Adding big applications into a repository

Some professionals might wonder whether it is possible to insert complex applications into repositories. Sure! For example, let's take the Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server High Availability Solutions (both are available in version 6.01 at the time of this writing).

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, the system must have access to the Internet, some extra space on the disk, and packages of Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server High Availability Solutions, which can be downloaded from http://www.symantec.com/products-solutions/trialware/?pcid=recently_released#. The tarball is named VRTS_SF_HA_Solutions_6.0.1_Solaris_x64.tar.gz, and it is composed by Veritas Storage Foundation 6.0.1 and Veritas Cluster Server 6.0.1. You can install them in keyless mode for 60 days to try it out.

How to do it…

After downloading the tarball into the home directory (/root), we extract it:

root@solaris11:~# mkdir SFHA601
root@solaris11:~# mv VRTS_SF_HA_Solutions_6.0.1_Solaris_x64.tar.gz SFHA601
root@solaris11:~# cd SFHA601/
root@solaris11:~/SFHA601# ls
VRTS_SF_HA_Solutions_6.0.1_Solaris_x64.tar.gz
root@solaris11:~/SFHA601# tar zxvf VRTS_SF_HA_Solutions_6.0.1_Solaris_x64.tar.gz
root@solaris11:~/SFHA601# cd dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs
root@solaris11:~/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs# ls
info          VRTSpkgs.p5p

In the next step, we find out which packages are included in the Storage Foundation HA application. Then, to list its contents, we execute the following:

root@solaris11:~# pkg list -g /root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p 
NAME (PUBLISHER)                       VERSION                    IFO
VRTSamf (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSaslapm (Symantec)                  6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTScavf (Symantec)                    6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTScps (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSdbac (Symantec)                    6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSdbed (Symantec)                    6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSfssdk (Symantec)                   6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSgab (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSglm (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSgms (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSllt (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSodm (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSperl (Symantec)                    5.14.2.5                   ---
VRTSsfcpi601 (Symantec)                6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSsfmh (Symantec)                    5.0.196.0                  ---
VRTSspt (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSsvs (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvbs (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvcs (Symantec)                     6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvcsag (Symantec)                   6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvcsea (Symantec)                   6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvlic (Symantec)                    3.2.61.4                   ---
VRTSvxfen (Symantec)                   6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvxfs (Symantec)                    6.0.100.0                  ---
VRTSvxvm (Symantec)                    6.0.100.0                  ---

We already know the content of the SFHA 6.0.1 software, and in the next step, we create a publisher named Symantec that has /root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p/ as the repository location:

root@solaris11:~/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs# pkg set-publisher -p /root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p Symantec
pkg set-publisher:
  Added publisher(s): Symantec

On listing the existing repositories, we're able to see the new repository:

root@solaris11:~# pkg publisher
PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
solaris                     origin   online F http://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/release/
solarisstudio               origin   online F https://pkg.oracle.com/solarisstudio/release/
training                    origin   online F http://localhost:8888/
Symantec                    origin   online F file:///root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p/

Moreover, it might come in handy to collect further information about this new repository named Symantec:

root@solaris11:~# pkgrepo get -p Symantec -s /root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p/
PUBLISHER   SECTION      PROPERTY           VALUE
Symantec    publisher    alias              
Symantec    publisher    prefix             Symantec
Symantec    repository   collection-type    core
Symantec    repository   description        ""
Symantec    repository   legal-uris         ()
Symantec    repository   mirrors            ()
Symantec    repository   name               ""
Symantec    repository   origins            ()
Symantec    repository   refresh-seconds    ""
Symantec    repository   registration-uri   ""
Symantec    repository   related-uris       ()

Brilliant! A new publisher named Symantec has come up, which points to /root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p/. After all this work, we can install Veritas Volume Manager and Veritas Filesystem Packages. However, this is not the usual method to install Symantec Storage Foundation HA because Symantec recommends using the installer or installsfha script, which is contained inside a DVD. By the way, the following command is necessary to initiate the installation:

root@solaris11:~# pkg install –accept VRTSvxvm VRTSvxfs

The --accept keyword needs to comply with the Symantec license.

Note that the repository (and its respective packages) we just made and configured as a publisher named Symantec is not available for network access, and unfortunately, it is not enough for our purposes. However, it's relatively easy to make all these Symantec packages available through our previous training publisher; let's do this with the following command:

root@solaris11:~# pkgrecv -s /root/SFHA601/dvd2-sol_x64/sol11_x64/pkgs/VRTSpkgs.p5p/ -d /repo_pool/training_repo/publisher/training/ '*'
Processing packages for publisher Symantec ...
Retrieving and evaluating 25 package(s)...
PROCESS                             ITEMS    GET (MB)      SEND (MB)
Completed                           25/25    353.4/353.4   1064/1064

root@solaris11:~# pkgrepo info -s /repo_pool/training_repo
PUBLISHER  PACKAGES  STATUS           UPDATED
training   27        online           2013-10-23T10:39:27.872059Z
root@solaris11:~# svcadm refresh pkg/server:training
root@solaris11:~# svcadm restart pkg/server:training

Again, we can check these uploaded packages by going to the URL, http://localhost:8888/en/catalog.shtml:

An overview of the recipe

This procedure is almost identical to the previous one, but we've tried to make things more practical. Moreover, Veritas Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server are well-known programs, the value of which has already been proved with the response received from the market. Another good takeaway from this example is that Symantec provides a little database package (VRTSpkgs.p5p) to help us create the appropriate repository that contains all the package references.