Essentials for Solaris Administration

Author: T.Mashayamombe

Instructor: T.Mashayamombe

Chapters

1 An overview of UNIX Commands

2 Solaris Booting Process

3 Booting Problems In Solaris

4 OpenBoot In Solaris

5 Backup In Solaris

6 File System Check (FSCK)

7 Crontab

8 Format And Newfs

9 Solstice DiskSuite

10 Solaris Networking

11 Solaris Installation

Chapter 1 –An overview of UNIX commands

Unix commands are the first thing needed by a unix sysadmin who are starting to work in unix operating system . Unix operating systems comes with online manual system which can be used to see the command details , syntax options and examples on while working on a unix system. Unix manual can be accessed using man and it requires the man package installed and MANPATH set to man directories. The manual page directories may differ in different unix operating systems and man package may not be installed in all systems . Following are a few of the most popular and useful commands used in unix operating system
wildcard characters
*	The * wildcard character substitutes for one or more characters in a filename. For instance, to list all the files in your directory that end with .c, enter the command ls *.c
?	? (question mark) serves as wildcard character for any one character in a filename. For instance, if you have files named `prog1, prog2, prog3`, and `prog3` in your directory, the Unix command: ls prog?
dir
Change	cd dir Change to directory d
Make	mkdir dir Create new directory d
Move	mv dir1 dir2 Rename directory d1 as d2
Remove	rmdir dir Remove directory d
file
list , no details only names	ls filename , filename with wildcard character/s.
list , details	ls -1 filename , filename with wildcard character/s.
move to directory	mv filename dirname (wildcard character/s supported)
copy file to other/current directory	cp file directory/newfile or cp directory/oldfile .
Delete the file	rm file , rm -rf directory - Recursively remove files & directly without any warning.
file	file filename , file command tries to determine the file type , text , executable etc after comparing the values in /etc/magic .
File edit/create/view
vi - vi full screen editor	vi filename , Opens a existing file or creates
ed - Line Text editor	ed filename
count - Line, word, & char	wc filename
Text content display - List contents of file at once	cat filename
Text content display by screen : List contents of file screen by screen	more filename
Concatenate - file1 & file2 into file3	cat file1 file2 >file3
File operation
Change read/write/execute mode of fil	chmod mode file
chown	chown [-R] [-h] owner[:group] file
move (rename ) file	mv file1 file2 Rename file file1 as file2
Remove	rm file Delete (remove) file f
Compare two files	cmp file1 file2
Copy file file1 into file2	cp file1 file2
Sort Alphabetically	sort file
Sort Numerically	sort -n file
Split f into n-line pieces	split [-n] f
match pattern	*grep pattern* file** Outputs lines that
Lists file differences	diff file1 file2
head f Output beginning of file	head file
Output end of file	tail file
PROCESS
Suspend current process	CTRL/z *
Interrupt processes	CTRL/c *
Stop screen scrolling	CTRL/s *
Resume screen scrolling	CTRL/q *
Sleep for n seconds	sleep n
Print list of jobs	jobs
Kill job n	kill %
Remove process n	kill -9 n
status process status stats	ps
Resume background job n	bg [%n]
Resume foreground job n	fg [%n]
Exit from shell	exit
User admin
add a new user login to the system	# useradd -u 655 -g 20 -d /home/ttes testlogin loginname -u is userid , if not specified system takes highest available . -g group id should be existing in /etc/group , if not specified other or user is assigned. -d home directory , default is to use user as the directory name under the home directory. loginname - new login name to be created . #useradd testlogin will create a user by the name 'testlogin' with all default values .
password Change	passwd
alias (csh/tcsh) - Create command	alias name1 name2
alias (ksh/bash) - Create alias command	alias name1="name2"
alias - Remove alias	unalias name1[na2...]
printer
Output file f to line printer	lp -d printer file

