This task-oriented guide aims to help the Solaris administrator handle tough projects with minimal fuss.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
Preface
This book is for beginning system administrators, system administrators new to the Solaris Operating Environment, or any user who wants a task-oriented quick-reference guide to basic administrative commands. A Quick Tour of the Contents
Chapter 1, "Introducing Solaris System Administration," describes basic administration tasks and superuser status. It tells how to communicate with users, start up and shut down systems, and monitor processes. It also introduces some frequently used commands and the new Administration Tools in the Solaris 8 Operating Environment.
Chapter 2, "Using Basic OS Commands," describes basic commands for finding user and environment information, creating and editing files, combining commands and redirecting output, displaying manual pages, and determining disk data.
Chapter 3, "Understanding Shells,"describes some commands common to all shells and provides basic information about the Bourne, C, Korn, Bourne-Again, TC, and Z shells.
Chapter 4, "Administering User Accounts and Groups," describes how to add and remove user accounts and how to set up new group accounts.
Chapter 5, "Administering Roles," introduces the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) security feature, new in the Solaris 8 Operating Environment, that enables you to assign a subset of superuser privileges to one or more users.
Chapter 6, "Administering File Systems," describes the types of file systems provided in the Solaris 8 Operating Environment, the default file system, the virtual file system table, and the file system administrative commands. It shows you how to make file systems available and how to back up and restore file systems.
Chapter 7, "Administering Devices," describes how to use tapes and diskettes to store and retrieve files and how to administer disks. It also introduces the Service Access Facility and provides instructions for setting up port monitors for printers and modems.
Chapter 8, "Administering Systems," describes commands to display system-specific information, configure additional swap space without reformatting a disk, and create a local mail alias.
Chapter 9, "Administering Network Services," describes commands to check on remote system status, log in to remote systems, and transfer files between systems. It describes how to use the Solaris AdminSuite 3.0 tools to make changes to NIS+ databases once NIS+ is up and running. This chapter also introduces the IPv6 internet protocol and describes how to display network statistics and configuration information.
Chapter 10, "Administering Printing," introduces the LP print service, describes how to set up printing services, and explains how to use the printing commands.
Chapter 11, "Recognizing File Access Problems," provides information on how to recognize problems with search paths and with permissions and ownership.
The Glossary contains basic system administration terms and definitions.Important: Read This Before You Begin
Because we assume that the root path includes the /sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/bin, and /etc directories, the steps show the commands in these directories without absolute path names. Steps that use commands in other, less common directories show the absolute path in the example.
The examples in this book are for a basic Solaris software installation without the Binary Compatibility Package installed and without /usr/ucb in the path.CAUTION. If /usr/ucb is included in a search path, it should always be at the end. Commands like ps or df are duplicated in /usr/ucb with different formats and options from those of Solaris ommands.
This book does not contain all the information you need to administer systems. Refer to the complete system administration documentation for comprehensive information.
Because the Solaris Operating Environment provides the Bourne (default), Korn, and C shells, examples in this book show prompts for each of the shells. The default C shell prompt is system-name%. The default Bourne and Korn shell prompt is $. The default root prompt for all shells is a pound sign (#). In examples that affect more than one system, the C shell prompt (which shows the system name) is used to make it clear when you change from one system to another.SPARC and IA Information
This book provides system administration information for both SPARC and IA systems. Unless otherwise noted, information throughout this book applies to both types of systems. Table A summarizes the differences between the SPARC and IA system administration tasks.
Table A.
SPARC and IA System Administration Differences
Category SPARC Platform IA Platform
System operation before kernel is loaded A programmable read-only memory (PROM) chip with a monitor program runs diagnostics and displays device information. The PROM is also used to program default boot parameters and to test the devices connected to the system. The basic input/output system (BIOS) runs diagnostics and displays device information. A Solaris Device Configuration Assistant boot diskette with the Multiple Device Boot (MDB) program is used to boot from nondefault boot partitions, the network, or the CD-ROM.
