Overview

SmilartOS is a Linux operating system based on CoreOS (https://www.coreos.com/). There are differences between SmilartOS and CoreOS:

  • OS installation process

  • OS upgrade process

  • Default settings

  • Set of utils

  • SAM

You can use official CoreOS documentation to configure anything in operating system. SmilartOS doesn’t change any binary files in base CoreOS distribution. So SmilartOS is 100% compatible with CoreOS. This documentation describes differences between SmilartOS and CoreOS. You should use official CoreOS documentation for other questions.

Hardware requirements

SmilartOS has only one special requirement: at least 8 GB of RAM.

Other hardware requirements are the same as for CoreOS.

Installator always uses disk /dev/sda as a target disk for operating system. It can’t be changed. If you have several disks and not sure which is /dev/sda, disconnect all other disks except for one that will be used in operating system installation process. You can return other disks after installation completed.

Installation proccess

Prepare boot stick

Write iso image to USB stick. Image must be written exactly byte to byte. To do so you can use Win32 Disk Imager in Windows, Image writer in Linux or dd util in any linux/unix distribution.

You cannot install SmilartOS from DVD disk.

Installation

First of all, you should boot from USB stick.

  • Insert USB that contains the image in the computer and power it on.

  • Select USB stick as a boot device.

  • Boot the computer from USB stick.

When your computer is booted from USB stick, you will see a boot menu which consist of four items (Image 3):

  • Installation – start the installation process.

  • Hardware Detection Tool – utils to check hardware.

  • Memory Test – test RAM with memtest86+

  • Boot from hard disk – boot the computer from hard disk.

To start installation choose Installation item in the menu.

Installation. First stage.

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Picture 1.Boot menu

Installer verifies check sums of the installing components and warns you that all data on your local drive will be lost. (Picture 2).
To continue installation process choose Yes or choose Reboot to cancel installation.

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_Picture 2. _Warning that all your data will be lost.

Installation of CoreOS image takes a few minutes (Picture 3).

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_Picture 3. Installation in progress _

Necessary files will be copied without any questions.

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Picture 4. Copying files

When all necessary files have been copied, press Reboot to reboot the server. Otherwise reboot will be done in automatic mode (Picture 5).

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Picture 5. First stage reboot

Installation. Second stage.

Remove USB stick from the server and boot it from you hard drive.

To log into system use the following credentials:
Username: root
Passowrd: smilart

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Picture 6. Log on

Next step is network cofiguration. Choose network interface card to configure (Picture 7).
Use arrow up/down keys to move between items. Press Space to select. Press Next to configure chosen interface.

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Picture 7. Select network interface card

Type following data in the opened windows (Picture 8) :

  1. Hostname.

  2. Static IP-address.

  3. Mask subnet.

  4. Default gateway.

  5. DNS server address.

Allowed symbols for hostname are latin alphabet, digits and dash.
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Picture 8. Network settings
You can use network-config if you want to change network settings after installation.
You cannot change hostname through this util after installation

Next step is date-time settings (Pictures 9 - 12).

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Picture 9. Date-time settings

To choose timezone, highlite timezone string and press Change button (Picture 9). .

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Picture 10. Select timezone
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Picture 11. Select timezone 2

Last step is installation of applications, which is on your USB stick. It’s non-interactive proccess.

Collecting data for a license.

After first run system will require a license. Insert flash-drive and run license-config (Picture 12).

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Picture 12. License managment

Then choose Generation request file and then press Next button (Picture 13).
If flash drive is not inserted, you can choose another path for file to save and then copy it to the flash drive.
Then you’ll see a window with information about request file been saved successfully (Picture14). Press ОК.

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Picture 13. File generation
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Picture 14. Message about file request

License acquisition

To get a license key you need to send email with generated request file from the flash drive at support@smilart.com . In reply you’ll have a license key.

It’s forbidden to rename a license key.

After receiving the license key you must copy it to the flash drive at the same path where request file is located and then plug it into to the server.

License installation

After inserting flash drive to the server run license-config (Picture 12).
Then choose Installing license and then press Next (Picture 15).
If everything is ok you’ll get a message about succesfull license installation to /var/lib/smilart_srv/license (picture 16). Press ОК.

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Picture 15. License installation
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picture 16. License key saved successfully

Product installation

To get instructions on how to install a product, see documentation for the chosen product.