Installing Veritas volume manager

At the time of this writing, Solaris 8 is the most commonly deployed version of Solaris, so we'll use that as the basis for this example. The steps are basically identical for the other releases.

After having completed the installation of the Solaris 8 operating system, the root filesystem should appear similar to the following:

# df -k
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0    6607349  826881 5714395    13%    /
/proc                      0       0       0     0%    /proc
fd                         0       0       0     0%    /dev/fd
mnttab                     0       0       0     0%    /etc/mnttab
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4    1016863    8106  947746     1%    /var
swap                 1443064       8 1443056     1%    /var/run
swap                 1443080      24 1443056     1%    /tmp

Apply any operating system patches required by either Veritas volume manager and/or Veritas filesystem. At the time of this writing, this includes the latest versions of following patches to Solaris 8: SUNWsan package, 109529-06, 111413-06, 108827-19, 108528-14, 110722-01. However, please check the Veritas volume manager 3.5 installation guide for the authoritative list. Finally, you should also refer to Veritas volume manager 3.5 hardware notes for any specific requirements for your storage hardware.
Insert the Veritas volume manager software cdrom into the cdrom drive. If volume management is enabled, it will automatically mount to /cdrom/volume_manager3.5 (depending on the precise release iteration, the exact path may differ in your case):
Change to the directory containing the Veritas Volume Manager packages:
# cd /cdrom/volume_manager3.5/pkgs

Add the required packages. Note that the order specified is siginificant in that the VRTSvlic package must be first, the VRTSvxvm package must be second, and then any remaining packages:

# pkgadd -d . VRTSvlic VRTSvxvm VRTSvmdoc VRTSvmman VRTSob VRTSobgui \
          VRTSvmpro VRTSfspro VRTSvxfs VRTSfsdoc


Processing package instance <VRTSvlic> from </tmp/veritas/volume_manager/pkgs>

VERITAS License Utilities
(sparc) 3.00.007d
VERITAS Software Corp

VERITAS License Utilities 3.00.007d
Using </> as the package base directory.
## Processing package information.
## Processing system information.
   3 package pathnames are already properly installed.
## Verifying disk space requirements.
## Checking for conflicts with packages already installed.
## Checking for setuid/setgid programs.

. . .package installation proceeds, accepting input from administrator...


*** IMPORTANT NOTICE ***
        This machine must now be rebooted in order to ensure
        sane operation.  Execute
               shutdown -y -i6 -g0
        and wait for the "Console Login:" prompt.
# shutdown -y -i6 -g0

Once the system reboots, apply any Veritas volume manager patches. At the time of this writing, there are no patches for neither volume manager or filesystem. However, future patches (and there will be patches ;-) can be obtained from http://seer.support.veritas.com. Note that the patch installation instructions may require that a reboot be performed after the patch is installed
Proceed to the process of mirroring the operating system.