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Operating System install overview

The operating system boot and operation system installation process for a Unix system are conceptually the same for each vendor.

  1. Find the media to install from, usually a CD-ROM.
  2. Investigate the Unix system hardware using the boot monitor, to determine the hard drive's and CD-ROM drive's addresses. Most Unix systems use a SCSI bus to access storage devices.
  3. Install SCSI devices if necessary.
  4. Insert the CD-ROM in the drive.
  5. Boot the Unix system from the CD-ROM device. Using the boot monitor to specify the CD-ROM drive as the target.
  6. Each vendor provides an automated way of installing their operating system, though, the tasks that are performed are very similar.
    1. Set up the hard drive partitioning and create one or multiple filesystems to hold the system files.
    2. Choose the install packages that you want to install. Besides installing the base operating system, you can select many optional software packages to load.
    3. Select and set the hostname and IP address.
    4. Specify the default route, or gateway, for the network.
    5. Set the local time zone.
  7. Reboot the system from the hard disk drive.
  8. Edit system configuration files to customize the operation of the machine.

Operating System specific boot and install

Terms used: SCSI, target, install packages, partitioning, filesystems.


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