Common Solaris and AIX sysadmin tasks
Whilst working on a customer site where I had to use both Sun's Solaris and IBM's AIX operating systems side-by-side. I needed at times swap my Solaris hat for my AIX hat and vice-versa and on occasions RTFM.
With this in mind I decided to put together a short article on common references between both Solaris 8 and AIX 4.3.3 operating systems.
The following table provides common Solaris 8 and AIX 4.3.3 troubleshooting information, system administration commands and location of common files.
| Task/Location | Solaris 8 | AIX 4.3.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Changing hostname | Modify the following: - /etc/nodename - /etc/hosts - /etc/hostname.* - /etc/net/*/hosts | chdev -l inet0 -a hostname=hostname |
| List networking services and ports | /etc/services | /etc/services |
| List common protocols | /etc/protocols | /etc/protocols |
| network protocol packet tracing | snoop | iptrace |
| Show network status | netstat | netstat |
| Show NFS and RPC stats | nfsstat | nfsstat |
| Display network I/O and CPU usage | - | netpmon |
| Display virtual memory snapshot | - | svmon |
| Show virtual memory stats | vmstat | vmstat |
| Show I/O stats | iostat | iostat filemon |
| Report system activity | sar | sar |
| Display locking contentions | - | lockstat |
| Show CPU usage | - | tprof |
| Simulate memory size performance testing | - | rmss |
| Show system error log | dmsg | errpt -a |
| Display/Set dump device | - | sysdumpdev |
| Show paging/swap space | swap -l | lsps -a |
| Specify users with cron access | /etc/cron.d/cron.allow | /var/adm/cron/cron.allow |
| Specify users with no cron access | /etc/cron.d/cron.deny | /var/adm/cron/cron.deny |
| Specify remote users and hosts that can execute commands on the local host | /etc/hosts.equiv | /etc/hosts.equiv |
| Info on mounting local and remote file systems | /etc/vfstab | /etc/filesystems |
| Show current mounted file systems | mount cat /etc/mnttab | mount |
| Default super user log | /var/adm/sulog | /var/adm/sulog |
| Configure syslogd logging | /etc/syslog.conf | /etc/syslog.conf |
| Display physical memory | prtconf | bootinfo -r |
| Install packages | pkgadd | installp -a smitty install_latest |
| Show installed packaged | pkginfp pkgparam | lslpp -L smitty list_instlled_sw |
| Remove package | pkgrm | installp -r smitty reject installp -u smitty remove |
| Install a patch | patchadd | instfix emitty update_by_fix |
| Remove a patch | patchrm | installp -r smitty reject |
| Show installed patches | showrev -p | instfix -ia |
| Install OS on another disk (alt install) | Live Upgrade | alt_disk_install |
| Create an installation server for network install | setup_install_server install_dir_patch | nimconfig |
| Create a boot server for network install | setup_install_server -b bootdirpath | smitty nim_config_env |
| Setup a client for network install | add_install_client | nim -o bos_inst |
| Kernel module directory | Modules located in - platform/sparc/kernel - /platform/i86pc/kernel - /usr/lib/drivers - /kernel - /usr/kernel | Located in: -/usr/lib/boot - /usr/lib/drivers |
| User management tool | admintool | smit smitty wsm |
| Add a user | useradd | mkuser |
| Remove a user | userdel | rmuser |
| Change a user | usermod | chuser |
| List users | listusers | lsuser |
| Password files | /etc/passwd /etc/shadow | /etc/passwd /etc/security/passwd |
| Group files | /etc/group | /etc/group /etc/security/group |
| Process resouces user limits | /etc/system | /etc/security/limits |
| Default login setup | /etc/default/login | /etc/security/login.cfg |
| User authentication config | /etc/pam.conf | /etc/security/login.cfg |
| Profile templates | /etc/skel/local.profile | /etc/security/.profile |
| Configure/Define a device | any of the following: - drvconfig - devlinks - disks - tapes - ports | cfgmgr mkdev |
| Remove a device | rem_drv | rmdev |
| Change a device | - | chdev |
| List devices | sysdef | lsdev |
| Display device | prtconf | lscfg |
| Config TCP/IP interface | ifconfig vi /etc/nsswitch.conf | mktcpip |
| Display interface settings | ifconfig | ifconfig |
| Change/Unconfigure name services | vi /etc/nsswitch.conf | chnamsv rmnamsv |
| Display name services | cat /etc/nsswitch.conf | lsnamv |