This is an installation report for installing a default Solaris 10 update 8 server. Note that the server is a virtual machine with a new VMXNET3 network card. This network card is not supported by the Solaris native filesystem so to the installation process is like there is no network card to configure. We’ll install and configure the network card afterwards after installing the VMware Tools. Also note that the VMware Paravirtual SCSI adapter is not supported on Solaris so keep the default SCSI controller.

Used Media: sol-10-u8-ga-x86-dvd.iso

Note: If you’re looking for a installation with the root filesystem being ZFS, take a look at Install Solaris 10 Update 9 – ZFS only.

Boot the VM using the media and select the Solaris Interactive (default) installation method:

Select your keyboard layout (note that you have to confirm your choice with <F2>:

Now the graphical part of the installation starts and you’ll have to enter the hostname:

Now keep the NFS settings on the default (Use the NFSv4 domain derived by the system):

Then set the time by defining the timezone, country and actual time:

Then enter the root password you want to use and select “No” to only enable SSH as the remote service:

Then confirm your settings so the software installer can start. Use these installer options, do not automatically reboot after software installation but do eject CD/DVDs after installation:

Specify the media from which you are installing (CD/DVD), accept the license agreement and select the default installation type:

Then you get to confirm your settings again and the installation start. Afterwards you’ll have to reboot:

After the reboot you get a login window:

Install VMware Tools according to the manual which comes down to:

• Click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest → Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and click OK.
• Then use these commands to install the tools:

  # cp /cdrom/vmwaretools/vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz /tmp
  # cd /tmp
  # gunzip vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz
  # tar xvf vmware-solaris-tools.tar
  # cd vmware-tools-distrib
  # ./vmware-install.pl

• Follow the prompts and reboot

Afterwards you can check the installation like this:

# /etc/init.d/vmware-tools status
vmware-guestd is running
vmware-memctld is running

As it turns out, VMware also has a really nice article on configuring the network on a VMXNET3 network adapter. I’ll walk you through the steps.
Find the name of the network card in the messages logfile:

# grep -i vmxnet /var/adm/messages

You’ll see messages containing the name of the network card which should be similar to “vmxnet3s0”. Now activate the network card:

# ifconfig vmxnet3s0 plumb

Now set the actual network configuration:

# echo "bmrtest02" > /etc/nodename
# echo "bmrtest02" > /etc/hostname.vmxnet3s0
# echo "10.10.10.14 bmrtest02" >> /etc/inet/ipnodes
# echo "10.10.10.100" > /etc/defaultrouter
# echo "10.10.0.0 255.255.0.0" >> /etc/inet/netmasks

And then restart the network service:

# svcadm restart network/physical

IMPORTANT NOTE: in the VMware article they also want you to do this command: echo "10.10.10.14 bmrtest02" >> /etc/inet/hosts. However, the files /etc/inet/ipnodes and /etc/inet/hosts both point to the same file through a symbolic link: /etc/hosts. After adding the entry the file will look like this:

#
# Internet host table
#
::1    localhost       loghost bmrtest02
127.0.0.1       localhost       loghost    bmrtest02
10.10.10.14 bmrtest02

But because there are also entries for the hostname for ::1 and 127.0.0.1 you’ll have to remove this to make this configuration work:

#
# Internet host table
#
::1    localhost       loghost 
127.0.0.1       localhost       loghost    
10.10.10.14 bmrtest02

Note: You can also configure the network for one time use (not persistent over reboots) by using ifconfig:

# ifconfig vmxnet3s0 10.10.10.14 netmask 255.255.0.0 up

Enter the correct DNS information into the dns configuration files file:

# echo "search getshifting.local" > /etc/resolv.conf
# echo "nameserver 10.10.10.1" >> /etc/resolv.conf
# echo "nameserver 10.10.10.11" >> /etc/resolv.conf
# echo "getshifting.local" > /etc/defaultdomain

And change the /etc/nsswitch.conf file to also look at dns for hostname resolving since it only looks at the hosts file by default:

hosts:      files dns

Right now you only have one user root which is not allowed to login using ssh by default. Edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config to allow root access using ssh:

PermitRootLogin yes

and restart ssh:

# svcadm restart svc:/network/ssh:default

If you have any network connectivity problem you can try to disable the firewall:

# svcadm disable svc:/network/ipfilter:default

Install VMware Tools in Solaris
Configure a vmxnet3 network adapter on Solaris
Supported OS for PVSCSI Controller