Solaris SPARC to Solaris x86 Porting Guide

No command-line option is required to distinguish a 32–bit link-edit or 64–bit link-edit. The link-editor
uses the ELF class of the first relocatable object on the command-line to govern the mode in which to
operate. Specialized link-edits, such as linking solely from a mapfile or an archive library, are
uninfluenced by the command-line object. These link-edits default to a 32–bit mode. A 64–bit link-edit
can be enforced by using the link-editor -64 option.
Support tools
The Solaris OS also provides several support tools and libraries. These tools provide for the analysis
and inspection of these objects and the linking processes. These tools include elfdump(1), lari(1),
nm(1), dump(1), ldd(1), pvs(1), elf(3ELF), and a linker debugging support library.
Data migration
Data migration is the process of importing legacy data to a new system. This can involve entering the
data manually, moving disk files from one folder (or computer) to another, database insert queries,
developing custom software, or other methods. The specific method used for any particular system
depends entirely on the systems involved and the nature and state of the data being migrated.
There are four steps to migrate from Solaris/SPARC to Solaris/x86:
1. Back up the data on storage.
2. Configure storage on x86 servers.
3. Create target disk layout.
4. Migrate data to target machine.
Backing up the data on stoarge:
To back up the raw data, Solaris uses the tar, pax, cpio, volcopy, gzip commands.
tar—This command is originally created for backups on magnetic tape, but it can be used to create
tar files anywhere on a filesystem. tar is file-based and essentially must be considered to be an
outdated zero-compression archiver.
pax—This command is an attempt to merge functionality previously provided by both cpio and
tar.
cpio—This command is also old file based and a zero-compression archiver. This has options to
perform byte-swapping, write a number of different archive formats, and pipe the data to other
programs. cpio cannot walk the directory tree and a list of files must be provided through stdin.
volcopy—A rarely used utility to make an image or literal copy of a partition to another partition.
volcopy makes a literal copy of the ufs filesystem using a blocksize matched to the device to disk or
tape.
gzip—The standard GNU clone of zip compression utility, replacing older and weaker compress.
Configuring storage on Solaris x86 servers
You must to configure the storage on Solaris/x86, while migrating from Solaris/SPARC. Configure
the storage as it was configured on source machine.
Creating target disk layout
Solaris volume manager would be useful for creating disk layout on target machine.
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-4520
Migrating data to target machine:
Endianness is the main issue that might occur when migrating data from Solaris/SPARC to
Soalris/x86.
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