sysidcfg in solaris 10 shared-ip zones

If you've tried to put a sysidcfg in shared-ip zones with multiple network interfaces, you've probably experienced some headaches.

I found that if I specified each interface like you would in a normal sysidcfg, it would drop to interactive input.

When I was just specifying one interface with network_interface=PRIMARY{etc etc}, everything worked fine. When I would switch to network_interface=e1000g0{primary hostname=server.local} , it would drop to interactive again.

The secret was just to use PRIMARY no matter how many interfaces I was configuring.

After some tinkering I was able to drop the whole network_interface{} stanza down to:

network_interface=PRIMARY{hostname=hostname.local}

Verify backups before implementing changes

Going to make a change to a machine?

Verify that you have good colds before you go through.

Almost every change or upgrade plan I have starts off with:

1. Day after colds: Verify backups for hosts {a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h} 
2. Day of implementation:  Verify backups for hosts {a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h}

If that backup isn't good, either take a good backup immediately before preceding or reschedule your implementation for a window after the next full backup.

I've had this save me a time or two. A previously bulletproof backup decided to cook off the week of one of my upgrades.