Using vxfsconvert to migrate a UFS file system to VxFS
The vxfsconvert utility converts a UFS file system to a Veritas File System. This utility is only available for the Solaris environment.
Latest posts
Importing VxVM disk group with older disk group version
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) traditionally introduces a new disk group version with each new major release.
Cannot initialise a non-EFI disk greater than 1TB in VxVM on Solaris
Initialising a non-EFI labelled disk that is greater than 1TB fails under Solaris.
Solaris Crash Dumps
If a Solaris system crashes (panic) it is possible to write the entire contents of memory to disk for later analysis.
Repairing a Damaged ZFS Device
This article describes how to determine ZFS device failure types, clear transient errors, and replace a device.
Repairing a Missing ZFS Device
If a device cannot be opened, it displays as UNAVAILABLE in the zpool status output.
Changing the default Solaris 11 locale
In Solaris 10 you had to edit the /etc/default/init file to chance the default locale, now with Solaris 11 it is defined in SMF.
Adding a permanent static route in Solaris
When adding routes persistently care should be taken to make sure that routes that you add do not already exist in the persistent configuration.
ZFS Raid and RAIDZ techniques
With ZFS filesystem, RAIDZ is very popular as it gives the best tradeoff of hardware failure protection versus storage.
Creating an LDOM step-by-step
This article acts like a demo showing step-by-step instructions on the creation of a new LDOM, assigning resources and installation of the Solaris OS.
Solaris LDOM overview
A simple posts giving a brief overview on the Solaris LDOM hardware virtualisation.
Enabling the Solaris Auditing subsystem
To configure the Solaris Auditing subsystem on Solaris 9 or Solaris 10 we simply run the bsmconv command-line utility from the /etc/security directory
Installing and Administrating NIS+
NIS+ is a network information service enables system administrators to manage a group of servers from a central location
Solaris Boot Process
The Solaris boot process in a nutshell is the process of boot loading RC scripts to reach single or multiuser level
Using the Solaris getent command
The advantage of getent is that the command searches the information sources in the order in which they are configured in the name service switch file.
Adding a SAMBA user
This is a short how-to post to provide simple steps to add users to a SAMBA environment.
Installing Solaris packages directly via web
This trick isn't widely known but you can install a Solaris package directly from a HTTP source.
Solaris patch return codes - patchadd
When installing patches on Solaris, you may often see error codes or Exit/Return codes when the patch installation fails. These are the return codes.
Forcing sendmail to use mailhost under Solaris 10
Under Solaris 10 the default sendmail config doesn't forward mail which can't be delivered locally to mailhost.
fssnap of / (root) fails under Solaris
Using fssnap we can quickly take a temporary snapshot of any UFS file system and then use that snapshot for backup operations.
Solaris 10 and 11 differences for sysadmins
Describes multiple topics for transitioning from the Solaris 10 operating system to an Oracle Solaris 11 release.
Solaris Raid Level and Array Type Primer
A simple article highligting the raid levels and arry types available for the Solaris operating system
Preventing a Solaris 'Ping of Death' attack
The Ping of Death attack, first seen in 1996, is achieved using the Internet control message protocol, or ICMP (hence the name ?Ping of Death?).
Sending a ZFS snaphot
You can use the zfs send command to send a copy of a snapshot stream and receive the snapshot stream in another pool
Mapping Solaris sar output to actual storage lun
How do we know how is a storage device mapped to local device? Simple checkout /etc/path_to_inst.
Solaris Deferred Activation Patching (DAP)
With DAP the reboot is deferred until all patching is completed unlike non-DAP kernel patches which forced reboot before other patches can be applied.
Sun Management Center - A Technical Overview
Integrates and scales from single to thousands of servers and desktops, storage components and applications running on Solaris
Solaris to AIX - A Quick Reference guide
An updated quick reference quide for sysadmins to contrast the Solaris 8 and AIX 4.3.3 operating systems.
Solaris Fault Management Architecture
Solaris Fault Management Architecture (FMA) introduces a new software architecture and methodology for fault management across Sun's product line.
How to use zlogin to Shutdown and Start a zone
You must be the global administrator or a user with appropriate authorization in the global zone to perform these procedures.
Patching Solaris with Sun Patch Manager 2
Sun have decided to terminate (end-of-support) Patch Manager 2.0 support. You are now recommended to use Sun Update Manager instead.
No UTMPX entry, You must EXEC "login" for the lowest "shell"
This error can be caused by either no space available for /var or that the /var/adm/utmpx file itself is corrupt.
Solaris Run Control Scripts
Run Control (rc) scripts are used to start and stop processes at boot up and shutdown.
Introduction to Solaris Live Upgrade
The Solaris Live Upgrade revolutionises the way that you add patches to Solaris products and can save you hours of time and effort.
beadm quick reference
The beadm command enables users to manage their boot environments. This article provides a snapshot of the more command beadm subcommands.
Which Solaris 11 Patch Level am I working on?
Explanation of the Solaris 11 fine grained versioning schema for SRUs and updates
Process monitoring using prstat
The prstat statistics utility shows a top-level summary of the processes that are using system resources currently.
How to boot a Solaris system without starting any services
If problems with starting services occur, sometimes a system hangs during the boot process. This procedure shows how to troubleshoot this problem.
