Solaris Tips and Tricks

Anonymous FTP

How do I setup an anonymous FTP server the long way or the Sun script way?

Backups

How can I use fssnap to take file-system snapshots of active UFS file-systems?

Best Practices

Sun's Best Practices Guide (pdf)

Boot

Ever wonder what the box is doing before the banner and OBP prompt is displayed?

CD-ROM

Sun CD-ROM FAQ

Chown

How can I allow/prevent users from giving files away to someone else?

Clustering

Want to do something to multiple machines at once? Use the Sun Cluster Console Tool. NOTE: you also need the scripts.jar.
Need help with disk contention problems in a "shared" storage configuration?

DHCP

Why doesn't my hostname get set (from /etc/nodename) when using DHCP?

FTP

How can I change the ftp daemon's banner?
Why can't I ftp to the box if I can telnet to it?

Hardware

SunBlade 100 FAQ's and pictures.
Sun's System Handbook

Hostid

How can you replace your nvram chip or change your hostid?

Jumpstart

I need help automating package installs.
I need some help setting up jumpstart. article A One of these tips should do the trick.
Having problems unmounting a busy FS in Solaris 7 or 8?

Network

If I have multiple NIC's, how can I do outbound load spreading for Solaris 8 or have redundant network connections? Sun Answerbook SysAdmin article Sun BluePrints article (pdf)
Where can I find a FREE firewall program for Sol 8?
How can I log or limit/deny certain hosts from telnet/ftp/etc. to my box? Download tcp-wrapper-7.6 locally or from the source.
How do I manually change the hostname or IP?
How do I set the NIC speed/duplex?
How can I check what my current NIC speed/duplex settings are? Use this quick nic_check script.
What kind of limitations are there on multiple NIC's?
Ok, what about setting up trunking on a QFE card?
How can I determine if an interface is in promiscuous mode?
How do I interpret the output of netstat -k?
How do I turn off replies to broadcast pings?
Where can I find information about tuning my TCP/IP stack?
I have heard that Solaris web servers are slow to serve MS clients? How can I speed up their access?
What if I don't want to use the /etc/defaultrouter file?
So what do those lights on the back of my FDDI card mean?
How do interface groups differ from trunking?
Why should I use interface groups?
I want to know more about interface groups?

NIS

Some info on protecting your NIS maps.
Here is a nice method to secure NIS.

/dev/null

How can I recreate /dev/null?

OS

How can I tell if I am running in 32 bit or 64 bit mode?
Which OS version am I running? cat /var/sadm/softinfo/INST_RELEASE OR cat /etc/release

Patches

What are the various patch exit codes?

Power/CPR

Why do I get some error message about /etc/power.conf?

Priority Paging

What is priority paging and why do I need it? For one, it decreases application startup time.

Raid Manager

Known bug with RM 6.22 results in the following error messages: "Auto configure failed" or "Wrong number of drives entered for the RAID level given"
Think you have a failing power supply on your A1000/A3000?
Some info on the different RM6 Controller States.
Trying to run RM on Sol8? You need to read .
Having long boot times (90mins) with >8 LUN support on A1000 and A3x00 configurations?

Rosetta Stones

Compares: AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Redhat, Solaris, Tru64 (PDF)
Compares: Everything and the kitchen sink (PDF)

SCSI disks/cdrom

Need to add SCSI disks "hot" or make it see your cdrom (Solaris 7 and earlier)? In Solaris 8, use cfgadm.

Security

Here are some suggestions for securing Solaris.

Sendmail

How can I change the sendmail banner?

SE Toolkit

Where can I find the SE Toolkit?
Please be careful when running virtual_adrian as it will make changes to the kernel following Adrian's rules.

Solstice DiskSuite/Solaris Volume Manager (SDS/SVM)

It is hard to keep all these different names Sun assigns to everything straight. Where can I find a list?
Where can I get the newest version of Solaris Volume Manager that supports soft partitions?
Here is a nice doc on on soft partitioning. The only other docs are the man pages.
How do I setup ODS? (basic)
DiskSuite FAQ
One technique for poor man's disk mirroring using ufsdump/ufsrestore.
Another technique for poor man's disk mirroring using dd.

Stop-A, L1-A, break key sequence

How can we create an alternate keyboard sequence for the BREAK signal on a dumb terminal?
How do I prevent a spurious BREAK (includes terminal server reboot) signal from halting my Sun server? Cisco method (Workaround section) or the Stokely method
How the different terminal servers stack up on this issue.
How do I send the break sequence (aka STOP-A or L1-A) using my terminal program?
Here is the explanation of the resistor between the pins fix and where it came from.

Storage Array

Storage Array helpful tips

Su

Need to log when someone uses su? Use this dummy su program instead.

Suspend

How can I disable the power/suspend key?

Sys-unconfig

Is your sys-unconfig broken in Solaris 8?

Tar

Show me the easiest way to move files between directories using tar.
How can I use wildcards when extracting only certain files from a tarfile?

Telnet

How can I change the telnet banner?

Terminals

How come my server won't boot until I connect my terminal to it?

Timezone

How do I change the timezone my Sun server is in?

Uadmin

What are all the options to uadmin?

UFS

How can I enable UFS logging on Solaris 7 and later?

Veritas

VI

How can I reverse a text file with vi?
Can I delete blank lines in a file using vi?
If I wanted to make the same change several times in file, use vi.

Video

How can I print a list of all possible resolution/refresh rates for your screen?
Would you like to set your display to 24 bit color?
How can I use my PC's monitor for my Sun box?

Vold (Volume Management)

Want to automatically play audio cd's or mount your Jaz drive?

X or Xdm

How can I keep my Sun server from announcing that it will serve as an X server?

Comments, suggestions, complaints, nifty tip to add?

Anonymous FTP

Backups

Best Practices

Boot

CD-ROM

Chown

Clustering

DHCP

Docs

E-mail

Files

FTP

Hardware

Hostid

Jumpstart

Network

NIS

/dev/null

OS

Patches

Power/CPR

Priority Paging

Raid Manager

Rosetta Stones

SCSI disks/cdrom

Security

Sendmail

SE Toolkit

Solstice DiskSuite/Solaris Volume Manager (SDS/SVM)

Stop-A, L1-A, break key sequence

Storage Array

Su

Suspend

Sys-unconfig

Tar

Telnet

Terminals

Timezone

Uadmin

UFS

Veritas

VI

Video

Vold (Volume Management)

X or Xdm