A repository of information technology questions and answers

Latest posts

0 sec(s)    visits.

Creating Solaris Containers

2 min(s) 24 sec(s)    952 visits.

Whilst there is an abundance of documentation on creating containers, the goal here is to create a container in the fewest number of steps.

Solaris 11 Patch History

1 min 50 sec(s)    2053 visits.

Using the pkg history command you can take a look back and see what happened on your image.

Solaris Crash Dumps

3 min(s) 27 sec(s)    840 visits.

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

8 min(s) 39 sec(s)    836 visits.

This article describes how to determine ZFS device failure types, clear transient errors, and replace a device.

Repairing a Missing ZFS Device

2 min(s) 21 sec(s)    756 visits.

If a device cannot be opened, it displays as UNAVAILABLE in the zpool status output.

Changing the default Solaris 11 locale

55 sec(s)    806 visits.

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

1 min 23 sec(s)    1037 visits.

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

3 min(s) 9 sec(s)    990 visits.

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

4 min(s) 53 sec(s)    1997 visits.

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

4 min(s) 10 sec(s)    2176 visits.

A simple posts giving a brief overview on the Solaris LDOM hardware virtualisation.

Enabling the Solaris Auditing subsystem

39 sec(s)    1460 visits.

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+

5 min(s) 22 sec(s)    974 visits.

NIS+ is a network information service enables system administrators to manage a group of servers from a central location

Solaris Boot Process

7 min(s) 59 sec(s)    1627 visits.

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

2 min(s) 16 sec(s)    803 visits.

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

51 sec(s)    1153 visits.

This is a short how-to post to provide simple steps to add users to a SAMBA environment.

Solaris patch return codes - patchadd

2 min(s) 41 sec(s)    2565 visits.

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.

fssnap of / (root) fails under Solaris

1 min 27 sec(s)    2714 visits.

Using fssnap we can quickly take a temporary snapshot of any UFS file system and then use that snapshot for backup operations.

Preventing a Solaris 'Ping of Death' attack

1 min 52 sec(s)    973 visits.

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

49 sec(s)    187 visits.

You can use the zfs send command to send a copy of a snapshot stream and receive the snapshot stream in another pool

Solaris Deferred Activation Patching (DAP)

4 min(s) 31 sec(s)    774 visits.

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

6 min(s) 10 sec(s)    1353 visits.

Integrates and scales from single to thousands of servers and desktops, storage components and applications running on Solaris

Solaris Fault Management Architecture

7 min(s) 42 sec(s)    1679 visits.

Solaris Fault Management Architecture (FMA) introduces a new software architecture and methodology for fault management across Sun's product line.

Patching Solaris with Sun Patch Manager 2

2 min(s) 16 sec(s)    1448 visits.

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

Solaris Run Control Scripts

2 min(s) 1 sec    786 visits.

Run Control (rc) scripts are used to start and stop processes at boot up and shutdown.

Introduction to Solaris Live Upgrade

3 min(s) 28 sec(s)    1444 visits.

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

1 min 3 sec(s)    1155 visits.

The beadm command enables users to manage their boot environments. This article provides a snapshot of the more command beadm subcommands.

Process monitoring using prstat

4 min(s) 35 sec(s)    1158 visits.

The prstat statistics utility shows a top-level summary of the processes that are using system resources currently.

Troubleshooting ZFS Swap and Dump devices

4 min(s) 26 sec(s)    2867 visits.

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

2 min(s) 16 sec(s)    3042 visits.

Veritas Volume Replicator aides in an effective maintain a consistent copy of application data at one or more remote locations via data-replication

ZFS Send and Receive

2 min(s) 51 sec(s)    3106 visits.

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

1 min 21 sec(s)    2582 visits.

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

3 min(s) 31 sec(s)    1885 visits.

The Solaris FireEngine project is a high performance networking framework based on an IP classifier and vertical perimeters.

Creating a Solaris Zone on ZFS

3 min(s) 46 sec(s)    1953 visits.

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

Solaris backup and restore utilities

5 min(s) 10 sec(s)    1779 visits.

A brief overview of the various backup and restore utilities available under the Solaris operating system.

Assigning a Volume Name to a Solaris disk

2 min(s) 28 sec(s)    3275 visits.