Troubleshooting ZFS Swap and Dump devices
If you need to adjust the size of the swap volume after installation on an active system, review the following steps. See CR 6765386 for more info
Basic VERITAS Volume Replicator Commands
Veritas Volume Replicator aides in an effective maintain a consistent copy of application data at one or more remote locations via data-replication
Accessing a Tape Device from a non-global Zone
Accessing a tape device (or any device) from a non-global zone in Solaris
ZFS Send and Receive
ZFS has the ability to send and receive data. This can be used to combine snapshots, create backups, or replicate data between servers
Renaming a ZFS zpool
Renaming a zpool is not as intuitive as I would expect, but it is still pretty simple. However, we can accomplish this through a three step process.
Solaris FireEngine Project
The Solaris FireEngine project is a high performance networking framework based on an IP classifier and vertical perimeters.
How to Boot a system with the Kernel Debugger (kmdb) enabled
This is a simple procedure which shows how to load the kernel debugger (kmdb)
Creating a Solaris Zone on ZFS
The following is a simple example of creating a ZFS filesystem and using it to hold a newly-created Solaris Zone (Solaris Container)
Installing SunLink DNI v8.0 on Solaris 2.x
A brief howto article on the best practice to install DNI8.0 on a Solaris system
Solaris backup and restore utilities
A brief overview of the various backup and restore utilities available under the Solaris operating system.
Assigning a Volume Name to a Solaris disk
Having a large number of disks can be a challange for sysadmins. By giving each disk a volume name may make it easier.
How to find out more about a given binary
Some very useful command in Solaris to find more about a given binary.
Reset lost Solaris root password using kmdb
Performing a Solaris root password recovery when neither local cd/dvd or jumpstart (netinstall) options are avilable.
Creating a Flash Archive Recovery (FLAR) Image
This article provides simple instructions to create a Flash Archive image that can be loaded onto the target system to recover from a failed drive.
How to build a Solaris Branded Zone
This is a standard question for Solaris administrators who unfortunately have requirements for an older Solaris 9 kernel for a legacy application.
Solaris inode size
Inodes store information on files such as user and group ownership, access mode (read, write, execute permissions) and type of file.
How to distinguish between a failed and a failing disk
Distinguishing between a failed disk and a failing disk may save you time when you need to replace it.
Solaris tape device files and utilities
There are a number of utilities and files that come into play with tape drives in Solaris, and it is helpful to know how all the pieces fit together.
Configuring Solaris Link Aggregation
When we aggregate two or more network interfaces we are forming a new network interface on top of those physical interfaces.
Resumable ZFS Send Streams
The ability to resume an interrupted zfs send/receive data stream which is a representation of a snapshot is now part of Oracle Solaris 11.4
Monitor and Manage ZFS Shadow Migration
Using Shadow Migration is very easy; for example, we could migrate shared ZFS and UFS file systems through NFS or even through a local file system
Configurable ZFS Read and Write Throughput Limits
Setting the size of a ZFS dataset can ensure an appropriate allocation of space configuration that contains multiple volumes to service different clients
Packet Filter bundled in the upcoming Oracle Solaris 11.4
This artical summarises features that are new or have been enhanced in the upcoming release of Oracle Solaris 11.4
Bundled FOSS in the upcoming Oracle Solaris 11.4
The number of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), or freeware, packages delivered with Oracle Solaris 11 has increased with each update
Sun RSC Configuration
How to setup and manage a Sun RSC (Remote Serial Console) on the Sun Enterprise™ 250.
Solaris package management
Solaris 8 uses a number of commands to manage software installed on the OS. This short cheat sheet provides the basic package management commands.
Solaris NFS
NFS is a protocol which allows file systems on one system to be made available on a remote system. NFS works on a server-client model.
Troubleshooting 'too many open files'
Applications or servers can sometimes fail with an error indicating that there are too many open files for the current process. Most of the time.
Solaris SPARC Boot Sequence
Understanding the booting process is important in the sense that you can get a clear idea when a system faces a booting problem and steps involved.
Solaris reconfiguration boot
During a reconfiguration restart, a device hierarchy is created in the /devices file system to represent the devices connected to the system.
Oracle Linux and Solaris command comparison
This document explains how to use Oracle Solaris to users who have experience operating systems in a Linux environment.
Oracle Linux and Solaris runlevels
Like Oracle Enterprise Linux 6, Solaris has runlevels 0 through 6. However, the meanings are somewhat different. In OEL 7 runlevel is target.
queue max run limit reached
The cron daemon has a limit of how many jobs run simultaneously. If a new job is scheduled and the limit is reached the job will be rescheduled.
Solaris LDOM vs Zones
A Sun Logical Domain (LDom) is a full virtual machine whereas a Solaris zone is a virtual operating system.
Which Sun systems have ILOM, ALOM or RSC?
Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) is the system management firmware used to monitor, manage, and configure a variety of Sun server platforms.
Solaris UFS file system overview
UFS is the primary file system for the Solaris OS. UFS is extremely mature, very stable, and for most applications, is the file system of choice.
Solaris backup and restore command examples
Backups and Restores of Solaris UFS file systems, files and directories can be done using tar, cpio, ufsdump, ufsrestore and dd commands.
Find command examples
The find command in UNIX and Linux is a command line utility allowing you to search for files in a directory hierarchy.
Configure DNS services in Solaris 11 using SMF
The previous method of modifying a configuration file to configure naming services no longer works we now reply on SMF.
