Configuring a secondary IPS local repository

So far, we've configured only one local repository, but we could have two or more local repositories for distinguished goals, and this would be very useful for a company with independent production and training environments. Let's have a look at the example in the following section.

Getting ready

To follow this recipe, it's necessary that we have a machine (physical or virtual) running Oracle Solaris 11; we log in to the system as the root user and open a terminal. Additionally, our Solaris 11 system needs to have access to the Internet. Some extra free space on the disk will be required, as well as an Internet browser.

How to do it…

To start with, we create a ZFS filesystem:

root@solaris11:~# zfs create repo_pool/training_repo
root@solaris11:~# zfs list
NAME                              USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
repo_pool                        7.24G  8.39G    35K  /repo_pool
repo_pool/repoimage              7.24G  8.39G  7.24G  /repo_pool/repoimage
repo_pool/training_repo            31K  8.39G    31K  /repo_pool/training_repo
rpool                            30.5G  47.8G  4.91M  /rpool
rpool/ROOT                       27.4G  47.8G    31K  legacy
rpool/ROOT/solaris               16.1G  47.8G  19.7G  /
rpool/ROOT/solaris-backup-a      11.2G  47.8G  10.6G  /
rpool/ROOT/solaris-backup-a/var   385M  47.8G   202M  /var
rpool/ROOT/solaris/var           79.9M  47.8G   213M  /var
rpool/VARSHARE                   54.5K  47.8G  54.5K  /var/share
rpool/dump                       2.06G  47.8G  2.00G  -
rpool/export                      805K  47.8G    32K  /export
rpool/export/home                 773K  47.8G    32K  /export/home
rpool/export/home/ale             741K  47.8G   741K  /export/home/ale
rpool/swap                       1.03G  47.8G  1.00G  -

Once the ZFS filesystem is created, the following step is required to create a repository (an empty one—only the skeleton). We set a publisher and verify that everything went well using the following commands:

root@solaris11:~# pkgrepo create /repo_pool/training_repo
root@solaris11:~# pkgrepo info -s /repo_pool/training_repo
PUBLISHER  PACKAGES  STATUS           UPDATED

root@solaris11:~# pkgrepo set -s /repo_pool/training_repo publisher/prefix=alexandreborges.org
root@solaris11:~# pkgrepo info -s /repo_pool/training_repo
PUBLISHER            PACKAGES  STATUS     UPDATED
alexandreborges.org     0      online     2013-10-16T20:18:22.803927Z

Next, we add a new instance of the SMF pkg/server named training and two property groups (using the addpg parameter) with some predefined properties (more about services can be learned from http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26502_01/html/E29003/docinfo.html#scrolltoc and their respective command manual pages). In the end, we enable the training instance:

root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server add training
root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server:training addpg pkg application
root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server:training addpg general framework
root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server:training setprop general/complete=astring:\”\”
root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server:training setprop general/enabled=boolean: true

If you recall, we used the port 9999 in the first repository we configured. For this second repository, we configure the port 8888, after which the repository path will be set:

root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server:training setprop pkg/port=8888
root@solaris11:~# svccfg -s pkg/server:training setprop pkg/inst_root=/repo_pool/training_repo

As we did in the first repository, we need to update the index of the second repository and start the new repository instance:

root@solaris11:~# svcadm refresh application/pkg/server:training
root@solaris11:~# svcadm restart application/pkg/server:training
root@solaris11:~# svcs -a | grep training
online         18:09:51 svc:/application/pkg/server:training

We can access the repository using a browser at http://solaris11.example.com:8888:

An overview of the recipe

In this recipe, we learned how to create a second repository, which can be dedicated to accomplishing a different goal from the first repository rather than the one from the previous recipe. The main command from this recipe is pkgrepo, which creates a new local repository to store packages. After that, we configure the SMF framework to offer this new repository automatically and on a planned TCP port.