Having a large number of disks can be a challange for sysadmins. By giving each disk a volume name may make it easier.

Creating a Flash Archive Recovery (FLAR) Image

4 min(s) 20 sec(s)    3191 visits.

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

5 min(s) 18 sec(s)    2851 visits.

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

2 min(s) 39 sec(s)    2635 visits.

Inodes store information on files such as user and group ownership, access mode (read, write, execute permissions) and type of file.

Solaris tape device files and utilities

26 min(s) 11 sec(s)    3316 visits.

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

2 min(s) 29 sec(s)    2714 visits.

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

1 min 15 sec(s)    4227 visits.

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

46 sec(s)    2800 visits.

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

1 min 31 sec(s)    3643 visits.

Setting the size of a ZFS dataset can ensure an appropriate allocation of space configuration that contains multiple volumes to service different clients

Sun RSC Configuration

1 min 51 sec(s)    2964 visits.

How to setup and manage a Sun RSC (Remote Serial Console) on the Sun Enterprise™ 250.

Solaris package management

39 sec(s)    2537 visits.

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

4 min(s) 22 sec(s)    4107 visits.

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'

3 min(s) 41 sec(s)    2883 visits.

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

4 min(s) 55 sec(s)    2517 visits.

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

2 min(s) 5 sec(s)    3401 visits.

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 runlevels

1 min 42 sec(s)    2631 visits.

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

3 min(s) 12 sec(s)    2683 visits.

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

2 min(s) 22 sec(s)    2790 visits.

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?

1 min 20 sec(s)    2608 visits.

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

6 min(s) 15 sec(s)    2817 visits.

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

4 min(s) 43 sec(s)    3592 visits.

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

3 min(s) 44 sec(s)    1965 visits.

The find command in UNIX and Linux is a command line utility allowing you to search for files in a directory hierarchy.

Stopping and Starting CDE

32 sec(s)    2592 visits.

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

20 sec(s)    3308 visits.

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

1 min 10 sec(s)    2899 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.

Rename an existing SAM-QFS file system?

2 min(s) 0 sec(s)    1844 visits.

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

2 min(s) 42 sec(s)    2453 visits.

This article provides a quick reference guide to the supported disk configuration on a Sun StorEdge A5x00 storage array.

Solaris MultiPathing options

5 min(s) 56 sec(s)    2773 visits.

Checking if any of the MPxIO, VxDMP or EMC PowerPath multipathing software is installed and active on a given Solaris system.

Solaris proc commands

4 min(s) 40 sec(s)    2584 visits.

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

2 min(s) 1 sec    2856 visits.

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

1 min 42 sec(s)    2798 visits.

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

3 min(s) 21 sec(s)    2860 visits.

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

1 min 9 sec(s)    2674 visits.

This article shows how to gracefully shut down Solaris 9 from within the CDE, and from the Console Login.

Using the OBDiag Utility

3 min(s) 28 sec(s)    2533 visits.

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

3 min(s) 12 sec(s)    2803 visits.

This document details some of the focus areas for security and provides suggestions to make it strong.

sadmind daemon vulnerability

1 min 4 sec(s)    2565 visits.

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

1 min 22 sec(s)    2595 visits.

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

44 sec(s)    2877 visits.

fontconfig is used to manage all types of fonts including PostScript and TrueType fonts in the Solaris desktop environment.

Installing Manual pages in Solaris

1 min 21 sec(s)    3170 visits.

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

59 sec(s)    3034 visits.

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

1 min 42 sec(s)    2580 visits.

Component Manager is a GUI application that helps manage and control Sun StorEdge A5x00 and Sun StorEdge T3 storage arrays.

Installing Solaris boot blocks

1 min 30 sec(s)    3216 visits.

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

2 min(s) 40 sec(s)    2554 visits.

A short article providing various keyboard shortcuts for command line edit of any commands quick and easily.

Solaris Secure by Default

1 min 42 sec(s)    2752 visits.

This project changes the default configuration of the Solaris OS such that ssh is the only network-listening service.

Solaris IP Filtering

1 min 57 sec(s)    2738 visits.

IPF provides stateful packet filtering capabilities by IP address, network, port, protocol, network interface and traffic direction.

Solaris Auditing

4 min(s) 40 sec(s)    3612 visits.