System Status
Display disk quota	quota
Print date & time	date
List logged in users	who
Display current user	whoami
Output user information	finger [username]
Display recent commands	history
Environment Variable
set	set command alone displays the environment variables, it is used to set options in ksh like set -o vi
export	export variable , export makes variable visible in sub shells.
Set environment variable (csh/tcsh) to value v	sentenv name v
Set environment variable (ksh/bash) to value v	export name=v example : export TERM=vt100
Connectivity
Connecting to a remote host	$telnet hostname/ip address or $telnet Telnet brings up the login prompt of remote host and expects you to enter your user name & password .Without argument it enters command mode (telnet>) and accepts command listed by ? at telnet> prompt. Communication is not encrypted between two hosts.
Securely connecting to a remote host	ssh username@hostname or ssh -l username hostname Depending on ssh setting for your account you may or may not be asked a password to login. Your login/passwd will be same login password as you would use with telnet connection. Communication is encrypted between two hosts so if someone intercepts your communication he will not be able to use it.
Copy files from/to remote host	ftp hostname ftp expects you to enter your username/passwd or if it is ftp only account it will require ftp account password . put , mput (multipleput) command is used to transfer files to remote host. get , mget (multipleput) command is used to transfer files from remote host. ftp allows some limited number of commands to be executed at ftp> prompt & summary of ftp command can be found by using ? at ftp> prompt
Securely copy files from/to remote host	sftp username@hostname:remotefile localfile Communication is encrypted between two hosts.
Test the tcp/ip connectivity between two hosts	ping hostname If you can ping a host the host is reachable from the machine that you are using . Router/firewall configuration may prevent ping to succeed .
Backup and Restore
backup and restore using tar , TApeaRchive	tar tvf filename.tar --- *View* the table of content of a tar archive tar xvf filename.tar --- *Extract* content of a tar archive tar cvf filename.tar file1 file2 file3 --- *Create* a tar archive called filename.tar using file1, file2,file3 . tar can't copy the special files , device files .Not suitable for taking root backup.
backup and restore using cpio , CopyInputOutput	cpio is mostly used in conjunction with other commands to generate a list of files to be copied : #ls \| cpio -o > /dev/rmt/c0t0d0 -- Copy the contents of a directory into a tape archive: #find . -depth -print \| cpio -pd newdir --- copy entire directory to other place: #find . -cpio /dev/rmt/c0t0d0 --- Copy files in current directory to a tape cpio can copy special files and hence useful in taking root backup containing device file.
Find files , directories
find files , directories	Find command is used to find the files , directories and to run commands on the list of files thus generated .By default, find does not follow symbolic links. *find . -name .log -print --- Simple find to list log files find . -name '.log' -exec rm {} \;* -- Simple find to find log files and delete them . find accepts a long list of options to find the files based on different parameters such as create time , modified time , of certain size etc. Please refer to man find for more option.

vi editor Quick reference

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Requirement

3. Creating , opening files in vi

4. Modes in vi editor

5. Saving & exiting the vi editor

6. vi commands , quick reference

7. Next Steps

Introduction:

__________

vi pronounced as " vee eye " is a unix editor available on almost all the unix operating systems , solaris , bsd ,aix , hpux etc.

This document is a quick reference to vi editor and will be of help if your are new to unix , learning unix or just refreshing your vi knowledge after a few years.

Requirements:

____________

In order to work correctly the vi need correct terminal type (TERM) setting .The TERM setting depends on the type of terminal you have . Commonly used TERM types are vt100 , vt220 and ansi . In most cases vt100 will work fine . In case vi is not able to understand the TERM you have given, it starts in open mode giving you a line by line display .

Generally TERM is taken from .profile or /etc/profile but can be set at the command line as :

$TERM=vt100

$export TERM

echo $TERM will display the current TERM set.

Create new file or Open existing file in vi

__________________________________

vi without any file name will open a new file where you can enter the text and edit but while coming out you will be asked to enter a valid file name to save the text.

vi with a file name as argument will open that file for editing if the file already exists it opens it otherwise it creates a new file by the argument.

Example : $vi testfile

Creates or opens the existing file called testfile

Modes in vi

____________

vi operates in following two modes :

i. ) Command Mode : After a file is opened it is opened in command mode ,that is , input from the keyboard will be treated as vi commands and you will not see the words you are typing on the screen .

ii.) Insert Mode: To enter the text you have to put vi in insert by pressing 'i' or 'a' after which you can add the text and whatever is being type will be seen on the screen. . To switch between these mode Esc key is used . Esc i (text mode) Esc (command mode)

Saving & Exiting vi editor

______________________

You can exit vi in different ways :

1.) Quit without saving : If you don't want to save the work :q will take you out without saving your editing in vi.

2.) Write & quit : . Simple :w saves the current file but don't exit. For save and quit :wq is used in vi.

