INTRODUCTION

THIS BOOK--TEN CHAPTERS, ONE APPENDIX, AND ONE GLOSSARY-- IS FOR beginning system administrators, system administrators new to the Solaris ^® 2. x environment, or any user who wants a task-oriented quick-reference guide to basic administrative commands.

A Quick Tour of the Contents

Chapter 1, "Introducing Solaris System Administration," describes basic administration tasks, superuser status, and how to communicate with users, start up and shut down systems, and monitor processes. It also introduces some frequently used commands and the Administration Tool new to the Solaris 2. x environment.

Chapter 2, "Using Basic OS Commands," describes basic commands for finding user information and environment information for creating and editing files, combining commands and redirecting output, displaying manual pages, and locating disk information.

Chapter 3, "Administering Devices," describes how to use tapes and diskettes to store and retrieve files, and how to administer disks. It also introduces the Service Access Facility and provides instructions for setting up port monitors for printers and modems.

Chapter 4, "Administering File Systems," describes the types of file systems provided in the Solaris 2. x environment, the default file system, the virtual file system table, and the file system administrative commands. It shows you how to make file systems available and how to back up and restore file systems.

Chapter 5, "Administering Network Services," describes commands used to check on remote system status, log in to remote systems, and transfer files between systems. It also describes how to use the Administration Tool to make changes to NIS+ databases once NIS+ is up and running.

Chapter 6, "Administering Printing," introduces the LP print service, which is completely different from the print service of the SunOS 4. x system software. It describes how to set up printing services and how to use the printing commands.

Chapter 7, "Administering User Accounts and Groups," describes how to add and remove user accounts and how to set up new group accounts.

Chapter 8, "Understanding Shells," describes some commands common to all shells and provides basic information about the Bourne, C, and Korn shells.

Chapter 9, "Administering Systems," describes commands used to display system-specific information, configure additional swap space without reformatting a disk, and create a local mail alias.

Chapter 10, "Recognizing File Access Problems," provides information on how to recognize problems with search paths and with permissions and ownership.

Appendix A, "Major Differences: SunOS 4. x versus SunOS 5. x Operating Systems," briefly describes key differences between SunOS 4. x and SunOS 5. x system software and provides a table of SunOS 4. x commands with the SunOS 5. x equivalents.

The Glossary contains basic system administration terms and definitions.

Important: Read This Before You Begin

Because we assume that the root path will include the /sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/bin, and /etc directories, the steps show the commands in these directories without absolute path names. Steps that use commands in other, less common directories show the absolute path in the example.

The examples in this book are for a basic SunOS 5. x software installation without the Binary Compatibility Package installed and without /usr/ucb in the path.

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CAUTION:  If /usr/ucb is included in a search path, it should always be at the end. Commands like ps or df are duplicated in /usr/ucb with different formats and options from those of SunOS 5. x commands.

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This book does not contain all the information you need to administer systems. Refer to the complete system administration documentation for comprehensive information. See Appendix A for discussion of the differences between the Solaris 1.0 (SunOS 4.x) and Solaris 2. x (SunOS 5.x) environments.

Because the SunOS 5. x system software provides the Bourne (default), Korn, and C shells, examples in this book show prompts for each of the shells. The default C shell prompt is system-name%. The default Bourne and Korn shell prompt is $. The default root prompt for all shells is a pound sign (#). In examples that affect more than one system, the C shell prompt (which shows the system name) is used to make it clearer when you change from one system to another.

Conventions Used in This Book

Commands

In the steps and the examples, the commands to be entered are in bold type. For example: "Type su and press Return." When following steps, press Return only when instructed to do so, even if the text in the step breaks at the end of a line.

Variables

Variables are in an italic typeface. When following steps, replace the variable with the appropriate information. For example, to print a file, the step instructs you to "type lp filename and press Return." To substitute the file named "quest" for the filename variable, type lp quest and press Return.

Mouse-Button Terminology

This book describes mouse buttons by function. The default mapping of mouse buttons on a three-button mouse is:

•  SELECT is Left

•  ADJUST is Middle

•  MENU is Right

The SELECT mouse button is used to select unselected objects and activate controls. The ADJUST mouse button is used to adjust a selected group of objects, either adding to the group or deselecting part of the group. The MENU mouse button is used to display and choose from menus.

Storage-Medium Terminology

In this book, we distinguish between three different types of media storage terminology in this way:

•  Disc is used for an optical disc or CD-ROM.

•  Disk is used for a hard-disk storage device.

•  Diskette is used for a floppy diskette storage device. (Note: Sometimes, screen messages use the term floppy.)

Icons

Marginal icons distinguish between three different types of information:

   • The New with SVR4 icon marks material that is new with Solaris 2.x system software (not available in Solaris 1.x).

   • The New with 2.6 icon marks features that are new with Solaris 2.6 system software.

   • The New in this edition icon marks new information that has been added to this edition. Some of the new information describes new commands and features that were introduced between the Solaris 2.1 and 2.5.1 releases. Other new information was available in the Solaris 2.0 release but was not included in the first edition. Where possible, the text next indicates the release number where the command or functionality was added.

SPARC and x86 Information

This book provides system administration information for both SPARC and x86 systems. Unless otherwise noted, information throughout this book applies to both types of systems. Table I-1 summarizes the differences between the SPARC and x86 system administration tasks.

Solaris System Software Evolution

To help you understand how Solaris is evolving, Table I-2 provides a list of the major system administration feature differences for each release.