When to Use Administration Tool

Administration Tool applications enable you to manage:

• Important system database files such as aliases and netmasks
• User account information including tasks such as adding users, modifying password aging features, and removing user account information
• Local and remote printer setup
• Terminal and modem setup
• Diskless and dataless client setup

These tasks can be done on local and remote systems if the right access has been set up. See Chapter 2, "Name Service Management," for information on controlling access to Administration Tool.

Benefits of Administration Tool

Using a graphical user interface to perform administration tasks has the following benefits:

• The application programs are faster than using numerous SunOS^(TM) commands to perform the same tasks.
• System files are updated automatically without the risk of making errors by editing important system files manually.
• The application programs interact with appropriate system daemons and notify you when the two are out of sync.

Administration Tool Applications

Administration Tool provides the applications listed in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1

Application	Enables You to Manage ...
Database Manager	Network-related system files such as aliases and netmasks
Host Manager	Network client services
Printer Manager	Local and remote printer setup
Serial Port Manager	Serial devices
User Account Manager	User account information

Requirements for Using Administration Tool

You need the following to use Administration Tool:

• A bit-mapped display monitor - Administration Tool's applications can be used only on a system where the console is a bit-mapped screen such as a standard display monitor that comes with a Sun system.

  If you want to perform administration tasks on a system with an ASCII terminal as the console, use SunOS commands.

• OpenWindows^(TM) software.
• Superuser privilege or membership in the sysadmin group (group ID=14) and the required access privileges for managing the NIS or NIS+ databases. See Chapter 2, "Name Service Management," for more information.

  You should use Administration Tool as a regular user who has membership in the sysadmin group rather than as superuser.

Starting Administration Tool

Start Administration Tool from an OpenWindows window as follows:

$ admintool &

You can also start Administration Tool with the -display option to remotely display Administration Tool on a bit-mapped screen.

The Administration Tool main window is displayed.

The Administration Tool main window is also referred to as the Administration Tool launcher because it is used to start the applications.

The Administration Tool launcher menus are described in Table 1-2.

Table 1-2

Menu	Description
File	Contains the Quit option used to exit and close the Administration Tool launcher
Help	Used to access Administration Tool's Help Viewer

Selecting a Name Service

After you start the Administration Tool launcher and click on a tool icon, you must select the name service appropriate for your environment.

Administration Tool can be used to manage information on the local system or across the network by using the NIS+ name service. The sources of information that can be managed by Administration Tool are described in Table 1-3.

Table 1-3

Name Service	Select This Name Service to Manage ...
NIS+	NIS+ table information. This requires sysadmin group (group ID=14) membership and the appropriate ownership and permission on the NIS+ tables that will be modified.
NIS	NIS map information can only be displayed using Administration Tool; it cannot be modified.
None	The /etc files on the local system. You must be superuser or a member of the sysadmin group to modify these files. The local system (identified under Host:) is selected by default.

Administration Tool can be used to manage three types of information: NIS+ tables, NIS maps, and /etc files on the local system. This book refers to all three types of information as system files.

See Chapter 2, "Name Service Management" for information on creating the sysadmin group with or without using a name service.

Filtering Entries

Each of the administration applications (except Printer Manager and Serial Port Manager) provide a means of filtering entries if you do not want to see all of the entries in a system file. You can specify a filter by clicking on the Show menu. The following menu (from the Host Manager, for example) is displayed:

Table 1-4 describes the different Show commands.

Table 1-4

Option	Use This Command To ...
All items	Display all file entries. This is the default setting.
One item	Specify a text string to display the file entries that match the text string. Specifying wildcards is acceptable. This option is helpful if you want to focus on a small number of entries.
No items	Turn off file entry display. This is helpful if you only want to add new entries and don't want to view existing entries.

After you have selected a name service and a method for filtering entries, click on Apply. The tool's main window is displayed.

Main Windows

Each application tool has a main (or base) window that looks similar to the following Database Manager Main window.

The main window contains two areas: the control area and the pane.

The control area usually contains four menus: File, View, Edit, and Help.

Typing in Text Boxes

The following Add Entry window from Database Manager illustrates the text boxes used for typing text in a tool window.

Buttons

The Add Entry window displayed above also illustrates some of the buttons used in the application windows. Table 1-5 describes when to use each button.

Table 1-5

Button	Is Used To ...
OK	Complete a task so that it can be processed. The window is closed after the task is completed.
Apply	Complete a task but leave the window open. (Not available on all windows and not shown above.)
Reset	Erase any text entered in the window and position the insertion pointer in first field of the window.
Cancel	Cancel the task and close the window.
Help	Access the online Help Handbook.

Using the Help Viewer

An important part of Administration Tool is an online Help handbook called Help Viewer. Help Viewer provides detailed information about the Administration Tool applications and their functions.

The Help Viewer handbook is accessed by clicking on a Help button. A Help button can be found on the main Administration Tool window.

Help Viewer handbooks are also available for each of Administration Tool's five applications. These too are accessed by clicking on help buttons, found in the main (base) window of each application.

The online help handbooks are anywhere from ten to 65 pages long. Navigate through the books by clicking on arrows in the upper-right corner that move you from page to page, or by double-clicking on a subject in the handbook's Table of Contents to go directly to that topic.

See Table 1-6 for a summation of help's navigational buttons.

Table 1-6

Button Name	Use This Button To...
Help	Access an Administration Tool's Help Viewer
---->, <----	Go to the next page or previous page
Topic	Go directly to a specific Help topic
Table of Contents	Return to Help's Table of Contents
Go Back	Return to the Help page you were previously on
View	Resize the Help window

Icons

You can close the Administration Tool launcher (and each tool) to an icon by clicking on the file menu in the top left corner of each tool's main window.

Proceed to Chapter 2, "Name Service Management," for information on using Administration Tool in your particular name service environment.