3.) Forced Quite : An ! (Exclamation sign at the end of exit commands ( :q! , :wq! ) causes a forced quit from vi after ignoring editing (for :q!) or writing (for :wq!) all the changes..

vi commands , quick reference
Moving Cursor in File
Left	h
Right	i
Up	k
Down	j
Line
Beginning	^ or B
end	$
Sentance :
Next sentence	)
Previous sentance	(
Paragraph
Next	}
Previous	{
File
Go to end of file	:$
on chacter forword	:w
One word forword	:W
go to a line number	:line_number
display file info .	^g
Inserting and appending text :
inserts text to the left of cursor	i
nserts in the beginning of line	I
appends text to right of cursor	a
appends to the end of line	A
Adding new line
add a new line below the current line	o
adds a new line above the current line.	O
deleting the text :
deletes text above the text	x
deletes text character on right of cursor	X
deletes line 20	20d
deletes current line	dd
delete till end of current line.	D
Replacing a character & word
replace the character above the cursor.	r
replces characters until Esc is pressed.	R
replaces the word from cursor to the end indicated by $ sign .	cw
replaces till end of line.	C
Substitute
subistutes current charcater.	s
substitutes entire line.	S
Undo the last change
undo last change.	u
undo changes to the current line.	U
Copy and pasting lines
copys the current line into buffer.	yy
copies 5 lines from the current line.	5yy
pastes the current buffer.	p
Searching
Searches for the word name in the file	:/name
n continues search forward.	n
N searches backwards	N
Saving
saves the text does not quit.	:w
saves & quit the editor .	:wq!
Save	ZZ
Quit without saving	q!

Search & Replace	s///g .
Repeating last command	.
Recovering a unsaved vi file.	vi -r filename

7. Next Steps :

vi editor is all time favorite for the unix admins and there are some books available if you are interested in exploring the more powers of vi editor. The editor is also covered in system administration books so you may find a chapter devoted to vi editor in most of the unix system administration books

Chapter 2

Booting process in Solaris

what happens when a system boots up

Understanding the booting process is important in the sense that you can get a clear idea when a system faces a booting problem if you are familiar with the booting sequence and steps involved. You can thereby isolate a booting phase and quickly resolve the issues.

Booting process in Solaris can be divided in to different phases for ease of study . First phase starts at the time of switching on the machine and is boot prom level , it displays a identification banner mentioning machine host id serial no , architecture type memory and Ethernet address This is followed by the self test of various systems in the machine.

This process ultimately looks for the default boot device and reads the boot program from the boot block which is located on the 1-15 blocks of boot device. The boot block contains the ufs file system reader which is required by the next boot processes.

The ufs file system reader opens the boot device and loads the secondary boot program from /usr/platform/`uname –i`/ufsboot ( uname –i expands to system architecture type)

The boot program above loads a platform specific kernel along with a generic solaris kernel

The kernel initialize itself and load modules which are required to mount the root partition for continuing the booting process.

The booting process undergoes the following phases afterwards :

1) init phase

2) inittab file

3) rc scripts & Run Level

4.) Next Steps

INIT phase
Init phase is started by the execution of /sbin/init program and starts other processes after reading the /etc/inittab file as per the directives in the /etc/inittab file .

Two most important functions of init are

a) It runs the processes to bring the system to the default run level state ( Run level 3 in Solaris , defined by initdefault parameter in /etc/inittab )
b) It controls the transition between different run levels by executing appropriate rc scripts to start and the stop the processes for that run level.

/etc/inittab file

This file states the default run level and some actions to be performed while the system reaches up to that level. The fields and their explanation are as follows :

S3:3:wait:/sbin/rc3 > /dev/console 2>&1 < /dev/console

S3 denotes a identification if the line

3 is run level
wait is action to be performed

/sbin/rc3 is the command to be run.

So the fields in the inittab are

Identification : run level : action : process

The complete line thus means run the command /sbin/rc3 at run level 3 and wait until the rc3 process is complete.

The action field can have any of the following keywords :

Initdefault : default run level of the system

Respawn : start and restart the process if it stops.

Powerfail : stop on powerfail

Sysinit : start and wait till console in accessible .

Wait : wait till the process ends before going on to the next line.

RC scripts & Run Levels
Rc scripts performs the following functions :

a) They check and mount the file systems

b) Start and stop the various processes like network , nfs etc.

c) Perform some of the house keeping jobs.

