1) Local network IPS repository server for other clients
2) ZFS-based iSCSI target for other Solaris zones
3) ZFS-based NFS for shared storage in Solaris zones
4) LDAP services
5) DNS services
6) and more...
This article will address the topic of setting up a shared repository.
Pre-requisite:
- Solaris 11 Express VM. Download text installer here. I choose VMware workstation, you can obtain the entire VirtualBox image of Solaris 11 Express from Oracle website.
- Solaris 11 Express full repository CD (sol-11-exp-201011-repo-full.iso). Download from Oracle website.
Concept
A repository is a location where clients publish and retrieve IPS packages. Clients that publish IPS packages are called publisher. A repository contains packages published by a single publisher. A repository is described by a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) such as http URL or a file location. The publisher name of all packages in the Solaris 11 Express full repository CD is 'solaris'. If you create software and publish the packages, you give yourself a publisher name, such as 'mycompany'.
A repository can be either an 'origin' or a 'mirror'.
An IPS package is a collection of software artefacts in a defined format. A package is represented by a Fault Management Resource Identifier (FMRI).
For detailed description of IPS concept, refer to Oracle documentation.
Setting up the IPS repository
In summary, the following components are required in order to setup a network based IPS repository.
- IPS Contents. We will copy all the packages from the Oracle repository CD into a local file system. You can simply create a local directory under the default ZFS pool (rpool) of your Solaris 11 Express installation. Alternatively, you can create a new ZFS pool to host the files.
In this exercise, I used the existing root file system rpool and make a directory under the root mountpoint.
root@sol11util:/rpool# cd / root@sol11util:/# mkdir -p ips/repo root@sol11util:/#Copy all contents under the repo folder in the CD into the /ips/repo
root@sol11util:/# rsync -aP source dest
This is going to take a while as every files under the repo is copied.
After completion, check that the directory is there. You should see under the ips/repo the following files
root@sol11util:/ips/repo# ls -la total 7 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4 2010-11-11 08:40 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 3 2011-10-23 08:33 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 250 2010-11-11 08:40 pkg5.repository drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 3 2010-11-11 08:39 publisher
- IPS server. We have the content in /ips/repo now. We need to setup a server to serve the contents of this folder to the clients on the LAN. Solaris 11 Express allows you to manage services with simple commands.
svcs - This command is used to list currently running services managed by the smf (Service Management Facility). To find out if an instance of pkg package server already running, issue the following command
root@sol11util:/tank/repo# svcs \*pkg\*
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled 6:48:32 svc:/application/pkg/server:default
disabled 6:48:32 svc:/application/pkg/dynamic-mirror:default
online 6:48:43 svc:/system/pkgserv:default
root@sol11util:/tank/repo#
The /application/pkg/server is not enabled by default in a fresh Solaris 11 installation. This is the service that will serve the client and provide access to the packages published by a publisher.Let's examine this service by another command called 'svccfg'. The following command line lists all the properties of the application/pkg/server service to the console.