"gunzip: File too large" on Solaris 8
gunzip: File too large / gzip: Value too large for defined data type
Stopping and Starting CDE
The Common Desktop Environment compatible among various workstation manufacturers, provides users with a desktop graphical interface on the Solaris OS
Recreating /dev/null in Solaris
A simple procedure to recreate /dev/null on a Solaris system using the mknod command to create a special character device.
Changing hostid under Solaris 8
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.
Rename an existing SAM-QFS file system?
Renaming a SAM-QFS file system is a two-step process. Firstly edit the mcf file then run samfsck to update the superblock
A5x00 (photon) Cheat Sheet
This article provides a quick reference guide to the supported disk configuration on a Sun StorEdge A5x00 storage array.
Solaris MultiPathing options
Checking if any of the MPxIO, VxDMP or EMC PowerPath multipathing software is installed and active on a given Solaris system.
Solaris proc commands
These commands can be run against a specific process, but most of them can also be run against all processes on the system.
Solaris inittab
The /etc/inittab file plays a crucial role in the boot sequence. For versions of Solaris prior to version 10, the /etc/inittab was edited manually.
Scanning for new luns
This is a short article on how to rescan newly added luns in Solaris, Linux, AIX and HP-UX operating systems.
Solaris disk naming conventions
For every hard drive known to Solaris, there is a file in the /dev/dsk that is used to access that drive.
Gracefully shutdown Solaris 9
This article shows how to gracefully shut down Solaris 9 from within the CDE, and from the Console Login.
Using the OBDiag Utility
The OBDiag utility is an OpenBoot program designed to help the system administrator run extensive hardware diagnostics on a Sun SPARC system.
Securing access to a Solaris system
This document details some of the focus areas for security and provides suggestions to make it strong.
sadmind daemon vulnerability
In its default configuration sadmind uses a set of clear text Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) to authenticate between two machines.
ZFS versions in Solaris 10
This article describes available ZFS versions, features of each version, and the Solaris release that provides the ZFS version and feature
Adding fonts in Solaris 11
fontconfig is used to manage all types of fonts including PostScript and TrueType fonts in the Solaris desktop environment.
Installing Manual pages in Solaris
You need to have both the SUNWdoc and SUNWman packages installed on a Solaris system in order to view manual pages.
Resetting Oracle VM 3.x Agent Password
To facilitate the initial discovery of the Hypervisor part of the setup requires that we set the password for the root user and for the ovs-agent.
Sun StorEdge Component Manager Overview
Component Manager is a GUI application that helps manage and control Sun StorEdge A5x00 and Sun StorEdge T3 storage arrays.
Adding International Language Support in Solaris
A locale is a collection of files, data and sometimes code which contain the necessary information to adapt Solaris to a specific language.
Installing Solaris boot blocks
This post discusses how to install the boot block on a Solaris system running either the older UFS file system or the newer ZFS root file system.
Solaris CLI keyboard shortcuts
A short article providing various keyboard shortcuts for command line edit of any commands quick and easily.
Field Descriptions for the /etc/vfstab File
An entry on the Solaris /etc/vfstab file has seven fields, which are described in the following table.
Solaris Secure by Default
This project changes the default configuration of the Solaris OS such that ssh is the only network-listening service.
Solaris IP Filtering
IPF provides stateful packet filtering capabilities by IP address, network, port, protocol, network interface and traffic direction.
Solaris Auditing
Solaris auditing helps to detect potential security breaches by revealing suspicious or abnormal patterns of system usage.
Cryptographic Services Management on Solaris
The Solaris Cryptographic Framework provides cryptographic services to users and applications through user-level and kernel-level commands.
Using psradm to enable/disable a processor on Solaris
The psradm utility changes the operational status of processors. The legal states for the processor are on-line, offline, spare, Faulted, and no-intr
Sun Diskless Workstation Boot Sequence
To boot diskless workstations need to determine who they are, locate their boot server, locate their kernel and mount file systems from the server
Changing the WWN on a SPARCstorage Array
There are times when it is advantageous to change the World-Wide Number (WWN) for a particular SPARCstorage Array, such as after replacing the battery
Setting up a SAN Tape device on Solaris
Use the following procedure to configure a Solaris system to utilise fabric tape.
Solaris SCSI Tape Configuration (st.conf)
The st.conf is the configiuration file for the st (SCSI Tape) driver on the Solaris Operating System.
Automated Security Enhancement Tool (ASET)
ASET allows you to monitor and restrict access to system files. It can be configured for three security levels: low, medium, and high.
Sun EEPROM Security
On Sun workstations and servers you can interact with the boot EEPROM (NVRAM) at any time by holding down the STOP (L1) key and pressing the "a" key
Installing a Version Control System in Solaris 11
Solaris 11 provides some of the open-source version control as IPS package
SunOS 4.1x and 5.x Administrative File differences
This article provides a list of the important files that have changed between SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.x (SunOS 5.x) based systems
SunOS 4.1x and 5.x Administrative Command differences
This article provides a summary of the SunOS administrative command differences between SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.x (SunOS 5.x) based systems
Installing and Configuring LDOMs (Oracle VM for SPARC)
Installing the Oracle VM and configuring the primary domain and create a guest domain and assign necessary resources to it.
Solaris vs RHEL differences
The purpose of this document series is to introduce the system and network administration features of Red Hat Linux for Solaris Administrators.
