About This Book

System Administration Guide, Volume I is part of a two-volume set that covers a significant part of the Solaris^(TM) system administration information. It includes both SPARC^(TM) and x86 information and describes how to use the Solstice^(TM) AdminSuite tools to perform some of the system administration tasks.

This book assumes that you have already installed the SunOS 5.5^(TM) operating system and Solstice AdminSuite, and you have set up any networking software that you plan to use. The SunOS 5.x operating system is part of the Solaris 2.x product family, which also includes many utilities and OpenWindows^(TM) Version 3.x. The SunOS 5.x operating system is compliant with AT&T's System V, Release 4 operating system.

System Administration Guide, Volume I and System Administration Guide, Volume II have replaced the following books previously released with the Solaris operating environment:

Security, Performance, and Accounting Administration
User Accounts, Printers, and Mail Administration
Administration Supplement for Solaris Platforms
Common Administration Tasks
File System Administration
Administration Application Reference Manual
Peripherals Administration

Mail Administration is now covered in the Mail Administration Guide.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for anyone responsible for administering one or more systems running the Solaris 2.x release. To use this book, you should have 1-2 years of UNIX^{^(R)} system administration experience and preferably a Computer Science B.S. degree or equivalent knowledge.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is split into parts that each cover a major system administration topic. Each part contains chapters that provide both overview and task information.

Most of the overview information about a topic is usually described in the beginning chapters of each part, and the other chapters provide step-by-step instructions on system administration tasks that you need to perform. Each set of steps is usually followed by a way to verify that the task was successfully performed and an example of how to perform the task.

Using AnswerBook to Read This Book

If you are reading this book from within the AnswerBook^(TM) online document viewer, you can double-click on any cross reference, represented by text in a box, to quickly access the referenced information. To return to the previous display, click on the Go Back button.

SPARC and x86 Information

This book provides system administration information for both SPARC and x86 systems. Unless otherwise noted, information throughout this book applies to both types of systems. Table P-2 summarizes the differences between the SPARC and x86 system administration tasks.

Table P-2

Category	SPARC	x86
System operation before kernel is loaded	A programmable read-only memory (PROM) chip with a monitor program runs diagnostics and displays device information. It is also used to program default boot parameters and test the devices connected to the system.	The basic input/output system (BIOS) runs diagnostics and displays device information. A Solaris boot diskette with a program called Multiple Device Boot (MDB) is used to boot from non-default boot partitions, the network, or CD-ROM.
Booting the system	Commands and options at the PROM level.	Commands and options at the MDB, primary, and secondary boot subsystems level.
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, load `ufsboot` `ufsboot` - the secondary boot program, executes the `/etc/bootrc` script and loads the kernel
Reboot commands	The `shutdown`, `init 6`, or `reboot` commands can be used without additional operation intervention.	The `shutdown`, `init 6`, or `reboot` commands are used but requires operator intervention at the `type any key to continue` prompt.
Disk Controllers	SCSI, IPI, and Xylogics	SCSI and IDE
Disk slices and partitions	Maximum of eight slices, numbered 0-7.	Maximum of four `fdisk` partitions. The Solaris `fdisk` partition may contain up to ten slices, numbered 0-9, but only 0-7 can be used to store user data. You can only have one Solaris `fdisk` partition per disk.
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.

What Typographic Changes Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P-3

Typeface or Symbol

Meaning

Example

AaBbCc123

The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output

Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. machine_name% You have mail.

AaBbCc123

What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output


 machine_name%su  
 Password:

AaBbCc123

Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value

To delete a file, type rm filename.

AaBbCc123

Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized

Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser (root) prompt for the Bourne shell and Korn shell.

Table P-4

Shell	Prompt
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	`#`

General Conventions

Be aware of the following conventions used in this book.

Some code examples have a backslash (\) at the end of a line to specify line continuation, such as the following code example:


  # pmadm -a -p tcp -s lpd -i root -m 'nlsadmin -o \  
  /var/spool/lp/fifos/listenBSD -A \  
  '\x000202038194180e0000000000000000'' -v 'nlsadmin -V'

If the line is an example of what to type, ignore the backslashes (don't type them) and press Return at the end of the line that does not end with a backslash. In the example above, you would ignore the two backslashes when typing the pmadm command and press Return after the third line.

When following steps or using examples, be sure to type double-quotes ("), left single-quotes (`), and right single-quotes (') exactly as shown.
The key referred to as Return is labeled Enter on some keyboards.
It is assumed that the root path includes the /sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/bin, and /etc directories, so the steps in this book 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 SunOS 5.x software installation without the Binary Compatibility Package installed and without /usr/ucb in the path.