root@sol11util:/tank/repo# svccfg -v -s application/pkg/server listprop pkg application pkg/cfg_file astring pkg/content_root astring usr/share/lib/pkg pkg/debug astring pkg/file_root astring pkg/inst_root astring /var/pkg/repo pkg/log_access astring none pkg/log_errors astring stderr pkg/mirror boolean false pkg/pkg_root astring / pkg/port count 80 pkg/proxy_base astring pkg/readonly boolean true pkg/socket_timeout count 60 pkg/sort_file_max_size astring pkg/ssl_cert_file astring pkg/ssl_dialog astring smf pkg/ssl_key_file astring pkg/threads count 60 pkg/writable_root astring pkg_bui application pkg_bui/feed_description ustring pkg_bui/feed_icon ustring web/_themes/pkg-block-icon.png pkg_bui/feed_logo ustring web/_themes/pkg-block-logo.png pkg_bui/feed_name ustring "package repository feed" pkg_bui/feed_window count 24 pkg_secure application pkg_secure/read_authorization astring solaris.smf.read.pkg-server pkg_secure/ssl_key_passphrase astring fs dependency fs/entities fmri svc:/system/filesystem/local fs/grouping astring require_all fs/restart_on astring none fs/type astring service autofs dependency autofs/entities fmri svc:/system/filesystem/autofs autofs/grouping astring optional_all autofs/restart_on astring none autofs/type astring servicentp dependencyntp/entities fmri svc:/network/ntpntp/grouping astring optional_allntp/restart_on astring nonentp/type astring servicenetwork dependencynetwork/entities fmri svc:/milestone/networknetwork/grouping astring require_allnetwork/restart_on astring nonenetwork/type astring servicemanifestfiles frameworkmanifestfiles/var_svc_manifest_application_pkg-server_xml astring /var/svc/manifest/application/pkg-server.xmlstartd frameworkstartd/duration astring childgeneral frameworkgeneral/entity_stability astring Unstablestart methodstart/exec astring "%{pkg/pkg_root}/lib/svc/method/svc-pkg-depot %m"start/timeout_seconds count 0start/type astring methodstop methodstop/exec astring "%{pkg/pkg_root}/lib/svc/method/svc-pkg-depot %m %{restarter/contract}"stop/timeout_seconds count 30stop/type astring methodtm_common_name templatetm_common_name/C ustring "image packaging repository"
As you can see, this is a huge list of service properties. Fortunately, we are only interested in 2 properties, namely the pkg/inst_root and pkg/port. The default values of these properties are /var/pkg/repo and 80 respectively.
We will update the pkg/inst_root to point to /ips/repo (the local copy of the repo folder in the Solaris package CD), and the port number to an unused port 9999.
root@sol11util:/tank/repo# svccfg -v -s application/pkg/server setprop pkg/inst_root=/ips/repo
root@sol11util:/tank/repo# svccfg -v -s application/pkg/server setprop pkg/port=9999
Make sure the props are set.
root@sol11util:~# svccfg -s /application/pkg/server listprop | grep '\(port\)\|\(inst_root\)'
pkg/inst_root astring /ips/repo/
pkg/port count 9999
So far so good. We need to start the service.
root@sol11util:~# svcadm enable /application/pkg/server
root@sol11util:~# svcs /application/pkg/server STATE STIME FMRI online 16:24:28 svc:/application/pkg/server:default
The service is up, good. By now we should be able to use web browser to explore the repository from the network.
To start using this repository, we will need to set the client up to point to this repository. For now, we will set up the host to use the repository it is hosting.
Before doing that, let's see what repository is currently available to the host.
Rebuild the repository index
Try installing firefox from this default (preferred) repository.
root@sol11util:/usr# pkg install firefox Packages to install: 15 Create boot environment: No Services to restart: 3 DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB) Completed 15/15 5628/5628 34.2/34.2 PHASE ACTIONS Install Phase 6514/6514 PHASE ITEMS Package State Update Phase 15/15 Image State Update Phase 2/2
That is it.
Cheers
To start using this repository, we will need to set the client up to point to this repository. For now, we will set up the host to use the repository it is hosting.
Before doing that, let's see what repository is currently available to the host.
root@sol11util:/usr# pkg publisher PUBLISHER TYPE STATUS URI solaris (preferred) origin online http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/
Ok, we currently have an internet based Oracle repository. We are going to replace that with our local (LAN based) one.
root@sol11util:/usr# pkg set-publisher -g http://192.168.12.135:9999 -G http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/ solaris
results in
root@sol11util:/usr# pkg publisher PUBLISHER TYPE STATUS URI solaris (preferred) origin online http://192.168.12.135:9999/ root@sol11util:/usr#
Rebuild the repository index
root@sol11util:~# pkg rebuild-index
Try installing firefox from this default (preferred) repository.
root@sol11util:/usr# pkg install firefox Packages to install: 15 Create boot environment: No Services to restart: 3 DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB) Completed 15/15 5628/5628 34.2/34.2 PHASE ACTIONS Install Phase 6514/6514 PHASE ITEMS Package State Update Phase 15/15 Image State Update Phase 2/2
Cheers
