DOCUMENT ID: 1275-02 SYNOPSIS: How to maintain Hostid with reinstall. OS RELEASE: 2.4 PRODUCT: Solaris x86 KEYWORDS: hostid reinstall Zero unchanged SYMPTOMS: Want to maintain the hostid across reinstalls. DESCRIPTION: The hostid in a Solaris X86 microcomputer needs to be maintained across reinstalls. A unique hostid is generated and is stored on disk during install. To maintain this across reinstalls this hostid is read before the disk is destroyed and reused as the new hostid. So, if you use the old disk and have not formatted it the hostid should be maintained accross reinstalls. There is a known problem in 2.4_x86 with Hostid preservation. If the first installation on a machine fails or is aborted before the point at which the non-zero hostid is created, or if a re-installation fails or is aborted before the point at which the old hostid is restored, subsequent re-installations generate an all-zero hostid. SOLUTION: A workaround for the above problem is as follows: Begin a re-installation. When the installation reports that it is creating the root file system, immediately reset the machine. The next installation will create a non-zero hostid. DATE APPROVED: 03/26/95