Preface

Solaris Tunable Parameter Reference Manual provides reference information about Solaris kernel and network tunable parameters. This manual does not provide tunable parameter information about the CDE or Java environments.

It contains information for both SPARC^TM based and IA based systems.

Note –

The Solaris^TM operating environment is supported on two types of hardware, or platforms—SPARC and IA. The Solaris operating environment supports 64-bit and 32-bit address spaces. The information in this document pertains to both platforms and address spaces unless specified in a special chapter, section, note, bullet, figure, table, example, or code example.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for experienced Solaris system administrators who might need to change kernel tunable parameters in certain situations. Refer to Tuning a Solaris System for guidelines on changing Solaris tunable parameters.

How This Book Is Organized

The following table describes the chapters in this book.

Chapter ...	Provides ...
Chapter 1, Overview of Solaris System Tuning	An overview of tuning a Solaris system and a description of the format used in the book to describe the kernel tunables
Chapter 2, Solaris Kernel Tunables	A description of Solaris kernel tunables such as kernel memory, the file system, process size, and paging parameters
Chapter 3, NFS Tunable Parameters	A description of NFS tunables such as caching symbolic links, dynamic retransmission, and RPC security parameters
Chapter 4, TCP/IP Tunable Parameters	A description of TCP/IP tunables such as IP forwarding, source routing, and buffer sizing parameters
Chapter 5, System Facility Parameters	A description of parameters for changing default values of certain system facilities by modifying files in the `/etc/default` directory
Appendix A, Tunable Parameter Change History	A history of parameters that have changed or are now obsolete
Appendix B, Revision History for this Manual	A history of this manual's revisions that includes the current Solaris release version

Related Books

The following books provide background material that might be useful when tuning Solaris systems.

Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers by Brian L. Wong, Sun Microsystems Press, ISBN 0-13-349952–9.
NFS Illustrated by Brent Callaghan, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-32570-5.
Resource Management by Richard McDougall, Adrian Cockcroft, Evert Hoogendoorn, Enrique Vargas, Tom Bialaski, Sun Microsystems Press, ISBN 0-13-025855-5.
Sun Performance and Tuning: SPARC and Solaris by Adrian Cockcroft, Sun Microsystems Press/PRT Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-149642-3.

Other Resources for Solaris Tuning Information

This table describes other resources for Solaris tuning information.

For ...	Go To ...
Performance tuning classes	http://suned.sun.com
Online performance tuning information	http://www.sun.com/sun-on-net/performance
Ordering performance tuning documentation by Sun Microsystems Press	http://www.sun.com/books/blueprints.series.html

Ordering Sun Documents

Fatbrain.com, an Internet professional bookstore, stocks select product documentation from Sun Microsystems, Inc.

For a list of documents and how to order them, visit the Sun Documentation Center on Fatbrain.com at http://www1.fatbrain.com/documentation/sun.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.com^SM Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specific book title or subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com.

Typographic Conventions

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

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions


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 prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts


Shell	Prompt
C shell prompt	`machine_name%`
C shell superuser prompt	`machine_name#`
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	`#`