Solaris vs RHEL - NetAdmin differences
The following sections detail the differences between the Solaris 9 OS and Red Hat Linux with respect to network administration tasks
Solaris vs RHEL - Advanced SysAdmin differences
The following sections detail the differences between the Solaris 9 OS and Red Hat Linux with respect to advanced system administration tasks
Solaris vs RHEL - SysAdmin differences
The following sections detail the differences between the Solaris 9 OS and Red Hat Linux with respect to system administration tasks.
Solaris vs RHEL - UNIX Essential differences
The following sections detail the differences between the Solaris 9 OS and Red Hat Linux with respect to basic tasks and component
Autosave Oracle VM configuration
The autosave feature is to ensure a copy of the current configuration is automatically saved whenever the Logical Domains configuration is changed.
Firefox scrolling on Solaris
Solaris will try to paste the top most thing in your clipboard when you click your middle mouse button.
NIS+ Credential Setup
To gain authorisation to change NIS+ databases you need to create your security credentials for the NIS+ principals
System Logging across different UNIX systems
This post provides brief differences in the log files used for System Logging of the most common versions of UNIX.
Common sysadmin tasks across multi-OS environments.
This article provides a brief overview of common differences in system configuration, management and security across multi-OS environments.
Configuring datalink interfaces with dladm
A configured data-link is represented in the system as interface that can be used for TCP/IP.
Creating a DiskSuite RAID5 device
Creating a RAID 5 metadevice with DiskSuite is extremely simple. Unlike creating mirrors which involves several steps.
Reloading st.conf without rebooting
To make an updated /kernel/drv/st.conf file active, it is necessary to reload the st (SCSI Tape) kernel module
A simple Disk Wipe procedure on Solaris
Overwriting a disk with the format command is usually enough for most purposes, because it greatly reduces the chance that any data can be recovered.
Determining a File System type (updated)
This is a simple post to answer the question ... How do I identify my file system type? and covers various falvours of UNIX and Linux
Minimum disk configuration for Sun StorEdge A5x00 storage arrays
This article provides a quick guide to the supported disk configuration on a Sun StorEdge A5x00 storage array.
Displaying Sun Cluster release and versioning information
This is a simple procedure to display the version of SunCluster installed on a given system.
Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) cheat sheet
In VCS configuration, each Cluster contains systems, Service Groups and Resources. Service Groups contain a list of systems belonging to that group.
NIS and NIS+ cheat sheet
This quick reference guide provides a crib sheet style listing for administrating NIS and NIS+ environments.
Creating a Solaris FLAR image
A Solaris FLAR image can be used for reinstalling the OS one the original host and other systems.
Resetting Solaris LDOM to factory default
If you remove the LDOM before restoring the factory default configuration, you can restore the factory default configuration from the service processor
Faster SVM mirror resync
There are two way to change block size to get quickly synchronized disks in mirrored system
Basic Concepts of LDOM or Oracle VM for SPARC
SUN LDOMS aka oracle VM for SPARC is a complete virtual machines that runs an independent operating system
Configuring OpenSSH on Solaris 8
Solaris 8 doesn't come with the SSH and SFTP like features, to enable these we have to install and configure third party packages
Disable the power/suspend key on Sun keyboard
In this post I show options to disable the power/suspend key and an alternative to reassign the key to perform screenlock instead.
Sun Trunking switch interoperability matrix
The following tables list the switches that have been tested with Sun Trunking software.
Using the truss command on Solaris
The truss command is used to trace system and library calls on a Sun or Sequent system. Which is similar to strace on Linux based systems
Solaris Zone status and Configuration
This article describes how to display the Solaris Zone Status and Configuration from the global zone.
How to view LDOM configuration as non-root user
If you try to view LDOM configuration information as a non-root user under Solaris...
Enforcing password complexity on Solaris
Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength.
How to Update a file on all zones at the same time
A brief article and how to quickly copy an updated configuration to all child zones.
Setting default route on Solaris (updated)
A HowTo article to add or edit the Default Gateway or Default Router in Sun Solaris Operating System.
Listing avilable Solaris 10 services
Under Solaris 10 we use the svcs command to provide information about services, including their status.
How to allow root login on Solaris 11
After your installation of Solaris 11 has completed, you will not be able to login directly to the console as the root user
Troubleshooting common NFS errors
Over the years I have seen some of the most common NFS Error/Issues which occurs in very common now and then to most of Solaris system admins.
How to disable NIS client on Solaris 10
This is a simple post providing the necessary steps to disable NIS client on Solaris 10.
Oracle Parameters on Solaris 10
The table below shows the System V IPC parameter and the corresponding Soalris resource controls for Oracle on Sun Solaris 10 OS.
Repairing a corrupt SMF Repository
Without a working SMF repository the system will not be able to boot. This article provides the steps to restore a working copy of the database.
Troubleshooting Solaris 11 network interfaces
This is a short article that provides some basic pointers to troubleshooting Solaris 11 network interfaces.
How do I make Solaris system aware of new devices?
This article simply provides a list of commands to allow Solaris to detect newly added devices.
Increasing the number of file descriptors available to an application
Depending on the programming interface used, an application may not be able to reach the file descriptor limit.
How do I adjust interprocess communications (IPC) variables?
IPC allows information transfer or synchronization to occur between processes.
Troubleshooting various NFS errors
Identifying and solving a problem is called troubleshooting, which is arguably the most difficult task in any area of computers. NFS is no exception.
Determining a Solaris File System type
These commands work whether or not the file system is mounted.