System goes in to one of the following run level after booting depending on default run level and the commands issued for changing the run level to some other one.

0 Boot prom level ok> or > prompt in Sun.
1 Administrative run level . Single user mode
2 Multiuser mode with no resource sharing .
3 Multiuser level with nfs resource sharing
4 Not used
5 Shutdown & power off (Sun 4m and 4u architecture )
6 Reboot to default run level
S s Single user mode user logins are disabled.

Broadly speaking the running system can be in any of the folloing state

Single user – Minimum processes running , user logins disabled and root password is required to gain access to the shell .
Multiuser - All system processes are running and user logins are permitted

Run level of a desired state is achieved by a number of scripts executed by the rc program the rc scripts are located in /etc/rc0.d , /etc/rc1.d , /etc/rc2.d , /etc/rc3.d & /etc/rcS.d directories . All the files of a particular run level are executed in the alphanumeric order .Those files beginning with letter S starts the processes and those beginning with K stops the processes.

These files are hard linked to the files in /etc/init.d in order to provide a central location for all these files and eliminating the need to change the run level in case these scripts needs to be run separately . The files in /etc/init.d directory are without any S , K and numeric prefix instead a stop / start argument has to be supplied whenever these scripts are to be executed .

By default system has a number of rc scripts needed for run level transition but sometimes it becomes necessary to start some custom scripts at the booting time and turn them off at the shutdown . Custom scripts can be put in any of the required rc directory but following major considerations has to be kept in mind :

The sequence number of the file should not conflict with other files.
The sevices needed should be available by previously executed scripts.
File should be hard linked to the /etc/init.d directory .
The system looks for only those files beginning with letter K & S , any thing else is ignored , therefore, to make a file inactive simply changing uppercase K or S to lower case will cause system to ignore it .

Chapter 3

Booting Problems in Solaris

Booting problems poses serious challenge to the system administrators as system is down and no one can use it . This article tries to cover some of the general booting problems and their possible solutions to enable understand the problem cause and bring the system up very quickly.

Following are some of the booting issues ,error messages their meaning and possible solutions

1) Booting in single user mode and mounting root disk .

2) Making boot device alias

3) "Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet"? error message.

4) "The file just loaded does not appear to be executable" error message.

5) "bootblk: can't find the boot program" error message.

6) "boot: cannot open kernel/unix" error message .

7) "Error reading ELF header"? error message .

8) "Cannot open '/etc/path_to_inst'" error message.

9) "Can't stat /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0" error message .

10) Next Steps

1.Booting in single user mode and mounting root hard disk.

Most important step in diagnosing the booting problems is booting the system in single user mode and examining the hard disk for possible errors & work out the corrective measure. Single user mode can be achieved by any of the following methods :-

ok> boot -s ;from root disk

ok> boot net -s ;from network

ok>boot cdrom -s ;from cdrom

Rebooting with command: cdrom -s

Configuring the /devices directory

Configuring the /dev directory |

INIT: SINGLE USER MODE

# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0

# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /mnt

Perform the required operation on mounted disk , now accessible through /mnt ,& unmount the hard disk after you are done ;

# umount /mnt

# reboot

2.Making boot device alias

In case system can not boot from primary disk and it is needed to make another boot disk to access the data , nvalias command is used .

nvalias command makes the device alias and assigns an alternate name to a physical disk. Physical address of target disk is required which can be had by show-disk command on ok>.

ok> nvalias disk7 /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/dma@3,81000/esp@3,80000/sd2,0

The new aliased disk can be named as boot disk or can be used for booting by refering its name .

ok> setenv boot-device disk7

ok>reset

ok> boot disk7

3."Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet"?

At ok> type printenv and look for these parameters .
boot-device disk
mfg-switch? false
diag-switch? false

if you see "boot-device net " or true value for the other two parameter change it to the values above.

In case you wants to boot from network make sure your client is properly configured in boot server and network connections & configuration are proper.

4."The file just loaded does not appear to be executable."

Boot block on the hard disk is corrupted .Boot the system in single user mode with cdrom and reinstall boot block .

#installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0

5."bootblk: can't find the boot program"

boot block can not find the boot programe - ufsboot in Solaris .Either ufsboot is missing or corrupted . In such cases it can be restored from the cdrom after booting from cdrom & mounting the hard disk

# cp /platform/`uname -i`/ufsboot /mnt/platform/`uname -i`

6."boot: cannot open kernel/unix"

Kernel directory or unix kernel file in this directory is not found .Probably deleted during fsck or deleted by mistake .Copy it from the cdrom or restore from the backup tape.

# cp /platform/`uname -i`/kernel/unix /mnt/platform/`uname -i`/kernel

7."Error reading ELF header."?

Kernel directory or unix kernel file in this directory is corrupted.Copy it from the cdrom or restore from the backup tape.

# cp /platform/`uname -i`/kernel/unix /mnt/platform/`uname -i`/kernel

8."Cannot open '/etc/path_to_inst'"

System can not find the /etc/path_to_install file .It might be missing or corrupted and needs to be rebuild.

To rebuild this file boot the system with -ar option :

ok>boot -ar

Press enter to select default values for the questions asked during booting and select yes to rebuild /etc/path_to_install

The /etc/path_to_inst on your system does not exist or is empty. Do you want to rebuild this file [n]? y

system will continue booting after rebuilding the file.

9."Can't stat /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0"

When booted from cdrom and done fsck the root partition comes out to be fine but on booting from root disk this error occurs. The device name for / is missing from /dev/dsk directory and to resolve the issue /dev & /devices directories has to be restored from root backup tapes

This article covered Solaris booting process . Booting process is the starting task of all the sysadmin activities to be carried out later like user creation , network configuration etc. While most of the sysadmin aspects are covered in this site still it pays to have a system administration book handy . There are some good books available on unix and Solaris administration which broaden your understanding of Solaris & unix and there by helping in your day today work and providing you satisfaction of work.

Chapter 4

Sun OpenBoot Parameters and commands

About Openboot :

The firmware in Sun's boot PROM is called OpenBoot. The main features of openboot are initial program loading , & debugging features to assist kernel debugging .OpenBoot supports plug-in device drivers which are written in language Forth. . This plug in feature allows Sun or any third-party vendors to develop new boot devices but without making any changes to boot PROM.

Accessing the openboot :

Openboot console can be accessed by any of the following means . Be careful not to do this on a live system as you might end up in rebooting the server .

1. Rebooting a system , if auto-boot is not set to true rebooted system returns to OK> prompt which is openboot prompt

2. Pressing the keys L1 and A or STOP A , at the same time will bring you to the OpenBoot system. You will see the display

Type b (boot), c (continued), or n (new command mode)
>

Typing b boots the operating system . Typing c resumes the execution of a halted program. Typing n gets you to the Forth monitor, and the prompt will change to ok.

OpenBoot Parameters & commands:

Following two tables gives a list of Openboot parameters & commands

I. Openboot Parameters

II. Openboot Commands

OpenBoot Parameters
General	boot	Network	DIAGNOSTICS	input/output
printenv Display all variables and current values. setenv Set variable to the given value. set-default Reset the value of `variable` to the factory default. set-defaults Reset variable values to the factory defaults.	auto-boot ?=true System directly boots without stopping at OK> after power on. boot-comman d=boot command passed on to auto boot if true. boot-file: File for booting Solaris , default is empty string .This variable contains the default boot arguments that are used when OpenBoot is not in diagnostic mode. boot-device =disk net Device to boot from , multiple devices can be specified using spaces .Other devices will be selected if first device fails.	tpe-link-test? =true Tests the UTP ethernet port link and flashes error messages if there is no network link. local-mac-address? =false Use the system's MAC address instead of network card's MAC address . Ports ttyb-rts-dtr-off =false ttyb-ignore-cd =true ttya-rts-dtr-off =false ttya-ignore-cd =true ttyb-mode =9600,8,n,1,- ttya-mode =9600,8,n,1,-	diag-file: boot file for diagnostic mode This variable contains the default diagnostic mode boot arguments. diag-device=net booting device in diagnostic mode. diag-switch?=false If true system runs in diagnostic mode. diag-level=max Level for diagnostics information , can be min , max and minus . There may be additional platform specific values. If set to off, POST is not called. The default value is platform-dependent.	input-device=keyboard Input device used at power-on ( keyboard, ttya, or ttyb). keyboard-click?=false keyboard click sound keymap: For custom keyboards output-device=screen Output device used at power-on (screen, ttya, or ttyb). ansi-terminal?=true controls the behavior of the terminal emulator. The value false causes the terminal emulator to stop interpreting ANSI escape sequences resulting in echoing them to the output device. screen-#columns=80 screen-#rows=34 Columns and Rows of display screen.
SCSI	bus	nvram	Security	oem options
scsi-initiator-id=7 SCSI bus address of host adapter, range 0-7. Used in shared scsi storage envornment.	pcia-probe-list =1,2,3,4 pcib-probe-list =1,2,3 `sbus-probe-list` `=2,0,1,3` Order to probe pci and sbus buses for devices.	use-nvramrc?=false If true , execute commands in NVRAMRC during sys- tem start-up. Defaults to false . nvramrc Displays contents of NVRAM	security-mode=none Firmware security level (options: none, command , or full). If set to command or full, system will prompt for PROM security password. Security password setting when security mode is command or full. security-#badlogins=0 No. of bad security login . `password` Set security-password	oem-logo=false oem-logo?=false oem-banner?=false mfg-mode=off