Solaris auditing helps to detect potential security breaches by revealing suspicious or abnormal patterns of system usage.

Cryptographic Services Management on Solaris

2 min(s) 28 sec(s)    2999 visits.

The Solaris Cryptographic Framework provides cryptographic services to users and applications through user-level and kernel-level commands.

Sun Diskless Workstation Boot Sequence

1 min 18 sec(s)    3176 visits.

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

2 min(s) 48 sec(s)    2599 visits.

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

Automated Security Enhancement Tool (ASET)

1 min 33 sec(s)    3022 visits.

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

1 min 31 sec(s)    2668 visits.

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

Solaris vs RHEL differences

41 sec(s)    2569 visits.

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

5 min(s) 46 sec(s)    2699 visits.

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

7 min(s) 11 sec(s)    2675 visits.

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

7 min(s) 30 sec(s)    2806 visits.

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

3 min(s) 4 sec(s)    2494 visits.

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

2 min(s) 9 sec(s)    3151 visits.

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

54 sec(s)    2581 visits.

Solaris will try to paste the top most thing in your clipboard when you click your middle mouse button.

NIS+ Credential Setup

2 min(s) 35 sec(s)    3181 visits.

To gain authorisation to change NIS+ databases you need to create your security credentials for the NIS+ principals

Creating a DiskSuite RAID5 device

48 sec(s)    2513 visits.

Creating a RAID 5 metadevice with DiskSuite is extremely simple. Unlike creating mirrors which involves several steps.

Reloading st.conf without rebooting

1 min 36 sec(s)    2904 visits.

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

1 min 9 sec(s)    3512 visits.

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)

3 min(s) 19 sec(s)    2723 visits.

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

Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) cheat sheet

8 min(s) 15 sec(s)    2997 visits.

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

5 min(s) 48 sec(s)    2960 visits.

This quick reference guide provides a crib sheet style listing for administrating NIS and NIS+ environments.

Creating a Solaris FLAR image

1 min 56 sec(s)    2749 visits.

A Solaris FLAR image can be used for reinstalling the OS one the original host and other systems.

Resetting Solaris LDOM to factory default

1 min 15 sec(s)    3179 visits.

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

52 sec(s)    2928 visits.

There are two way to change block size to get quickly synchronized disks in mirrored system

Configuring OpenSSH on Solaris 8

1 min 42 sec(s)    2834 visits.

Solaris 8 doesn't come with the SSH and SFTP like features, to enable these we have to install and configure third party packages

Using the truss command on Solaris

2 min(s) 40 sec(s)    3739 visits.

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

3 min(s) 49 sec(s)    2570 visits.

This article describes how to display the Solaris Zone Status and Configuration from the global zone.

Enforcing password complexity on Solaris

4 min(s) 36 sec(s)    2685 visits.

Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength.

Listing avilable Solaris 10 services

2 min(s) 21 sec(s)    2549 visits.

Under Solaris 10 we use the svcs command to provide information about services, including their status.

How to allow root login on Solaris 11

33 sec(s)    3166 visits.

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

1 min 56 sec(s)    2822 visits.

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.

Oracle Parameters on Solaris 10

1 min 20 sec(s)    3261 visits.

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

4 min(s) 10 sec(s)    3569 visits.

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 various NFS errors

5 min(s) 42 sec(s)    2940 visits.

Identifying and solving a problem is called troubleshooting, which is arguably the most difficult task in any area of computers. NFS is no exception.

Viewing Processes with the pgrep command

3 min(s) 10 sec(s)    3169 visits.

The pgrep command lets you specify the criteria and then displays the information only about the processes that match the criteria.

UFS snaphots

1 min 45 sec(s)    2521 visits.

Basically, a snapshot is read-only copy of a file system (for the purpose of backup).

Viewing Processes with the prstat command

2 min(s) 44 sec(s)    2854 visits.

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

44 sec(s)    2909 visits.

The uadmin command is tightly coupled to the system administration procedures and is not intended for general use

Configuring puppet on Solaris 11

4 min(s) 26 sec(s)    3089 visits.

A short article on the introduction and how to manage Solaris 11 systems using puppet.

Using SSH login without password

1 min 54 sec(s)    2951 visits.

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.

Disabling MONLIST in NTP

42 sec(s)    2884 visits.

