Solaris 11 - Image Packaging System (IPS)

Image packaging system which is main feature in Oracle Solaris 11, Its a network based package management (Repositories) and it provides complete software administration such as installation, upgrade and removal of Packages in easiest way. 

• Secure system upgrades with ZFS boot environments.
• Automatic dependency checking and downloads efficiently.
• Spacious package publishing methods.
• No Patches concept here, as all system updates through one mechanism (IPS)
• Configure and updating method of IPS 

While configuring the IPS we have to take the consideration whether we required local IPS or sharing the IPS services to the Network clients. Let we start preparing with our high level plan and start configure the Local IPS.

High Level Plan

• Create the ZFS file system to store the repository
• Download the required repo from Oracle portal
• Configuring the repository service
• Start and Setting the Local repository service
• Test the IPS service from local server.

Creating ZFS filesystem to store the repository

root@unixrocks11:/# zfs create repo_pool/unixrepo
root@unixrocks11:/# zfs set mountpoint=/unixrepo repo_pool/unixrepo
root@unixrocks11:/#
root@unixrocks11:/# zfs list |grep -i repo
repo_pool             31K  8.62G    31K  /repo_pool
repo_pool/unixrepo    31K  8.62G    31K  /unixrepo
root@unixrocks11:/#

Download the required repositores from Oracle Portal from below link
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris11/downloads/index.html
Then you might have two files as mentioned below
sol-11_1-repo-full.iso-a
sol-11_1-repo-full.iso-b
Concatenating the ISO

sol-11_1-repo-full.iso-a
sol-11_1-repo-full.iso-b
root@unixrocks11:~#
root@unixrocks11:~# cat sol-11_1-repo-full.iso-a sol-11_1-repo-full.iso-b > sol-11-repo-full.iso
root@unixrocks11:~# ls /unixrepo
sol-11-repo-full.iso

Mount the repository .iso image to make available to the local server

root@unixrocks11:~# lofiadm -a /unixrepo/sol-11-repo-full.iso
/dev/lofi/1
root@unixrocks11:~# mount -F hsfs /dev/lofi/1 /mnt/repo
root@unixrocks11:~# 
root@unixrocks11:~# rsync -aP /mnt/repo /unixrepo
root@unixrocks11:~# 

Depending on the speed of your system, rsync may take time to complete.

-a, --archive  archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)

-P                 same as --partial --progress

Currently IPS configuration service is disabled status and pkg/inst_root path is set to wrong repository locations.

root@unixrocks11:/# svcs application/pkg/server
STATE          STIME    FMRI
disabled        0:30:06 svc:/application/pkg/server:default
root@unixrocks11:/#
root@unixrocks11:/# svcprop -p pkg/inst_root application/pkg/server
/var/pkgrepo
root@unixrocks11:/#

Let we change to the correct repository path and enable read only mode and enable the IPS services

root@unixrocks11:/# svccfg -s application/pkg/server setprop pkg/inst_root=/unixrepo
root@unixrocks11:/# svccfg -s application/pkg/server setprop pkg/readonly=true
root@unixrocks11:/# svcprop -p pkg/inst_root application/pkg/server
/unixrepo
root@unixrocks11:/#
root@unixrocks11:/# svcadm enable application/pkg/server
root@unixrocks11:/# svcs /application/pkg/server
STATE          STIME    FMRI
online          0:45:52 svc:/application/pkg/server:default
root@unixrocks11:/#

Refreshing the Package Repository as we are creating new package repository, so that pkg search will work correctly. This may take sevaral minutes.

root@unixrocks11:/# pkgrepo refresh -s /unixrepo
Initiating repository refresh.
root@unixrocks11:/#

from the below output shows that Current package Publisher is set as default URI is http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/

root@unixrocks11:/# pkg publisher
PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
solaris                     origin   online F http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/
root@unixrocks11:/#

Removing default entries and set the new URL with publisher name as Solaris

root@unixrocks11:/# pkg set-publisher -G '*' -g http://192.168.10.31 solaris
root@unixrocks11:/# pkg publisher
PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
solaris                     origin   online F http://192.168.10.31/
root@unixrocks11:/#

We can test our Local IPS services are set up correctly by searching the package.

root@unixrocks11:~# pkg search entire
INDEX      ACTION     VALUE           PACKAGE
pkg.fmri    set    solaris/entire   pkg:/entire@0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.2
root@unixrocks11:~#
root@unixrocks11:~#

COOL...!!! We have successfully configured the Local IPS servers. Please refer my next post which contains the procedure to configure network client access to the local IPS. Thanks for reading this post. Please leave your valuable comments and queries !!!!!