Useful commands at OK prompt.
Dignostics :	boot	NVRAM
banner this command shows the following systems hardware informatiion : Model, architecture, processor,keyboard, openboot version, Serial no. ethernet address & host id. test floppy - test floppy disk drive test net - test network loopbacks test scsi - test scsi interface test-all test for all devices with selftest method watch-clock Show ticks of real-time clock watch-net Monitor network broadcast packets watch-net-all Monitor broadcast packets on all net interfaces probe-scsi Show attached SCSI devices probe-scsi-all Show attached SCSI devices for all host adapters- internal & external.	boot - boot kernel from default device. Factory default is to boot from DISK if present, otherwise from NET. boot net - boot kernel from network boot cdrom - boot kernel from CD-ROM boot disk1:h - boot from disk1 partition h boot tape - boot default file from tape boot disk myunix -as - boot myunix from disk with flags "-as" DEVALIAS `ok>show-devs` `ok` `cd /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3` ok `.properties` `ok` `ls` f00809d8 tape f007ecdc disk `ok` `.speed` CPU Speed : 200.00MHz UPA Speed : 100.00MHz PCI Bus A : 66Mhz PCI Bus B : 33Mhz	nvedit Start nvramrc line editor using a temporary edit buffer use-nvramrc? If this variable is true , Contents of nvramrc is executed automatically. Set using setenv command nvrun Execute the contents of nvedit edit buffer nvstore Save the contents of the nvedit buffer into NVRAM nvrecover Recover nvramrc after a set-defaults nvalias Edit nvramrc to include devalias called 'name' nvunalias Edit nvramrc to remove devalias called 'name'
Key Sequences These commands are disabled if the PROM security is on. Also, if your system has `full` security enabled, you cannot apply any of the suggested commands unless you have the password to get to the `ok` prompt. Stop - Bypass POST. This command does not depend on security-mode. (Note: some systems bypass POST as a default; in such cases, use `Stop-D` to start POST.) Stop-A Abort. Stop-D - Enter diagnostic mode (set `diag-switch?` to `true`). Stop-F - Enter Forth on TTYA instead of probing. Use `exit` to continue with the initialization sequence. Useful if hardware is broken. Stop-N Reset NVRAM contents to default values.

Chapter 5

System Backups

ufsdump
1. Used for complete file system backup .
2. It copies every thing from regular files in a file system to special character and block device files.
2. It can work on mounted or unmounted file systems.

Tar:
1. Used for single or multiple files backup .
2. Can't backup special character & block device files .
3. Works only on mounted file system.

Identifying the tape device
dmesg | grep st

Checking the status of the tape drive
mt -f /dev/rmt/0 status

Backup file system using ufsdump
ufsdump 0cvf /dev/rmt/0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
or
ufsdump 0cvf /dev/rmt/0 /usr

To restore a dump with ufsrestore
ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/0

ufsrestore in interactive mode allowing selection of individual files and directories using add , ls , cd , pwd and extract commands .
ufsrestore -i /dev/rmt/0

Making a copy of a disk slice using ufsdump
ufsdump 0f - /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 |(cd /mnt/backup ;ufsrestore xf -)

Backing up all files in a directory including subdirectories to a tape device (/dev/rmt/0),
tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 *