Commonly Used Solaris 11 Network Administration Commands
This cheatsheet provides the basic command syntax to use for some common network administration tasks under Solaris 11.
Viewing Processes with the pgrep command
The pgrep command lets you specify the criteria and then displays the information only about the processes that match the criteria.
UFS snaphots
Basically, a snapshot is read-only copy of a file system (for the purpose of backup).
Installing Nagios on Solaris for network and server monitoring
Learn how to install Nagios network and server monitoring on Solaris 11
Viewing Processes with the prstat command
The prstat command displays information about processes similar to ps and pgrep commands but refreshes (updates) the output in a periodic fashion
Solaris UADMIN commands
The uadmin command is tightly coupled to the system administration procedures and is not intended for general use
Solaris vs RHEL - Package Management differences
This article provides a quick comparison between the pkg command of Solaris 11 and the yum command under RHEL
Solaris 11 enable_passwd_compat
how to set enable_passwd_compat for LDAP under solaris 11
Replacing a failed SCSI disk in Solstice DiskSuite (no reboot)
A simple procedure to replace a failed SCSI disks which is mirrored with Solstice DiskSuite without the need to reboot the Solaris server.
How to reboot a Solaris Zone stuck in shutting_down state
To solve this problem, try one or more of following commands on the global zone until the zone state changes to Installed.
How to configure an NTP client under Solaris
The following procedures show how to set up and use the NTP service.
Installing distributed shell (DSH) on Solaris, Linux and MacOSX
Using dsh (distributed shell) to run commands in parallel on multiple servers
Configuring puppet on Solaris 11
A short article on the introduction and how to manage Solaris 11 systems using puppet.
Using SSH login without password
An article outlining steps needed to be able to use the SSH to access a remote system without supplying a password each time that you connect.
How to check OEM agent status on Solaris
This article provides the steps necessary to check the status of the OEM agent on any given Solaris system
Installing Oracle OEM agent on a Solaris host
This post provides the simple steps necessary to install the Oracle Enterprise Manager agent on a given Solaris system.
Enabling and Disabling ftp services on Solaris
For security purposes, administrators may wish to disable ftp on a given Solaris system.
Enabling and Disabling telnet service on Solaris
For security purposes, administrators may wish to disable telnet on a given Solaris system.
Disabling MONLIST in NTP
NTP server prior to version 4.2.7 apparently allows for the user to query the NTP server stat
Enabling SNMP on Solaris 10 and Solaris 11
This article provides the simple steps to enable SNMP on Solaris 10 and Solaris 11 systems.
"sed -i" workaround for Solaris
The version of sed running on Solaris is not capable of saving files so a workaround using perl is possible.
UFS logging in Solaris (updated)
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.
Clearing Password History in Solaris 10
To ensure the security of passwords on Solaris systems, you need to edit the /etc/default/passwd file to enforce password length and complexity.
NetWorker 9.0 Server supported platforms
With the release of 9.0, the NetWorker Server and Management Console will now run only on Linux 64-bit and Windows 64-bit systems.
Configure KMS encryption on a UNIX NetBackup server
This article provides the necessary actions needed to install and configure Key Management Service (KMS) encryption on a UNIX NetBackup master server.
Disable syslog "remote logging" under Solaris
syslog remote logging under Solaris by default is enabled and will listen on UDP port 514 for syslog messages from remote servers.
Disabling replies to broadcast ping requests
By default, Solaris systems are enabled to respond to broadcast ICMP echo packets, which are ping requests.
Renaming a Veritas cluster online service group
6 quick steps to renaming an on online service group under Veritas Cluster.
Solaris Branded Zones
Branded zones are Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 containers created in a Solaris 10 global zone with BrandZ framework to extend the Solaris zones.
Removing a node from an active VCS cluster
In this article we look at the requirements needed to remove an existing node from a VCS cluster
Adding volumes and disk devices to non-global zones
This article provides a series of examples of adding different file systems, raw and disk devices to a non-global zone.
LDOM cheat sheet
This document is designed to be a a quick platform specific cheat sheet to help engineers run important LDOM task on Sun SPARC systems
Using ipmitool to reset ILOM root password
If you have root access to the OS you can use the ipmitool to reset the root password on the ILOM
Crash Dump Configuration
A crash dump is a snapshot of the physical memory, saved on disk, at the time that a fatal system error occurs.
Configuring Core Files
Core files are created when a program or an application terminates abnormally and are by default eritten to the current working directory.
NSRLCPD fails to start when configuring an IBM3494 silo
To resolve the issue and add volumes to an IBM3494 Silo, you must remove any leading zeros from the string stored in the resource database
Solaris preboot execution environment (PXE)
For standard Sparc servers the normal method of setting up a jumpstart is the be st forward, but for X86 clients PXE is the way to boot Solaris.
Removing VxVM from a Solaris root disk
This post provides an example of how to remove VxVM from a Solaris root disk. The operating system is mirrored between the two devices.
Solaris job scheduler
The Solaris Management Console (SMC) includes a graphical tool to create and schedule jobs on your system.
Solaris Software Patches
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
Using the tunesfs command you can modify certain parameters after creating the original file system without rebuilding the entire file system.
Components of a UFS file system
When you create a UFS file system, the disk slice is divided into cylinder groups.
Solaris non-global Zone States
This article simply provides a zone state flow chart and a table listing the state of non-global zones under Solaris.
