Solaris Management Console 2.0[tm]: General FAQ

Solaris Management Console Upgrades

• What do I need to do before upgrading to a Solaris 8 01/01 or later update, which contains Solaris Management Console 2.0?
• What if I neglected to remove Solaris Management Console 1.x before upgrading to a Solaris 8 01/01 or later update?
• What version of Java is required?

Solaris Management Console Server Issues

• What are the sequence of steps in the server startup?
• Server gives conflicting status, or just doesn't seem to work.  How can I fix it?

Software Available for System Administration

• What Solaris administration software is available to me?
• What administration software is available for Solaris prior to version 8?
• What administration software is available for Solaris 8?

If the information you need is not found here, send email to smc-interest-ext@Sun.COM

Solaris Management Console Upgrades

IMPORTANT: Previous Solaris Management Console versions are not compatible with Solaris Management Console 2.0. Therefore, before upgrading to a Solaris 8 01/01 or later update, you must first uninstall Solaris Management Console 1.x.

Solaris Management Console 1.x software may exist on your machine if you installed:

• the SEAS 2.0 overbox
• the SEAS 3.0 overbox
• the Solaris 8 Admin Pack

Use one of the following methods to perform a full uninstall of Solaris Management Console 1.x :

• Run /usr/bin/prodreg and perform a full uninstall of Solaris Management Console.
• Remove the following pkgs using pkgrm.

SUNWmcman, SUNWmcapp, SUNWmcsvr, SUNWmcsvu, SUNWmc, SUNWmcc, SUNWmcsws

Optionally, you can remove SUNWhttp and SUNWhtsvl (Sun Web Server) if it was installed simply to run Solaris Management Console 1.x, although that should not be required.

If you did not uninstall Solaris Management Console 1.0, 1.0.1, or 1.0.2 before you upgraded, you have to remove all the Solaris Management Console 1.x packages. It is critical that you use pkgrm for package removal, instead of /usr/bin/prodreg and you need to carefully follow the order of package removal. Follow these steps:

1. su root
2. pkginfo | grep "Solaris Management Console" | grep -v "2.0" | awk '{print $2}'

   The package names in the output will identify the Solaris Management Console 1.x pkgs that need to be removed. Remove them using pkgrm.

   Note: The packages must be removed exactly in the order specified, below. It is possible that one or more of these pkgs might not exist, depending on the version of Solaris Management Console 1.x that you have installed.

SUNWmcman, SUNWmcapp, SUNWmcsvr, SUNWmcsvu, SUNWmc, SUNWmcc, SUNWmcsws
3. rm -rf /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWmcapp

1. pkgrm SUNWdclnt SUNWmga SUNWmgapp
2. pkginfo | grep "Solaris Management Console" | grep "2.0" | awk '{print $2}'

   The package names in the output will identify the Solaris Management Console 2.0 packages that need to be removed. Remove them using pkgrm.

   Note: The packages must be removed exactly in the order specified, below. It is possible that one or more of these packages might have been installed on top of a Solaris Management Console 1.x package of the same name, and so would have had a numerical suffix appended to its package name to indicate a multiple instance (for example: SUNWmc.2 or SUNWmcc.2). Simply use the full package instance name, but the specified order is critical:

   SUNWmcdev, SUNWmcex, SUNWwbmc, SUNWmc, SUNWmcc, SUNWmccom

3. With the Solaris 8 Software (SPARC Platform Edition) 1 of 2 CD in your cdrom drive, run the following commands:

cd /cdrom/sol_8_401_sparc/s0/Solaris_8/Product

[The general command is:
cd/cdrom/sol_8_<RELEASE>_<ARCH>/s0/Solaris_8/Product
where <RELEASE> is the date of the Solaris update (101, 401, 701, ...), and <ARCH> is either sparc or intel]

pkgadd -d . SUNWmccom SUNWmcc SUNWmc SUNWwbmc SUNWmcex SUNWmcdev SUNWmgapp SUNWmga SUNWdclnt

For Solaris 8, java 1.2.2_06.

All Solaris Management Console commands use the following search heuristic to locate a suitable runtime java:

• the JAVA_HOME environment variable
• along your PATH
• /usr/java1.2

Solaris Management Console Server Issues

Solaris Management Console configuration takes place when the Java-based server daemon is started, but that daemon is started upon the first connection from the console, NOT at system bootup.  Therefore, a small proxy server (called smcboot) must be running to receive that first connection.

The proxy server smcboot is a native program that starts during system boot and sits on the Solaris Management Console server port (default is 898) waiting for a connection from the console. After system boot, you will not see any JVM's running relative to Solaris Management Console. Instead, you will see two instances of smcboot processes - one (the parent) on port 898, and another (the child) on port 5987. The parent receives connections and redirects them to the child, which sits on them until the parent has completed starting up the real Java-based server and is ready to handle those connections.

When the server is ready, the child redirects those connections back to port 898 and the child dies. At this point you will see a process that looks something like "/usr/java/bin/../bin/sparc/native_threads/java -Dviper.fifo.path=/tmp/...". This is the JVM running the merged SMC/WBEM server.

It is important to remember that for Solaris Management Console 2.0 /etc/init.d/init.wbem start always starts the smcboot process, and not the real server daemon.  The real daemon will start upon the next connection from the console. It is very important not to run /etc/init.d/init.wbem start when smcboot is running.  If you do, you will encounter conflicting server status messages that cannot be resolved by repeated stopping and starting of the server via the init.wbem command.  You can resolve this situation by implementing the workaround described here.

The sensitive nature of the Solaris Management Console server will be fixed in the next release of the Solaris Management Console.

Remember that configuration begins when you start the console for the first time, which, in turn, starts the server daemon for the first time.  This initial configuration can take a long time, and is the reason why the console appears hung upon that initial launch.  The delay is roughly 5 minutes on an Ultra 60 machine, longer on lower-end machines.  Note: Please be patient and allow the configuration to finish. 

You can view the progress of the configuration by entering the following in a terminal window before starting the console the first time:

# /etc/init.d/init.wbem stop
# /etc/init.d/init.wbem start

Server gives conflicting status, or just doesn't seem to work.  How can I fix it?

• su root
• kill all instances of the smcboot process (if any are running)
• kill all instances of the cimomboot process (if any are running)
• kill all instances of Solaris Management Console-related JVMs. These will contain either "-Dviper.fifo.path=" or "-Djava.security.policy=" in their command paths.
• rm -rf /tmp/smc <port> where <port> is usually 898

Software Available for System Administration

Additional tables show the administration software available prior to Solaris 8, and the administration software available in Solaris 8.

Administration Tool Support Matrix

Admin Tools Available Prior to Solaris 8

Solaris 8 Administration Tool Features Descriptions