Viewing a tar backup on a tape
tar tvf /dev/rmt/0

Extracting tar backup from the tape
tar xvf /dev/rmt/0
(Restoration will go to present directory or original backup path depending on relative or absolute path names used for backup )

Backup using cpio
find . -depth -print | cpio -ovcB > /dev/rmt/0

Viewing cpio files on a tape
cpio -ivtB < /dev/rmt/0

Restoring a cpio backup
cpio -ivcB < /dev/rmt/0

Compressing a file
compress -v file_name

gzip filename
To uncompress a file
uncompress file_name.Z
or
gunzip filename

tar: /dev/rmt/0: No such file or directory
==========================================

The default tape device /dev/rmt/0, or possibly the device
specified by the TAPE environment variable, is not currently
connected to the system, is not configured, or its hardware
symbolic link is broken.

List the files in the /dev/rmt directory to see which tape
devices are currently configured. If none are configured,

ensure
that a tape device is correctly attached to the system, and
reboot with the -r option to reconfigure devices.

If tape devices other than /dev/rmt/0 are configured, you

could
specify one of them after the -f option of tar(1).

tar: directory checksum error
=============================

This error message from tar(1) indicates that the checksum of the
directory and the files it has read from tape does not match the
checksum advertised in the header block. Usually this indicates
the wrong blocking factor, although it could indicate corrupt
data on tape.

To resolve this problem, make certain that the blocking factor
you specify on the command line (after -b) matches the blocking
factor originally specified. If in doubt, leave out the block
size and let tar determine it automatically. If that doesn't
help, tape data could be corrupted.

tar: tape write error
=====================

A physical write error has occurred on the tar(1) output file,
which is usually a tape, although it could be a diskette or disk
file. Look on the system console, where the device driver should
provide the actual error condition. This might be a write-
protected tape, a physical I/O error, an end-of-tape condition,
or a File too large limitation.

In the case of write-protectedtapes, enable the write switch.
For physical I/O errors, the best course of action is to replace
the tape with a new one. For end-of-tape conditions, try using a
higher density if the device supports one, or use cpio(1) or pax
(1) for their multi-volume support., When encountering File too
large limitations, use the parent shell'slimit(1) or ulimit
facility to increase the maximum file size.

For more information on tar tapes, see the section on copying UFS
files in the System Administration Guide,Volume I.

Text is lost because the maximum edit log size has been exceeded.
=================================================================

This message appears at the beginning of a cmdtool(1) session
after 100,000 characters have gone by in the scrolling window.
Clicking on the top rectangle of the scrollbar might display this
message. No data were lost, but the user cannot scroll back
before this wraparound point.

To increase the maximum size of the Command Tool log file, use
cmdtool with the-M option, specifying more than 100,000 bytes.

THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY:
============================================================

At boot time the /etc/rcS script runs the fsck(1M) command to
check the integrity of filesystems marked "fsck" in /etc/vfstab.
If fsck cannot repair a filesystem automatically, it interrupts
the boot procedure and produces this message. When fsck gets into
this state, it cannot repair filesystems without losing one or
more files, so it wants to defer this responsibility to you, the
administrator. Data corruption has probably already occurred.

First run fsck -n on the filesystem, to see how many and what
type of problems exist. Then run fsck again to repair the
filesystem. If you have a backup of the filesystem, you can
generally answer "y" to all the fsck questions. It's a good idea
to keep a record of all problematic files and inode numbers for
later reference. To run fsck yourself, specify options as
recommended by the boot script. For example:

# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s0

Usually, files lost during fsck repair were created just before a
crash or power outage, and cannot be recovered. If important
files are lost, you can recover them from backup tapes.

Chapter 6

Checking and Repairing File system with fsck

fsck is a Unix utility for checking and repairing file system inconsistencies . File system can become inconsistent due to several reasons and the most common is abnormal shutdown due to hardware failure , power failure or switching off the system without proper shutdown . Due to these reasons the superblock in a file system is not updated and has mismatched information relating to system data blocks, free blocks and inodes .

Modes of operation :

fsck operates in two modes interactive and non interactive :

interactive : the fsck examines the file system and stops at each error it finds in the file system and gives the problem description and ask for user response usually whether to correct the problem or continue without making any change to the file system.

noninteractive :fsck tries to repair all the problems it finds in a file system without stopping for user response useful in case of a large number of inconsistencies in a file system but has the disadvantage of removing some useful files which are detected to be corrupt .