Booting the system Commands and options at the PROM level are used to boot the system. Commands and options at the MBD, primary, and secondary boot subsystems level are used to boot the system.
Boot programs bootblk, the primary boot program, loads ufsboot. ufsboot, the secondary boot program, loads the kernel. mboot, the master boot record, loads pboot. pboot, the Solaris partition boot program, loads bootblk. bootblk, the primary boot program, loads ufsboot. ufsboot, the secondary boot program, loads the kernel.
System shutdown The shutdown and init commands can be used without additional operator intervention. The shutdown and init commands are used but require operator intervention to type any key to continue the prompt.
Disk controllers SCSI SCSI and IDE
Disk slices and partitions A disk may have a maximum of eight slices, numbered 0-7. A disk may have a maximum of four fdisk partitions. The Solaris fdisk partition may contain up to 10 slices, numbered 0-9, but only 0-7 can store user data.
Diskette drives Desktop systems usually contain one 3.5-inch diskette drive. Systems may contain two diskette drives: a 3.5-inch and a 5.25-inch drive.
Solaris System Software Evolution
To help you understand how Solaris is evolving, Table B provides a list of the major system administration feature differences for each release.
Table B.
Solaris System Software Evolution
Release New Features
Solaris 1.0 Berkeley (BSD) UNIX contains Solaris 4.x functionality.
Solaris 2.0 (SunOS 5.0) A merger of AT&T System V Release 4 (SVR4) and BSD UNIX. To facilitate customer transition, Solaris uses SVR4 as the default environment, with BSD commands and modes as an option. Administration Tool provides a graphical user interface Database Manager and Host Manager.
Solaris 2.1 (SunOS 5.1) Administration Tool adds a graphical user interface Printer Manager and User Account Manager.
Solaris 2.2 (SunOS 5.2) Volume management integrates access to CD-ROM and diskette files with the File Manager and provides a command-line interface. Users no longer need superuser privileges to mount CD-ROMs and diskettes. Solaris 2.0 and 2.1 procedures do not work with volume management because volume management controls and owns the devices.
Solaris 2.3 (SunOS 5.3) Volume management changes Solaris 2.2 mount point naming conventions.
Administration Tool adds a graphical user interface Serial Port Manager with templates that provide default settings, which makes adding character terminals and modems much easier.
The automounter is split into two programs: an automounted daemon and a separate automount program. Both are run when the system is booted. The /tmp_mnt mount point is not displayed as part of the path name, and the local path is displayed as /home/username. Additional predefined automount map variables are provided. (Refer to the Solaris Advanced System Administrator's Guide.)
Online: Backup 2.1 is included with the release. (Not documented in this book.)
Pluggable Authentication Model (PAM) is included with the release. PAM provides a consistent framework to enable access control applications, such as login, to be able to choose any authentication scheme available on a system, without concern for implementation details. (Not documented in this book.)
C2 Security is included in this release. (Not documented in this book.)
The format(1) command changes for SCSI disks. (Not documented in this book.)
PPP network protocol product that provides IP network connectivity over a variety of point-to-point connections is included in this release. (Not documented in this book.)
Cache File System (CacheFS) for NFS is included in this release. CacheFS is a generic, nonvolatile caching mechanism to improve performance of certain file systems by using a small, fast, local disk.
New NIS+ setup scripts are included in this release. The nisserver(1M), nispopulate(1M), and nisclient(1M) scripts enable you to set up an NIS+ domain much more quickly and easily than if you used the individual NIS+ commands to do so. With these scripts, you can avoid a lengthy manual setup process.
Solaris 2.4 (SunOS 5.4) New Motif GUI for Solaris software installation is added. (Not documented in this book.)
Solaris 2.5 (SunOS 5.5) New pax(1M) portable archive interchange command for copying files and file systems to portable media is added.
