Many thanks to all who replied to my eariler posting (credits below).
Upgrading from SunOS 4.1 to Solaris 1.1:
The key bit I'd missed in the release manual is the preserve (y/n) column
on the disk form - obvious if you know beforehand !
You are directed NOT to preserve the / and /usr partitions, so the simple
answer is Yes, a full install wipes out these partitions with a newfs.
This should give some performance benefit (as well as making things tidy)
through the file system tuning introduced with SunOS 4.1.1.
Other partitions (eg /home) can be preserved, and can be tuned at some
other time.
The sunupgrade option is not applicable in my case - this was brought
in after SunOS 4.1.1.
Useful advice included:
put as much as possible of purely local stuff in a separate partition (eg
/usr/local or /local) which can be preserved when upgrading.
if there's disk space available, copy local stuff to a separate disk or
partition so it can be accessed quickly when rebuilding - this will save
a great deal of time over retrieving from tape.
and of course, do a double full level 0 dump of everything after fsck'ing
the disks before proceeding.
Many thanks to:
"Dan A. Zambon" <dzambon@mil.af.afit>
Tim Hoogasian <hoogs@com.alc>
Tim Evans <tkevans@com.duPont.es.eplrx7>
Chuck Yerkes <cyerkes@com.jpmorgan>
Martin Lewald <mol@COM.3Com.NSD>
Steve Hanson <hanson@gov.fnal.pog>
Susan Thielen <thielen@ca.uwo.rri.irus>
Tasuki Hirata <sukes@edu.umd.eng>
"Liam R. E. Quin" <lee@com.sq.sqlee>
Mico Loretan <mico@edu.wisc.econ.rainbow>
bsmart@com.verdix
John D Schneider <jdschn@com.monsanto.nicsn1>
Danielle Sanine <danielle@edu.caltech.systems>
Kennedy Lemke <lemke@COM.MITL>
"Roy S. Hallquist, Jr." <rhallqui@edu.uark.rigel>
B.SHEN@au.edu.qut
Jeff Hart <jhart%infotec@COM.Sun.West.sunkist>
Eckhard Rueggeberg <eckhard@de.dlr.go.ts>
Claus Assmann <ca@de.dbp.uni-kiel.informatik.mine>
Steve Elliott <se@uk.ac.lancs.comp>
mail_for_admin <admin@uk.ac.reading.swssner1>
Mr T Crummey <tom@uk.ac.bangor.sees>
Dunstan_Vavasour <dunstan@uk.co.gec-epl>
Stuart Myles <stuart@com.mop.phil>
"J. Matt Landrum" <mdl@com.cypress>
"Gerald J. Hopkins" <jerry@org.ida.ccr-p>
Original posting:
I'm about to upgrade a standalone SPARCstation 1+ from SunOS 4.1 to
Solaris 1.1 (SunOS 4.1.3 + OpenWin 3). I've not had to do a complete OS
upgrade until now, and before I proceed, I'd like the answer to what
should be a simple question. Unfortunately I can't find the answer in the
release manuals.
The question is: does a full install over an existing system wipe out
everything in / and /usr, or just replace the required files ? E.g.
will everything under /usr/local and /usr/src disappear because these
directories are remade, or will the existing stuff be left as is ?
Obviously I'll ensure I have complete backups beforehand, but I'd like
to know the answer before proceeding, so I can get a better idea of time
and disk space requirements.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:07:35 CDT