NTP server prior to version 4.2.7 apparently allows for the user to query the NTP server stat

"sed -i" workaround for Solaris

24 sec(s)    3264 visits.

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)

2 min(s) 20 sec(s)    3264 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.

Clearing Password History in Solaris 10

1 min 39 sec(s)    3021 visits.

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

1 min 24 sec(s)    3011 visits.

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.

Solaris Branded Zones

2 min(s) 16 sec(s)    3399 visits.

Branded zones are Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 containers created in a Solaris 10 global zone with BrandZ framework to extend the Solaris zones.

LDOM cheat sheet

3 min(s) 15 sec(s)    4246 visits.

This document is designed to be a a quick platform specific cheat sheet to help engineers run important LDOM task on Sun SPARC systems

Crash Dump Configuration

2 min(s) 6 sec(s)    2565 visits.

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

3 min(s) 28 sec(s)    2704 visits.

Core files are created when a program or an application terminates abnormally and are by default eritten to the current working directory.

Solaris preboot execution environment (PXE)

3 min(s) 44 sec(s)    3282 visits.

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

1 min 51 sec(s)    3122 visits.

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

39 sec(s)    3225 visits.

The Solaris Management Console (SMC) includes a graphical tool to create and schedule jobs on your system.

Solaris Software Patches

1 min 34 sec(s)    2599 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

3 min(s) 45 sec(s)    2824 visits.

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

4 min(s) 32 sec(s)    2566 visits.

When you create a UFS file system, the disk slice is divided into cylinder groups.

Solaris non-global Zone States

1 min 15 sec(s)    2757 visits.

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)

58 sec(s)    2949 visits.

The Sun Explorer utility gathers information and creates detailed snapshots of a systems architecture and configuration.

soft links and hard links in Solaris

6 min(s) 11 sec(s)    2618 visits.

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

1 min 30 sec(s)    2607 visits.

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

2 min(s) 13 sec(s)    3262 visits.

Quotas let system administrators control the size of UFS file systems by limiting the amount of disk space that individual users can acquire.

SUNW,hme network properties

2 min(s) 57 sec(s)    2459 visits.

Sun's Fast Ethernet card is one of the most commonly encountered pieces of hardware on a Solaris system. Internally nicknamed happy meal.

Solaris run levels (updated)

2 min(s) 7 sec(s)    2566 visits.

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

51 sec(s)    2754 visits.

Sometime hostname need to be changed especially when your customer want to make some list of server more orderly and correctly identify your machine

ZFS command line examples

4 min(s) 32 sec(s)    3162 visits.

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

2 min(s) 42 sec(s)    1472 visits.

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)

1 min 3 sec(s)    4472 visits.

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

1 min 47 sec(s)    3538 visits.

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

2 min(s) 52 sec(s)    2779 visits.

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)

59 sec(s)    2737 visits.

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

2 min(s) 16 sec(s)    2733 visits.

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

2 min(s) 53 sec(s)    2987 visits.

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)

24 sec(s)    3229 visits.

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

1 min 25 sec(s)    3007 visits.

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

1 min 14 sec(s)    2540 visits.

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

Restoring original Solaris file permissions

1 min 16 sec(s)    2900 visits.

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

50 sec(s)    3186 visits.

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

1 min 54 sec(s)    3974 visits.

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

1 min 7 sec(s)    2939 visits.

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

3 min(s) 27 sec(s)    2772 visits.

Efficient event log syslog analysis reduces system downtime, increases network performance, and helps tighten security policies in the enterprise.

Basic Solaris Network Troubleshooting

3 min(s) 23 sec(s)    2733 visits.

Troubleshooting potential Solaris network services and issues using standard everyday tools ping, snoop, netstat and nfsstat.

Finding Solaris release and kernel info

50 sec(s)    2619 visits.

Do you need to determine which release of Solaris you are running? Or other useful information that comes with it? The read more

Miscellaneous Solaris Commands

2 min(s) 0 sec(s)    3287 visits.

An assortment of miscellaneous Solaris commands that are useful to both novice and experienced Solaris administrators

Cleaning up the Live Upgrade environment

4 min(s) 37 sec(s)    960 visits.

A simple process to cleanup the LiveUpgrade configuration for the solenv1 and alternative boot environments without impacting the system.

Identifying an ethernet (MAC) address in Solaris

1 min 14 sec(s)    5690 visits.

