JumpStart Technology 
by John S. Howard and Alex Noordergraff
September, 2001
259 pages
As datacenters grow in size, one of the most interesting and challenging problems facing datacenter personnel is how to retain consistency and control over systems while meeting the requirements of rapidly installing and deploying those systems. Over the past several years, software in general and operating systems in particular have increased in complexity. The installation and configuration of these complex software products is often labor intensive and correspondingly error prone.
JumpStart technology helps the system administrator manage complexity by fully automating the Solaris OE and system software installation, facilitating the correctness and standardization of systems and thereby enabling rapid deployment of hundred or thousands of systems. Further, since JumpStart technology minimizes the opportunity for human error during system installation, system availability may also be enhanced. By using JumpStart technology with the Solaris Security Toolkit, a system can be secured during an automated Solaris OE installation. This helps ensure that system security is standardized and addressed from the moment of system installation, rather than being a last-minute task haphazardly done before a system is placed into production.
This book also examines the lesser-known, poorly understood, and previously undocumented aspects of JumpStart technology. As will be seen, these aspects of the JumpStart framework make JumpStart technology ideally suited for use as a platform for system recovery. It is a common misconception that JumpStart technology is only useful in installing a large number of systems. This book demonstrates that JumpStart technology can be just as useful in installing, deploying, and maintaining a small number of systems as it is in deploying hundreds or thousands of systems.
The following chapters will be covered in JumpStart Technology:
- Chapter 1, Introduction
- Chapter 2, JumpStart Overview
- Chapter 3, JumpStart Customizations
- Chapter 4, Postinstallation Procedures
- Chapter 5, Automating Installations
- Chapter 6, JumpStart Internals
- Chapter 7, JumpStart Security
- Chapter 8, WebStart Flash
- Chapter 9, Customizing JumpStart Framework for Installation and Recovery
- Chapter 10, Solaris Security Toolkit
- Chapter 11, System Cloning
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