Admintool is used to administer only local systems. Solstice AdminSuite product is available for managing systems in a network for SPARC and IA systems.
New process tools are available in /usr/proc/bin that display highly detailed information about the active processes stored in the process file system in the /proc directory.
Telnet client is upgraded to the 4.4 BSD version. rlogin and telnetd remote login capacity are improved. (Not documented in this book.)
Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1) The limit on user ID and group ID values is raised to 2147483647, or the maximum value of a signed integer. The nobody user and group (60001) and the no access user and group (60002) retain the same UID and GID as in previous Solaris releases.
Solaris 2.6 (SunOS 5.6) Changes to the Solaris 2.6 printing software provide a better solution than the LP print software in previous Solaris releases. You can easily set up and manage print clients by using the NIS or NIS+ nameservices to enable centralization of print administration for a network of systems and printers. New features include redesign of print packages, print protocol adapter, bundled SunSoft Print Client software, and network printer support.
New nisbackup and nisrestore commands provide a quick and efficient method of backing up and restoring NIS+ namespaces.
New patch tools, including patchadd and patchrm commands, add and remove patches. These commands replace the installpatch and backoutpatch commands that were previously shipped with each individual patch. (Refer to the Solaris Advanced System Administrator's Guide.)
New filesync command ensures that data is moved automatically between a portable computer and a server. (Not documented in this book.)
The previous flat /proc file system is restructured into a directory hierarchy that contains additional subdirectories for state information and control functions. This release also provides a watchpoint facility to monitor access to and modifications of data in the process address space. The adb(1) command uses this facility to provide watchpoints.
Large files are supported on UFS, NFS, and CacheFS file systems. Applications can create and access files up to one Tbyte on UFS-mounted file systems and up to the limit of the NFS server for NFS- and CacheFS-mounted file systems. A new -mount option disables the large-file support on UFS file systems. Using the -mount option enables system administrators to ensure that older applications that are not able to safely handle large files do not accidentally operate on large files.
NFS Kerberos authentication now uses DES encryption to improve security over the network. The kernel implementations of NFS and RPC network services now support a new RPC authentication flavor that is based on the Generalized Security Services API (GSS-API). This support contains the hooks for future stronger security of the NFS environment. (Refer to the Solaris Advanced System Administrator's Guide.)
The PAM authentication modules framework enables you to "plug in" new authentication technologies. (Refer to the Solaris Advanced System Administrator's Guide.)
Font Admin enables easy installation and use of fonts for the X Window System. It supports TrueType, Type0, Type1, and CID fonts for multibyte languages and provides comparative font preview capability. It is fully integrated into the CDE desktop. (Not documented in this book.)
TrueType fonts are supported through X and Display PostScript. Font Admin enables easy installation and integration of third-party fonts into the Solaris environment. (Not documented in this book.)
The Solaris 2.6 operating environment is year 2000 ready. It uses unambiguous dates and follows the X/Open guidelines where appropriate. (Not documented in this book.)
WebNFS software enables file systems to be accessed through the Web with the NFS protocol. This protocol is very reliable and provides greater throughput under a heavy load. (Not documented in this book.)
The Java Virtual Machine 1.1 integrates the Java platform for the Solaris Operating Environment. It includes the Java runtime environment and the basic tools needed to develop Java applets and applications. (Not documented in this book.)
For IA systems, the Configuration Assistant interface is part of the new booting system for the Solaris (Intel Platform Edition) software. It determines which hardware devices are in the system, accounts for the resources each device uses, and enables users to choose which device to boot from.
For IA systems, the kdmconfig program configures the mouse, graphics adapter, and monitor. If an owconfig file already exists, kdmconfig extracts any usable information from it. In addition, kdmconfig retrieves information left in the devinfo tree by the defconf program and uses that information to automatically identify devices. (Not documented in this book.)
Release is fully compliant with X/Open UNIX 95, POSIX standards. (Not documented in this book.)