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.

Patching Solaris 10 zones in parallel

1 min 5 sec(s)    2623 visits.

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

1 min 22 sec(s)    4080 visits.

This article will document how to mount a Windows CIFS file share onto the local file system on the Solaris 11 server.

Locking down your Solaris system

2 min(s) 6 sec(s)    2499 visits.

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

2 min(s) 27 sec(s)    2672 visits.

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 much memory is in this UNIX system?

1 min 3 sec(s)    2695 visits.

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

2 min(s) 0 sec(s)    2708 visits.

Most ZFS errors I've experienced generally fall into one of three categories. missing devices, damaged devices and data corruption.

ZFS Recommendations

2 min(s) 46 sec(s)    3076 visits.

Because ZFS uses kernel addressable memory, we need to make sure to allow enough system resources to take advantage of its capabilities

ZFS Internals

1 min 16 sec(s)    2843 visits.

Max Bruning wrote an excellent paper on how to examine the internals of a ZFS data structure.

ZFS and Sun Cluster integration

19 sec(s)    2558 visits.

A ZFS owned disk may be promoted to be a quorum disk on current Sun Cluster versions

ZFS Hardware Maintenance

40 sec(s)    2546 visits.

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

56 sec(s)    2651 visits.

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

28 sec(s)    1047 visits.

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

5 min(s) 35 sec(s)    1685 visits.

The difference between a snapshot and a clone is that a clone is a writable, mountable copy of the file system.

ZFS Performance Monitoring

1 min 3 sec(s)    3374 visits.

In ZFS, I/Os are scheduled similarly to how jobs are scheduled on CPUs.

ZFS Raid Levels

24 sec(s)    2784 visits.

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

49 sec(s)    2536 visits.

Similar filesystems should be grouped together in hierarchies to make management easier.

Solaris Crash Dump Analysis (CDA)

5 min(s) 10 sec(s)    3252 visits.

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)

3 min(s) 44 sec(s)    3169 visits.

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

2 min(s) 15 sec(s)    2490 visits.

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

1 min 51 sec(s)    841 visits.

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

2 min(s) 28 sec(s)    2763 visits.

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

47 sec(s)    2459 visits.

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

1 min 15 sec(s)    2560 visits.

For testing purpose you can use the release repository but production environments must use oracle support repository.

EFI and SUN Disk Labels

45 sec(s)    2593 visits.

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

53 sec(s)    2671 visits.

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

2 min(s) 45 sec(s)    2557 visits.

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

58 sec(s)    3263 visits.

The Oracle VM Serverlog files you should check when troubleshooting problems with Oracle VM Server

Most commonly used XSCF commands

3 min(s) 3 sec(s)    2839 visits.

The eXtended System Control Facility Unit (XSCFU) is a service processor that operates and administrates both midrange servers

Detecting disks under Solaris

11 sec(s)    2611 visits.

Ever needed to get Solaris to detect disks; the method depends on the version of Solaris. This article provides a how to

An introduction to Solaris Zones

6 min(s) 33 sec(s)    2736 visits.

This post is an introduction to the new virtual technology introduced from Sun Microsystems, namely Solaris Zones (not containers)

Solaris Volume Manager Overview

4 min(s) 2 sec(s)    2864 visits.

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.

Patching Solaris with PCA

1 min 48 sec(s)    2936 visits.

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

2 min(s) 38 sec(s)    2626 visits.

ZFS uses the concept of storage pools to manage physical storage. Historically, file systems were constructed on top of a single physical device.

Troubleshooting Solaris memory usage

2 min(s) 46 sec(s)    2926 visits.

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

2 min(s) 4 sec(s)    230 visits.

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

3 min(s) 1 sec    3190 visits.

A short article providing common troubleshooting reference between Solaris 8 and AIX 4.3.3 operating systems.

Solaris Basic Audit Reporting Tool (BART)

2 min(s) 40 sec(s)    3067 visits.

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

1 min 41 sec(s)    2908 visits.

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

31 sec(s)    180 visits.

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.

Restricting SFTP users with chrooted access

1 min 28 sec(s)    2525 visits.

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

ZFS Dataset Size

33 sec(s)    2688 visits.

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

5 min(s) 45 sec(s)    1605 visits.

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