Sun Explorer Utility (SUNWexplo)
The Sun Explorer utility gathers information and creates detailed snapshots of a systems architecture and configuration.
soft links and hard links in Solaris
A link is a pointer to another file or directory. Links provide a mechanism for multiple file names to reference the same data on disk.
Solaris file types
The file type can usually be identified by looking at the first character of the first column of information when using the ls command
Controlling User Disk Space Usage
Quotas let system administrators control the size of UFS file systems by limiting the amount of disk space that individual users can acquire.
Creating DiskSuite transaction logging metadevices
A metatrans device is identical to any other kind of metadevice. In order to configure the device it is assumed there is a free slice on each disk.
Minimum disk configuration for a Sun StorEdge A5x00 disk array
Sun StorEdge A5x00 disk arrays require a minimum number of disks to be installed and placed in certain slots to ensure proper operation of the array.
SUNW,hme network properties
Sun's Fast Ethernet card is one of the most commonly encountered pieces of hardware on a Solaris system. Internally nicknamed happy meal.
Solaris non-global Zone States (part 2)
This article simply provides addiational zone states from my previous post on the subject.
SunOS to Solaris versioning explained [updated]
SunOS is the core operating system and Solaris is the broader environment comprising SunOS, OpenWindows and networking support
Console login from LOM, ALOM, ILOM, ELOM, RSC or XSCF [updated]
In this post, we will see the commands for accessing the serial console of different kinds of Sun servers based on ALOM, ILOM, ELOM and other IPMI bas
Solaris run levels (updated)
A system's run level (also known as an init state) defines what services and resources are available to users.
Renaming Sun Cluster node names
Sometime hostname need to be changed especially when your customer want to make some list of server more orderly and correctly identify your machine
Creating a ramdisk in Solaris (updated)
Using the ramdiskadm command we can create a ramdisk pseudo device in the Solaris OS
Allowing root to login directly on Solaris 11
So you have a fresh install of Solaris 11 and you cannot login directly as root because it is a role...
ZFS command line examples
ZFS uses the concept of storage pools to manage physical storage. Historically, file systems were constructed on top of a single physical device.
How to install and change locale in Solaris 11
In a default installation of Oracle Solaris 11, ten Core Locales are available. You can add support for additional locales using the pkg command.
stop/start syslogd on Solaris (updated)
syslog is an important facility need in all enterprises. We as sysadmins look at syslogs as a critical source to troubleshoot performance issues
Fixing ILOM command errors
There has been more than one instance when the Sun ILOM was not responsive to commands or were throwing errors
Securing SSH on Solaris 10
It is strongly recommended that sites abandon older clear-text login protocols and use SSH to prevent sniffing of sensitive data off the network
Solaris Security Toolkit (JASS)
The Solaris Security Toolkit simplifies and automates the process of securing Solaris OS systems and is based on proven security best practices/
Restricting Access to SSH Connections
A set of direcetives that are under used are the AllowUsers, AllowGroups, DenyUsers and DenyGroups to restrict user and groups remote access with SSH.
Useful Sun OpenBoot PROM (obp) commands
All the following commands are to be run from the ok prompt of the SPARC OBP and not the Solaris operating system.
Solaris Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)
The Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) identifies hardware that is compatible with Solaris and provides information about available software support.
How to verify if LDom services are started
A short article on troubleshooting Solaris LDoms. Most LDom issues can be easily resolved by looing at the error messages.
Managing Solaris 10 inetd services
inetadm is used in Solaris 10 to managing inetd services. If you run without any parameters you simply get a list of all services and status
Which Solaris package installed this file?
If you have a file and need to know the package that installed the file on the system then using pkgchk should help.
What files are installed by this Solaris package?
If you have a file and need to know the package that installed the file on the system then using pkgchk should help.
Restoring original Solaris file permissions
In the event of drastic file permission or ownership changes, it is possible to restore the original permissions of the file(s)
Installing a guest OS under Solaris X86
A virtual PC is basically a single file containing an operating system, which with the correct software runs inside a window in your booted OS.
Changing the Oracle VM Manager User Password
The Oracle VM Manager user lets you log in to the Oracle VM Manager Web UI. This article provides the steps required to change the admin password.
How to create 1GB zeroed sparse file
A sparse file is a type of file that attempts to use file system space more efficiently when blocks allocated to the file are mostly empty.
Solaris System log (syslogd) overview
Efficient event log syslog analysis reduces system downtime, increases network performance, and helps tighten security policies in the enterprise.
Basic troubleshooting Solaris disk I/O performance issues
We have many utilities like iostat, fsstat, sar, etc. in Solaris to identify disk I/O performance issues.
Basic Solaris Network Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting potential Solaris network services and issues using standard everyday tools ping, snoop, netstat and nfsstat.
Using preap to kill defunct processes on Solaris
Using preap to kill defunct processes on Solaris may be an option of kill -9 fails
Finding Solaris release and kernel info
Do you need to determine which release of Solaris you are running? Or other useful information that comes with it? The read more
How to configure a local repository in Solaris 11.3
Once completed, clients can use this repository server to get updates over the local network instead of via the internet.
Miscellaneous Solaris Commands
An assortment of miscellaneous Solaris commands that are useful to both novice and experienced Solaris administrators
Creating a fully automated Solaris 10 Jumpstart
This post provides the necessary steps in creating a fully automated jumpstart for Solaris 10
End of an era - Solaris 8 and 9 recommended patches
Solaris 8 and 9 Extended (a.k.a Vintage) Support finished at the end of Oct 2014.
