Inside Solaris 9

Bill Calkins is owner and President of Pyramid Consulting, a computer training and consulting firm located near Grand Rapids, Michigan, specializing in the implementation and administration of open systems. He also is the owner of www.UnixEd.com, a website that provides online UNIX training materials. He has more than 19 years of experience in UNIX system administration, consulting, and training at more than 100 different companies. Bill has authored several UNIX textbooks that are currently best sellers and are used by universities and training organizations worldwide: Solaris 2.6 Administrator Certification Training Guide, Part I (Publisher: New Riders Publishing; ISBN: 157870085X) Solaris 2.6 Administrator Certification Training Guide, Part II (Publisher: New Riders Publishing; ISBN: 1578700868) Solaris 7 Administrator Certification Training Guide, Part I and II (Publisher: New Riders Publishing; ISBN: 1578702496) Solaris 8 System Administration Certification Training Guide (Publisher: New Riders Publishing; ISBN 1578702593) In addition, he has worked with Sun Press as a technical editor and was a major contributor to the following technical manuals: Solaris 7 Reference (Author: Janice Windsor; Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; ISBN: 0130200484) Solaris 8 System Administrator's Reference Guide (Author: Janice Windsor; Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; ISBN: 0130277010) Bill's professional interests include consulting, writing, teaching, and developing web-based training materials. Bill has worked as an instructor in both corporate and university settings and has helped thousands of administrators obtain their certification. His experience covers all varieties of UNIX, including Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, IRIX, Linux, and SCO. When he's not working in the field, he writes UNIX books and conducts training and educational seminars on various system administration topics. He is a certified Solaris 9 System Administrator and draws on his many years of experience in system administration and training to provide a unique approach to UNIX training.

I. SOLARIS FUNDAMENTALS.

1. Fundamental Commands for Managing Files and Getting Help.


Manual Pages: Online Documentation. Locating Commands. The UNIX File System. Summary.

2. Using Solaris Editors.


ed editor. sedStream Editor. vi. Summary.

3. Solaris Shells and Variables.


Shell Script Basics. Selecting a Shell to Use. Korn Shell Options (set). Bourne Shell Variables. Redirection and Pipes. Shell Built-Ins. Shell Conditionals. Repeated-Action Commands. Shell Functions. Command-Line Editing. Summary.

4. Advanced File Management.


Links. The find Command. grep. egrep. Using Filters. Summary.

5. Communicating with Other Users.


motd: Displaying a Message at Login. Email. mail. dtmail. write. Summary.

II. GETTING STARTED.

6. Installing the Solaris 9 Software.


Requirements and Preparation for Installing the Solaris 9 Software. Software Terminology. Disk Storage. Methods of Installing the Solaris 9 Software. Upgrading the OS. The Solaris Installation Prechecklist. Summary.

7. JumpStart.


Preparing for a Custom JumpStart Installation. What Happens During a Custom JumpStart Installation? The rules File. Creating class Files. Testing class files. The sysidcfg File. Name Service, Domain Name, and Name Server Keywords. Setting Up JumpStart in a Name Service Environment. Setting Up Clients. A Sample JumpStart Installation. Summary.

8. Web Start.


Web Start. Minimum System Requirements for Solaris Web Start. Web Start Flash. Summary.

9. System Startup and Shutdown.


Booting the System. Using the Run Control Scripts to Stop or Start Services. System Shutdown. Summary.

10. OpenBoot.


OpenBoot Environment. OpenBoot Architecture. OpenBoot Interface. Getting Help in OpenBoot. PROM Full Device Names. OpenBoot Nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM). OpenBoot Security. OpenBoot Diagnostics. Updating the PROM. boot. Kernel. Summary.

III. SYSTEM MAINTENANCE.

11. Device Administration and Disk Management.


Device Drivers. Physical Device Name. Device Autoconfiguration. USB Devices. Instance Name. Major and Minor Device Numbers. Logical Device Name. Virtual Volume Management. Summary.

12. Software Package Administration.


Tools for Managing Software. Adding and Removing Software Packages. Using a Spool Directory. Solaris Product Registry. Listing and Verifying Installed Packages. Software Patches. Installing a Patch. Patch Manager (smpatch). General Guidelines. Summary.

13. Setting Up User Accounts.


Adding a User Account with Admintool. Deleting a User Account with Admintool. Modifying a User Account with Admintool. Adding a Group with Admintool. Managing User and Group Accounts from the Command Line. Setting Up Shell Initialization Files. Customizing User Initialization Files. The Home Directory. Projects. Name Services. Summary.

14. Managing File Systems.


A File System Defined. Defining a Disks Geometry. Solaris File System Types. Disk Slices. Parts of a UFS File System. Creating a UFS File System. Understanding Custom File System Parameters. The mkfs Command. File System Operations. Tuning File Systems. Mounting File Systems. Unmounting a File System. Volume Management. Information on File Systems. Summary.

15. Managing Processes.


Viewing a Process. Process Types. Using Signals. Projects and Tasks. Scheduling Processes. Scheduling Priorities. Using the Solaris Batch-Processing Facility. syslog. Other Important Files Where Information is Logged. Summary.

16. System Security.


Physical Security. Controlling System Access. Controlling File Access. Auditing Users. Network Security. Securing Superuser Access. The Secure Shell (ssh). Automated Security Enhancement Tool (ASET). Common-Sense Security Techniques. Summary.

17. Role-Based Access Control.


The RBAC Model. Using RBAC. RBAC Components. Summary.

18. Solaris Management Console.


Introduction to the Solaris Management Console. Summary.

19. System Monitoring and Tuning.


Being Proactive. Performance Measurement Tools. Measuring CPU Load. Monitoring Disk I/O. Monitoring RAM and Swap. sar. Sun SyMON. Fixing a Performance Problem. Summary.

20. Backup and Recovery.


Backup Media. Solaris Backup and Restoration Utilities. fssnap. Web Start Archive. JAVA Archive (JAR). Summary.

IV. NETWORKING.

21. The Solaris Network Environment.


Network Fundamentals. Planning the Network. Setting Up the Network. IP Addressing (IPv4). Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). Network Services. Name Service. TCP/IP Commands. Network Maintenance. Summary.

22. The NFS Environment.


Servers and Clients. NFS on Solaris. Mounting a Remote File System. WebNFS. CacheFS. Autofs. When to Use Automount. Summary.

23. Name Services.


Name Services Overview. /etc Files. NIS. Planning Your NIS Domain. NIS+. DES Authentication. DNS. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Summary.

V. MANAGING SERVICES.

24. LP Print Service.


The Solaris Print Service. Setting Up the Hardware. Setting Up the Software. Administering Printers. Summary.

25. Administration and Configuration of CDE.


The Login Manager. The Session Manager. The Front Panel. Actions and Data Types. The Application Manager. The dtksh Shell. GNOME. Summary.

VI. APPENDIX.

Appendix A. UNIX and Solaris Milestones.


How It All Began. 19651969. 19701972. 19731979. 19821983. 19841987. 19881992. 1993. 2002 and Beyond. Milestones in the Development of Solaris.

Index.