A collection of system administration hints and tips, tricks and articles for the Solaris operating system in all its variants.

Latest posts

UFS logging in Solaris (updated)

Updated   Read time 2 min(s) 20 sec(s)   (3002 visits).

When enabled, all changes to file system meta-data are written to an intent log prior to being written out to the file system itself.

SunOS to Solaris versioning explained [updated]

Updated   Read time 1 min 46 sec(s)   (2331 visits).

SunOS is the core operating system and Solaris is the broader environment comprising SunOS, OpenWindows and networking support

Solaris Software Patches

Updated   Read time 1 min 34 sec(s)   (2378 visits).

Patches are identified by unique alphanumeric strings. The patch base code, then a hyphen, and then a number that represents the patch revision number

Tuning a Solaris UFS file system

Updated   Read time 3 min(s) 45 sec(s)   (2533 visits).

Using the tunesfs command you can modify certain parameters after creating the original file system without rebuilding the entire file system.

Changing hostid under Solaris 8

Updated   Read time 1 min 10 sec(s)   (2560 visits).

To change the hostid, usually it's sufficient (and very easy) to use the hid ( or hid2 ) programs, which change the hostid of the running kernel.

Creating a Solaris Zone on ZFS

Updated   Read time 3 min(s) 46 sec(s)   (1707 visits).

The following is a simple example of creating a ZFS filesystem and using it to hold a newly-created Solaris Zone (Solaris Container)

Recreating /dev/null in Solaris

Updated   Read time 20 sec(s)   (3086 visits).

A simple procedure to recreate /dev/null on a Solaris system using the mknod command to create a special character device.

Patching Solaris with Sun Patch Manager 2

Updated   Read time 2 min(s) 16 sec(s)   (1174 visits).

Sun have decided to terminate (end-of-support) Patch Manager 2.0 support. You are now recommended to use Sun Update Manager instead.