How to recover the SunFire Tx000 ALOM password
A simple procedure to recover the SunFire T1000/T2000 ALOM password by resetting the ALOM NVRAM settings.
Cleaning up the Live Upgrade environment
A simple process to cleanup the LiveUpgrade configuration for the solenv1 and alternative boot environments without impacting the system.
How to determine if your Solaris Kernel is 32 or 64 bit?
The "isainfo" command determines whether the running Solaris kernel is 32-bit or 64-bit.
How to use the NetWorker "bigasm" direcetive on Solaris?
bigasm is a NetWorker tool that can be used to test network throughput between clients and servers via expanding small files into larger files.
Activating FASTREBOOT to reduce Solaris 11 boot time
The Fast Reboot feature loads the kernel into memory and then switches to that kernel so that the reboot process occurs within seconds.
Virtialised clocks and timezones in Solaris
You can set time values in non-global zones that are different from the value in the global zone.
Identifying an ethernet (MAC) address in Solaris
Identifying a ethernet MAC address in Solaris as a non-root user is not as difficult as people think. arp, netstat and prtpicl are your friends.
Resizing Solaris swap partition online
A short tip on how to increate the size of swap online for a given Solaris system under zfs.
Patching Solaris 10 zones in parallel
Every sysadmin that has upgraded or patched a system running multiples zones will tell it, the upgrade was an undefinably long process.
Mounting an SMB/CIFS share on Solaris 11
This article will document how to mount a Windows CIFS file share onto the local file system on the Solaris 11 server.
Clearing a stuck job in OEM OPS Center
Solution to clear an Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center stuck job
Enabling SSHD authentication logging via syslog on Solaris 8 and 9
How to enable authentication logging via syslog of ssh. This will enable ssh to log any login attempts (successful/unsuccessful) to a log file.
Enabling SSHD authentication logging via syslog on Solaris 10
How to enable authentication logging via syslog of ssh. This will enable ssh to log any login attempts (successful/unsuccessful) to a log file.
Renaming an Oracle VM Guest Domain
A simple post providing the steps necessary to rename a guest domain
Disabling services in Solaris 10
To disable a service under Solaris 10 we use the svcadm command.
Changing Solaris password with an expect script
Changing a users password without user input is easy under Linux using the chpasswd command. On Solaris this does not exist.
Moving a client index on a NetWorker server (UNIX/Linux)
In a nutshell moving an index on a UNIX based NetWorker server os achieved by using the UASM command. This procedure is not for the faint hearted!
How to mount an ISO image under Solaris
A simple procedure to mount an ISO image under the Solaris OS and present the image to Guest zones.
Starting and Stopping Solaris services with svcadm
svcadm issues requests for actions on services executing within the SMF. Actions for a service are carried out by its assigned service agent.
Locking down your Solaris system
With later releases of Solaris, if you want to, you can manually lock down your system using the netstat, svcs and svcadm commands.
Cloning a Solaris zone
The beauty of zones under Solaris for me is the ability to clone any zone and then easily adapt it for it's new resources and function.
How to uninstall a Solaris zone in an incomplete state
A simple procedure to uninstall a solaris zone in an incomplete state
How much memory is in this UNIX system?
This is a relatively simple question, but alas, poor Yorick!, the answer is not plain sailing as all flavors of UNIX and Linux have different tools.
Troubleshooting ZFS
Most ZFS errors I've experienced generally fall into one of three categories. missing devices, damaged devices and data corruption.
ZFS Recommendations
Because ZFS uses kernel addressable memory, we need to make sure to allow enough system resources to take advantage of its capabilities
ZFS Internals
Max Bruning wrote an excellent paper on how to examine the internals of a ZFS data structure.
ZFS and Sun Cluster integration
A ZFS owned disk may be promoted to be a quorum disk on current Sun Cluster versions
ZFS Hardware Maintenance
Once the drive has been physically replaced, run the 'zfs replace' command against the device to allow it to be brought back online.
ZFS Data Protection
ZFS is a transactional file system. For each write request, a copy is made of the specified block protected by Copy-On-Write (COW)
ZFS Zones
If the filesystem is created in the global zone and added to the local zone via zonecfg, it may be assigned to more than one zone
ZFS Snapshots and Clones
The difference between a snapshot and a clone is that a clone is a writable, mountable copy of the file system.
ZFS Performance Monitoring
In ZFS, I/Os are scheduled similarly to how jobs are scheduled on CPUs.
ZFS Raid Levels
ZFS filesystems automatically stripe across all top-level disk devices. (Mirrors and RAID-Z devices are considered to be top-level devices)
ZFS Filesystem Management
Similar filesystems should be grouped together in hierarchies to make management easier.
Creating Solaris 11 aggregated network interface
This post provides the steps needed to create an aggregated network interface and cofigure a networker address in Solaris 11
savecore fails on Solaris 2.6 with 2GB or larger swap partitions
savecore under solaris 2.6 fails with 2GB or larger swap partitions
ping or not to ping that is a solaris quirk
ping or not to ping that is a solaris quirk
Solaris Crash Dump Analysis (CDA)
Whatever the cause, the crash dump itself provides invaluable information to a support engineer to aid in diagnosing the problem.
Solaris Service Management Facility (SMF)
Under Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris the SMF has been upgraded. There are great new tools to handle the sysadmin work on the services.
Automatic home directory creation
Using the executable maps feature in Solaris automounter we can create an authenticated users home directory automatically if it does not exist.
