, select the option to integrate the kit. You may
otherwise choose to add this kit to the RIS area as a separate product.
 
1) Integrate with Base product and include product
2) Include as separate product
3) Return to Main Menu
 
Enter your choice:  [1]:

  7. Select 1 to integrate the software with the base product. You see the following prompt: 

    Please select one of the following products to add the kit to.
 
     1   'Tru64 UNIX V5.0A Operating System (Rev nnn)'
 
Enter your selection or <return> to quit:

  8. Select 1 (in this example) to select the base product where you will integrate the hardware product kit.

    You see the following prompt: 

    Choose one of the following options:
 
    1)  Extract software from /HWKIT/MYVGA/kit
    2)  Create symbolic link to /HWKIT/MYVGA/kit
 
Enter your choice:

  9. Select 1 to extract the software. You see the following prompt: 

    The subsets listed below are optional:
 
There may be more optional subsets than can be presented on a single
screen. If this is the case, you can choose subsets screen by screen
or all at once on the last screen. All of the choices you make will
be collected for your confirmation before any subsets are extracted.
 
     1) MYVGA Test kit
 
Or you may choose one of the following options:
 
     2) ALL of the above
     3) CANCEL selections and redisplay menus
     4) EXIT without extracting any subsets
 
Enter your choices or press RETURN to redisplay menus.
Choices (for example, 1 2 4-6):

  10. Select 1 (in this example) to select the subset. You see the following prompt: 

    You are extracting the following optional subsets:
 
        MYVGA Test kit
Is this correct? (y/n):

  11. Select y to confirm your selection. You see a prompt similar to the following: 

    Checking file system space required to extract selected subsets:
 
File system space checked OK.
Extracting MYGASTATIC100...
Media extraction complete.
 
The following software now exists in RIS product area
/var/adm/ris/ris1.alpha:
   1    'Tru64 UNIX V5.0A Operating System (Rev nnn)' 
               with 'MYVGASTATIC software version 1' 
   2    'MYVGASTATIC software version 1'
 
 

The hardware product kit is now installed into the newly-created RIS product area.

4.5    Using a RIS Area Mounted on NFS

You can use an NFS mount point to install software from an extracted RIS area on another system or from an operating system distribution CD-ROM mounted on another system. You can use this method to create an extracted RIS area with the base operating system subsets.

Caution

The information in this section can be used only if you are installing software on a client after you install the operating system software.

For example, if a system named chicago has a CD-ROM containing the operating system subsets mounted on /mnt and listed in its /etc/exports file, the system administrator on newyork can use mount that CD-ROM with a command similar to the following example: 

NYroot# mount chicago:/mnt/ALPHA/BASE /mnt

After chicago is mounted, the newyork system administrator can use the ris utility to install software from the CD-ROM as if it were local to the newyork system.

If another system exports an extracted RIS area with the subsets you need on a local system, you can create an extracted RIS area from the remote RIS area. For example, if a system named seattle has the operating system subsets in its ris0.alpha product environment, the system administrator on newyork can NFS mount that product environment with the following command: 

NYroot# mount seattle:/var/adm/ris/ris0.alpha  /mnt

After the remote product environment is mounted, the system administrator for newyork can use the ris utility to install software from it as if it were local to newyork.

4.6    Modifying the /etc/exports File

RIS client installations of the base operating system prior to this version rely on files located in the server's /var/adm/ris/risN.arch/kit directories. The RIS server must export these directories.

For this version of the operating system base product, the /var/adm/ris/risN.arch/product_1 product directory that is exported contains the distribution image. In this directory path, N is the number of the RIS area and arch is the architecture of the client systems that the area serves.

When you create the risN.arch RIS area, the ris utility supplies you with a name based on the choices you make when you create the RIS area.

The server's /etc/exports file must include an entry for each RIS area that it is exporting. When you create a RIS area, the ris utility automatically edits the /etc/exports file and adds the correct entry for that area. However, if you modify the path to a RIS area, you must also modify the corresponding line in the /etc/exports file.