3    Preparing the RIS Server

This chapter provides the information you need to prepare a RIS server. Topics include:

3.1    Reviewing RIS Server/Client Version Compatibility

This section only applies if you are installing a new version of the operating system into a RIS environment on a server that is running a previous version of the operating system. If not, go to section Section 3.2.

Note

If you plan to serve third-party software products from this RIS area, where a new driver is needed to boot the client, the RIS server must be running Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0F. If this is the case, go to section Section 3.2.

To install the operating system into a RIS environment on a RIS server running a previous version of the operating system, you must do the following on the server as superuser:

  1. If your distribution media is CD-ROM, enter a mount command similar to the following:

    
    # mount -rd /dev/rz4c /mnt
    

    This example uses a CD-ROM drive that is unit 4 and specifies /mnt as the mount point; if your drive is a different unit, substitute the device special file name for that unit.

    If you are uncertain of your CD-ROM's unit number, use the file command as follows:

    # file /dev/rrz*c
    /dev/rrz1c: char special (8/1026)  SCSI #0 RZ25  disk#  8 (SCSI ID # 1)
    /dev/rrz2c: char special (8/2050)  SCSI #0 RZ25  disk# 16 (SCSI ID # 2)
    /dev/rrz3c: char special (8/3074)  SCSI #0 RZ25  disk# 24 (SCSI ID # 3)
    /dev/rrz4c: char special (8/4098)  SCSI #0 RRD43 disk# 32 (SCSI ID # 4)
    

    The CD-ROM device corresponds to the RRD device, in this example RRD43.

  2. To update the necessary RIS utilities on the server, assuming the distribution media is mounted at /mnt, enter the following:

    # /mnt/isl/utilupdate -r -m /mnt
    

This command copies any files in /usr/sbin that would be overwritten to files with a *.pre-V4.0F suffix. For example: /usr/sbin/setld is copied to /usr/sbin/setld.pre-V4.0F.

When the utilupdate script completes, this RIS server can serve a RIS client. Appendix C describes the utilupdate utility.

When you are installing the operating system, if the utility finds existing *.pre-V files on your system, the existing utilities are updated with no changes to the saved *.pre-V files. If the server is already running the new or updated version of the operating system, a confirmation message is displayed and no copies are made.

Please note the following system compatibility restrictions:

Figure 3-1 shows these relationships:

Figure 3-1:  System Compatibility

  1. ULTRIX RIS clients cannot be booted by Tru64 UNIX RIS servers. This means that a Tru64 UNIX server cannot serve the ULTRIX base operating system over the network. However, after the ULTRIX operating system is up and running on the client, the Tru64 UNIX server can serve an ULTRIX client additional product subsets. The ULTRIX client loads additional product subsets by using the setld utility.

  2. A RIS client can be booted by a RIS server by using the bootp protocol. This means that a server can serve both the base operating system as well as additional product subsets to the client over the network. The client loads additional product subsets by using the setld utility.

3.2    Planning Disk Space for RIS

Before beginning an installation, you must calculate the amount of disk storage required for the software subsets in the RIS areas on the server. If space on the server's system disk is an issue and your server's distribution media is a CD-ROM, you might want to create symbolic links from the RIS server area to the software on the CD-ROM. Section 4.1 briefly describes the advantages and disadvantages of establishing symbolic links instead of extracting the software subsets into the RIS server area.

See Chapter 1 for a description of the RIS area's contents. A given server can have multiple RIS areas, in which some of the subsets can be duplicated. To organize your RIS server's disk space, perform the following steps:

  1. Determine how many RIS environments you want.

  2. Choose the software subsets you want to install, organizing them by the environments where they are to be installed.

  3. Use the subset size information in the Installation Guide to ensure that you have adequate disk space.

3.3    Installing the Operating System on the RIS Server

The Installation Guide describes how to install the operating system on the server. It lists all of the standard supported software subsets with subset names, sizes, and descriptions of their contents. This information will help you organize the process before you perform the installation.

Because RIS areas are created in /var/adm/ris, you may want to specify a separate /var file system during the installation to get extra disk space. To specify a separate file system for /var, refer to the instructions in the Installation Guide.

A RIS server must have the Remote Installation Service and Additional Networking Services subsets installed. These subsets contain the tftp networking utility and the joind bootstrap daemon.

Enter the following command to see if these subsets are installed:

# /usr/sbin/setld -i | egrep "RIS|INET"

Information similar to the following should be displayed:

OSFCLINET440    installed       Basic Networking Services
OSFINET440      installed       Additional Networking Services
OSFRIS440       installed       Remote Installation Service

The Basic Networking Services subset is mandatory and is installed automatically. If the Additional Networking Services and Remote Installation Service subsets are not installed, you must install them by using the setld utility.

See the Installation Guide for more information about using the setld utility to install subsets.

3.4    Setting Up a Local Area Network

You must connect the RIS server and all of the client processors to a LAN using either Ethernet, FDDI, or Token Ring. The server and clients all must be on the same network or subnetwork unless the router connecting the networks or subnetworks can forward bootp requests.

For instructions on setting up a local area network, refer to the Network Administration guide.

3.5    Loading and Registering the Server Extensions License

The Tru64 UNIX Server Extensions license (OSF-SVR or UNIX-SERVER) provides the right to use the RIS software on Tru64 UNIX systems. A product authorization key (PAK) accompanies the license. You must register the PAK information for your system before it can be configured as a RIS server. Register the PAK information by using the License Manager application. Refer to dxlicense(8) for additional information. See the Software License Management guide and the License Manager online help for more information about registering license PAKs.

After you have registered the PAK information, you can complete the server setup tasks described in Chapter 4.

3.6    Preparing RIS for C2 Security

If your RIS server will have C2 security enabled, the ris user file must be changed to ensure that the ris password does not expire and deny client access.

Perform the following steps on the RIS server as superuser to modify the ris user file if you are going to use RIS with C2 security enabled:

  1. Edit the file /tcb/files/auth/r/ris. Each field is delimited by a colon ( : ).

  2. Set the current password field u_pwd to an asterisk ( * ).

  3. Set the u_succhg value to any non-zero value. This value is a time_t type printed with %ld.

  4. Set the u_life and u_exp fields to zero.

The following is an example of a modified /tcb/files/auth/r/ris user file:

ris:u_name=ris:u_id#11:u_oldcrypt#0:u_pwd=*:u_exp#0:u_life#0:
u_succhg#79598399:u_suclog#79598399:u_lock@:chkent:

After you make these changes, the RIS password should not expire and cause a denial of service to clients.