Restoring Solaris files with NetWorker 7.x
This is a simple step-by-step guide on restoring files on a given Solaris system using the NetWorker recover command-line utility in NetWorker 7.x
Solaris Name Services
With Solaris we have five name services include local files, nis (formerly YP), nisplus (NIS+), DNS and now we have LDAP.
Verifying Solaris 11 version
To check your software to see if they meet minimum version requirements for installation you can use the uname comand, however...
Switching Solaris 11 repositories
For testing purpose you can use the release repository but production environments must use oracle support repository.
Proxy settings needed to update IPS packages for Solaris 11 zones
need proxy settings to update IPS packages for Solaris 11 zones
EFI and SUN Disk Labels
Have you ever got into a situation where you can't install a new system as you forgot to change the disk label from EFI prior to install?
Solaris pseudo file systems
Solaris pseudo file systems look like an ordinary file system but are actually a method whereby various system and process data can be accessed.
Solaris File Systems
Solaris supports a number of different file systems some out of the box, others by ways of additional software.
Oracle VM 3.4 Server Log Files
The Oracle VM Serverlog files you should check when troubleshooting problems with Oracle VM Server
Sharing and mounting a directory under solaris 10
A fundamental task for any Solaris systems administrator is to know how to share and mount an NFS file system
Most commonly used XSCF commands
The eXtended System Control Facility Unit (XSCFU) is a service processor that operates and administrates both midrange servers
Detecting disks under Solaris
Ever needed to get Solaris to detect disks; the method depends on the version of Solaris. This article provides a how to
Changing the Oracle VM Dom0 Memory Size
The Oracle VM Agent password is used by Oracle VM Manager when you discover an Oracle VM Server.
Changing the Hostname in Solaris (updated)
The traditional method of changing the hostname of a given solaris system was to use sys-unconfig utility.
An introduction to Solaris Zones
This post is an introduction to the new virtual technology introduced from Sun Microsystems, namely Solaris Zones (not containers)
Changing the Oracle VM Agent User Password
The Oracle VM Agent password is used by Oracle VM Manager when you discover an Oracle VM Server.
Solaris Volume Manager Overview
A full discussion is beyond the scope of this article, so we will focus on the most common cases, how to set them up, manage them and maintain them.
Bypassing ALOM password on a Sun Fire V210/240/250/440
To overide the ALOM password on the Sun Fire (V210, V240, V250 or V440) system you will need to perform the following tasks.
Patching Solaris with PCA
Not only does PCA generate a list of patches and downloads them, it also resolves dependencies between patches and installs them in the correct order
ZFS Quick Reference Guide
ZFS uses the concept of storage pools to manage physical storage. Historically, file systems were constructed on top of a single physical device.
Finding and Removing core files
A simple one liner to help find and remove core files from a given system.
How to enable/disable automount debugging in Solaris
The automounter has built in debugging, which can be used to examine exactly what the automounter is doing.
Troubleshooting Solaris memory usage
With Solaris 9 and later, comes an extremly nice mdb command for checking how much memory is used in kernel, and how much is used in user space.
Installing EMC PowerPath on Solaris
EMC PowerPath for Solaris automates data path management, failover and recovery, and optimizes load balancing to ensure application availability.
Common Solaris and AIX sysadmin tasks
A short article providing common troubleshooting reference between Solaris 8 and AIX 4.3.3 operating systems.
Solaris Basic Audit Reporting Tool (BART)
BART is a great little alternative to Tripwire or AIDE. While not so robust or full featured, it does what you need it to do with very little impact.
pfiles versus lsof
Many people install lsof on their system as they know it from Linux. But you have a similar tool in Solaris, namely pfiles.
Solaris performance monitoring using K9 toolkit
In a nuyshell, the K9Toolkit is a collection of tools written using the KStat library on a Solaris 9 server to help locate performance bottlenecks.
Using sysperfstat for Solaris performance monitoring
A simple post providing details of using sysperfstat from the K9 toolkit displaying utilisiation and saturation for CPU, memory, disk, etc.
Creating a service manifest for BigBrother under Solaris
simple procedure to create a manifest to start/stop bigbrother under solaris 10
Displaying Solaris processor information
Using psrinfo, prtdiag and prtconf to find processor information on a Solaris system
Performing Live Upgrade with ZFS
how to perform a LiveUpgrade of a Solaris system with ZFS
Setting ACLs on files in a directory
how to setup acls on files in a directory
Making pfexec work like sudo under Solaris
I thought I'd try out the new role based action control (RBAC) on the Solaris systems as an alternative to sudo.
How to unexpire a user login in Solaris
Using the usermod command on Solaris allows a sysadmin to unexpier/unlock a users login account
Restricting SFTP users with chrooted access
In a nutshell users will be tied-down to a specific directory which they will not be able to move from, thus prevention from seeing you entire system
Fixing a prtdiag hung process
fixing a prtdiag hang under solaris
ZFS Dataset Size
A simple entry on how to discover or set the size for a given ZFS dataset as occasionaly we need to increase the size of a ZFS dataset.
Setting up Solaris 10 Accounting subsystem
To configure the Solaris Auditing subsystem on Solaris 9 or Solaris 10 we simply run the bsmconv command-line utility from the /etc/security directory
Resolving '/lib/svc/method/net-physical' network settings is misconfigured.
Duplicate IP address results in network/physical failed with exit status 96