Solaris 7
(SunOS 5.7) Solaris 64-bit operating environment is added (SPARC Platform Edition only). (Not documented in this book.)
UFS logging improves file system support.
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) protocol improves managing name databases. (Not documented in this book.)
Java Development Kit for Solaris significantly improves scalability and performance for Java applications. (Not documented in this book.)
Dynamic reconfiguration significantly decreases system downtime.
AnswerBook2 server runs on a Web server. (Not documented in this book.)
Unicode locales enhanced with multiscript capabilities and six new Unicode locales are added.
RPC security is enhanced with integrity and confidentiality. (Not documented in this book.)
The Solaris Common Desktop Environment (CDE) contains new tools to make it easy to find, manipulate, and manage address cards, applications, e-mail addresses, files, folders, hosts, processes, and Web addresses. (Not documented in this book.)
Solaris 8
(SunOS 5.8) IPv6 adds increased address space and improves Internet functionality by using a simplified header format, support for authentication and privacy, autoconfiguration of address assignments, and new quality-of-service capabilities.
The Solaris Operating Environment provides the Naming Service switch back-end support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) based directory service. (Not documented in this book.)
The Java2 Software Development Kit for Solaris significantly improves scalability and performance of Java applications. (Not documented in this book.)
The Solaris 8 Installation CD provides a graphical, wizard-based, Java-powered application to install the Solaris Operating Environment and other software. (Not documented in this book.)
The Solaris 8 Operating Environment supports the Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system, enabling users to exchange data stored on CD-ROMs, disks, diskettes, DVDs, and other optical media.
The Solaris Smart Card feature enables security administrators to protect a computer desktop or individual application by requiring users to authenticate themselves by means of a smart card. (Not documented in this book.)
The PDA Synchronization (PDA Sync) application synchronizes the data from applications such as Desktop Calendar, Desktop Mail, Memo, and Address, with data in similar applications on a user's Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). (Not documented in this book.)
The Solaris 8 Software CDs and Languages CD include support for more than 90 locales, covering 37 languages. (Not documented in this book.)
The Solaris Common Desktop Environment (CDE) contains new and enhanced features that incorporate easy-to-use desktop productivity tools, PC interoperability, and desktop management tools. (Not documented in this book.)
The X Server is upgraded to the X11R6.4 industry standard that includes features to increase user productivity and mobility, including remote execution of X applications through a Web browser on any Web-based desktop, Sinerama, Color Utilization Policy, EnergyStar support, and new APIs and documentation for the developer tool kits. (Not documented in this book.)
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) enables system administrators to create specific roles by which they can assign superuser privileges for specific tasks to one or more individual users.
Freeware
The following freeware tools and libraries are included in the Solaris 8 release.
bash-sh—compatible command language interpreter.
bzip2—Block-sorting file compressor.
gpatch—Applies patch files to originals.
gzip—GNU zip compression command.
less—A pager similar to more.
libz—Also known as zlib. A library that performs compression, specifically, RFCs 1950-1952.
misofs—Builds a CD image, using an iso9660 file system.
rmp2cpio—Transforms a package in RMP format (Red Hat Package Manager) to a cpio archive.
tcsh—C shell with file-name completion and command-line editing.
zip—Compression and file packaging command.
zsh—Command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive login shell and as a shell script command processor. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
The best-selling tutorial and reference for Solaris system administrators.
- The essential guide to Solaris 8 system administration!
