KB0142 - UNIX Solaris 10: System Administration

Disk concepts and structure

Slices (partitions) and Solaris device naming conventions

Physical disk connection

Listing and reconfiguring the systems devices

Slicing and labelling disks with the format utility and the Solaris Management Console (smc)

Creating a Solaris file system with newfs

Deciding how to mount the new files system

updating /etc/vfstab for permanent mounts

Using fsck to perform file system integrity checks

Monitoring disk usage and directory sizes

Chapter IV      File System Maintenance and Security

The mount command

Mount options

The cachefs and LOFS file systems

Handling CD and floppy disks

Making room on the file system

File system security

SMC file system functions

Utilities for file system monitoring

Chapter V      System Build (Installing Solaris)

Planning disk layout

Booting from CD, DVD or network to build

Building Solaris from scratch; selecting software options, disk slicing, etc.

Post-installation procedures

Overview of automatic installation

Upgrading from a previous Solaris release

Chapter VI      Patch Administration

Obtaining and installing the latest patches, including clusters and individual patches

Examining the current patch level of a machine

Removing patches

Chapter VII      Software Configuration and Package Administration

How to set up and customise a variety of tools, including shells, Common Desktop Environment, manual pages and AnswerBook

Examining, Installing and removing software packages using command line utilities, including Solaris distribution options

Using the Webstart installer mechanism to install software

Using the Solaris Product Registry (prodreg)

Chapter VIII      Boot PROM

Monitor prompt commands (boot, probe-scsi, probe-ide, test-net, devalias etc.)

Identifying system settings such as the default boot device

Using the eeprom command to view and change settings

Troubleshooting boot failure

Chapter IX      Start-up and Shutdown

In-depth explanation of the new Service Management Facility (SMF)

Using SMF utilities to monitor and control boot processes

Adding your own scripts at system boot

Understanding and changing run levels

Shutting down, suspending and powering off the system

Power management

Additional information for previous Solaris versions

Chapter X      Adding and Maintaining Users

Concepts

Ownership of files, directories and processes

Classes of user

Adding a user manually, via command line tools and graphically

User initialisation file management

Password control

Real and effective id

Using SMC for user management

Introduction to Role Based Access Control (RBAC) facilities

Chapter XI      Solaris Groups

Overview

The group file

Group identification of files and directories

The newgrp, groups and chgrp commands

Complete example of creating and using a group

Using SMC with groups

Chapter XII      System Security

Monitoring access to the system

Using the su (Switch User) command, and monitoring its use

Restricting file and directory access using protection mechanisms, including access modes, s and t bits, umask, chown and chmod

Introduction to Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Chapter XIII      Adding a Printer

Overview

Printer types and connection methods, including network printers

Software modifications

Spooling system commands

Administrator control commands

Remote printer facilities

Printer classes

Using the Solaris GUIs for printer management

Specifying both system and user default printer destinations

Chapter XIV      System Processes

Examining and controlling processes using ps, kill, and the Process Manager

Automating commands with crontab and at, for one-off and regular command execution

Chapter XV      Back-Up and Restore Utilities, including snapshots

Overview and Preparation

Tape types and capacities

Sample ufsdump commands

Backup strategies

Taking a complete backup with ufsdump Summary of ufsdump command options

Using fssnap to snapshot the file system and take a clean backup

Restoring individual files and directories

Restoring an entire system

Considerations for disaster recovery

The tar, cpio and mt utilities

Backups versus archives