Hi all;

I have a Solaris 8 system, running an Oracle DB and Veritas Volume
Manager. Veritas is used as the boot-disk mirroring scheme; /, /usr,
etc. are all UFS mounts of Veritas volumes. Specific revs I don't
think matter for this question. I am concerned that I've inadvertently
screwed something up, especially with Veritas, and would like som
reassurance and/or corrective action from the group members Here's the
background:

- Vendor loaded the OS, installed supplemental packages (Veritas, some
vendor specific stuff, etc.) back in 2003. Before my time and I wasn't
involved, so I don't know the exact sequence of events.

- this system had /opt as a soft link to /export/opt, a Veritas volume
on the encapsulated boot disks. Contents of /export/opt are:

$ ls -l /opt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root other 11 Apr 15 2004 /opt -> /export/opt

$ cd /opt
$ ls
answerbooks rsc SUNWebnfs SUNWrtvc TSIgfxdrv VRTSfsdoc VRTSvxfs
MITRAjre SUNWabhdw SUNWexplo SUNWsmtv TSIgfxOW VRTSlic VRTSvxvm
MITRAssh SUNWconn SUNWits SUNWvts VRTS VRTSvmsa

- I recently installed the SUNWsan package, using the SUN supplied
'install-it' script, which contains all requisite patches, etc.. I
installed the backage in single-user mode, expecting it to follow the
link to /export/opt. Like a fool, I didn't think to verify this link,
and as it was a Veritas mount, I don't think it was available in
single-user. Shame on me! Apparently I missed a prompt, or the script
did it automatically, but upon script completion, the /opt LINK was
gone, instead replaced with a directory containing the SUNWsan
package, and nothing else.

- The reboot following the install was uneventful, all Veritas file
systems came back online as expected, the SAN SW working as expected
and turned over to the users. Later in the day, I get a call
indicating that one of the vendor supplied package tools requiring
Java isn't working. It is then I discovered the link to /export/opt
missing.

My resolution was to simply create a link in /opt to /export/home/
{vendor tool}, which contains the Java path required, and they're OK
again. I then created similar links to all the other packages listed
above (SUNW*, VRTS*, etc.).

I have the following questions, that speak to my lack of true
understanding about SUN packaging, and how they inter-relate with the
actual kernel. Please bear with my ignorance:

1) Is my resolution above 'safe'? ie; does the system have access to
all the package and package contents needed in the above scenario? I
know during package install, binaries, etc. will be moved to /bin, or /
sbin, or wherever they are needed. My system obviously booted OK
following the removal of the link to these package locations, so the
Veritas binaries are intact and working as expected.

2) What is the purpose of having the package directory in /opt
directory (link or not) if the binaries are moved to where the system
needs them? If the system critical packages (esp. Veritas and SUNW*)
located in the /export/opt directory were not available at boot time,
then the system would not boot properly (or at least the Veritas
mounts would not mount.

Any insight into this would be appreciated; I have to schedule a
reboot of this system shortly, and would like to be assured that it
will indeed return to me safe and sound. I am reassured by the fact
that it booted fine after the SUNWsan install, but am concerned that I
have an issue that will bit me later.

Thanks as usual to all who respond...

Joe D.