- Covers the latest features and management tools
- Administering users, devices, systems, networks, printing, and more
- Maximizing efficiency, productivity, and system availability
- Basic administration: superuser status, startup/shutdown, monitoring processes, and communicating with users
- Solaris commands: user and environment information, working with files and disks, redirecting output, reading manual pages, and more
- Solaris shells: Bourne, C, Korn, Bourne-Again, TC, and Z
- Administering user accounts, file systems, and roles-including Solaris 8's new Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Administering devices and systems: Service Access Facility, configuring additional swap space, creating local e-mail aliases, and more
- Administering network services: remote administration, Solaris AdminSuiteTM 3.0 tools, NIS+, IPv6, and more
From troubleshooting file access to tracking network performance, streamlining printing to backing up file systems, this book delivers authoritative, accessible information you'll use today—and every day.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Okay but not great,
By
This review is from: Solaris System Administrator's Guide (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
The author has commented that "I am the author of this book and would like to point out that the reviews shown on this page are NOT for the Solaris System Administrator's Guide, Third Edition, which was released in December 2000."Sadly, my review IS for the 3rd Edition, which I have open on my desk. After reading 30 pages (heavily marked up in red pen representing copious errors I noticed on first glance), I deliberately looked the book up on Amazon to see if it was going to get any better. Judging from the other reviews, I assume that it probably won't. I was startled to read on page 3 that it makes no attempt to cover Solaris installation, network administration, mail administration, hardware installation, security administration, or performance monitoring -- pretty basic tasks for ANY system administrator! Nonetheless, it remains a basically useful guide to Solaris 8. I come from a FreeBSD background, and the book has been handy already in pointing out fundamental differences between the Unices and directing my study. I'll probably buy additional Solaris 8 references to supplement this book, but will try different authors/publishers in the future. I don't regret buying this book because of its low price, but I guess I got what I paid for.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
It REALLY is bad,
By "dorogame" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Solaris System Administrator's Guide (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
I'd refrained from buying this author's books because of the bad reviews many of her other books had gotten, but due to the lack of materials on Solaris 8, I was almost forced to buy this one (I must admit that I was also influenced by the author's own review, which was a big mistake). It's amazing how she leaves so many things unexplained (or just refers the reader to the man pages). On Page 59, you see this passage:"Use the following command to raise the priority of a command by lowering the nice number by ten units. /usr/bin/nice -10 command-name Use the following command to raise the priority of a command by lowering the nice number by ten units. The first minus sign is the option sign, and the second minus sign indicates a negative number. /usr/bin/nice - -10 command-name" Guess what comes right after this? Nothing. She just moves on to renice. Why would anyone use the option sign? Or why is it there in the first place? No explanation. She uses lots of copy & paste, as you can see from the example above. Let me give you another one. She devotes a big chunk of space from Page 43 to 44 to a table listing process tools. No sooner than 6 pages later, we are greeted by the same table, taking up another good half page. The difference? The latter has asterisks indicating the ones that need to be executed by superuser. OK. What do we use these tools for? What do they do? When do they come in handy? Instead of telling the reader those things, she devotes the following 3 pages to a screen shot of these commands, which means very little to us. All we are left with are the one-line descriptions of the tools in the table, repeated twice. The author claims that the third edition has been reorganized; now I'm curious how the second edition was organized. About the only thing this book made me understand is the reason why so many other people gave bad reviews to her books. I still don't understand why Sun keeps hiring her, though.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solaris-specific Information,
By
This review is from: Solaris System Administrator's Guide (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
Every system administrator who knows one Unix or Linux operatingsystem knows about 85% of every other Unix and Linux operating system, simply because they are designed to be compatible. As a system administrator you can muck around the admin guides and man pages for a new operating system and maybe, if you're lucky, figure out another 10%. That last 5% is the toughie. For example, you may know that SAM, SMIT, and Admintool do roughly the same things on HP-UX, AIX, and Solaris, respectively, but you don't know about the little undocumented files they keep in addition to the standard Unix configuration files they are intended to maintain. To get at that last 5% of your new operating system, which you may not even suspect exists, you're going to need a book that covers it specifically. Janice Winsor covers the Solaris methods and software in the official Solaris way, and shows you what those 8,000 engineers were paid to design that will make your life as a system administrator easier. You're just not going to find this material in any other book. Topics that might interest you include a description of the People who buy this book thinking they're going to get an
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