If file system is found to have problem at the booting time non interactive fsck fsck is run and all errors which are considered safe to correct are corrected. But if still file system has problems the system boots in single user mode asking for user to manually run the fsck to correct the problems in file system

Running fsck :

fsck should always be run in a single user mode which ensures proper repair of file system . If it is run in a busy system where the file system is changing constantly fsck may see the changes as inconsistencies and may corrupt the file system .

if the system can not be brought in a single user mode fsck should be run on the partitions ,other than root & usr , after unmounting them . Root & usr partitions can not be unmounted . If the system fails to come up due to root/usr files system corruption the system can booted with CD and root/usr partitions can be repaired using fsck.

command syntax:

fsck [ -F fstype] [-V] [-yY] [-o options] special

-F fstype type of file system to be repaired ( ufs , vxfs etc)

-V verify the command line syntax but do not run the command

-y or -Y Run the command in non interactive mode - repair all errors encountered without waiting for user response.

-o options Three options can be specified with -o flag

b=n where n is the number of next super block if primary super block is corrupted in a file system .

p option used to make safe repair options during the booting process.

f force the file system check regardless of its clean flag.

special - Block or character device name of the file system to be checked/repaired - for example /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s4 .Character device should be used for consistencies check & repair

phases:

fsck checks the file system in a series of 5 pages and checks a specific functionality of file system in each phase.

** phase 1 - Check Blocks and Sizes

** phase 2 - Check Pathnames

** phase 3 - Check Connectivity

** phase 4 - Check Reference Counts

** phase 5 - Check Cylinder Groups

Error messages & Corrective action :

1.Corrupted superblock - fsck fails to run

If the superblock is corrupted the file system still can be repaired using alternate superblock which are formed while making new file system .

the first alternate superblock number is 32 and others superblock numbers can be found using the following command :

newfs -N /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6

for example to run fsck using first alternate superblock following command is used

fsck -F ufs -o b=32 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6

2.Link counter adjustment : fsck finds mismatch between directory inode link counts and actual directory links and prompts for adjustment in case of interactive operation .Link count adjustments are considered to be a safe operation in a file system and should be repaired by giving 'y' response to the adjust ? prompt during fsck.

3.Free Block count salvage : During fsck the number of free blocks listed in a superblock and actual unallocated free blocks count does not match .fsck inform this mismatch and asks to salvage free block count to synchronize the superblock count. This error can be corrected without any potential problem to the file system or files.

4.Unreferenced file reconnection : While checking connectivity fsck finds some inodes which are allocated but not referenced -not attached to any directory . Answering y to reconnect message by fsck links these files to the lost+found directory with their inode number as their name .

To get more info about the files in lost+found 'file' command can be used to see the type of files and subsequently they can be opened in their applications or text editors to find out about their contents. If the file is found to be correct it can be used after copying to some other directory and renaming it.

Chapter 7

Crontab

Setting up cronjobs in Unix and Solaris

cron is a unix, solaris utility that allows tasks to be automatically run in the background at regular intervals by the cron daemon. These tasks are often termed as cron jobs in unix , solaris.
Crontab (CRON TABle) is a file which contains the schedule of cron entries to be run and at specified times.

Following points sum up the crontab functionality :

1. Crontab Restrictions

2. Crontab Commands

3. Crontab file - syntax

4. Crontab Example

5. Crontab Environment

6. Disable Email

7. Generate log file for crontab activity

8. Next Steps

1. Crontab Restrictions
____________
You can execute crontab if your name appears in the file /usr/lib/cron/cron.allow. If that file does not exist, you can use
crontab if your name does not appear in the file /usr/lib/cron/cron.deny.
If only cron.deny exists and is empty, all users can use crontab. If neither file exists, only the root user can use crontab. The allow/deny files consist of one user name per line.

2. Crontab Commands
__________
export EDITOR=vi ;to specify a editor to open crontab file.

crontab -e Edit your crontab file, or create one if it doesn't already exist.
crontab -l Display your crontab file.
crontab -r Remove your crontab file.
crontab -v Display the last time you edited your crontab file. (This option is only available on a few systems.)

3. Crontab file
___________
Crontab syntax :-
A crontab file has five fields for specifying day , date and time followed by the command to be run at that interval.

* in the value field above means all legal values as in braces for that column.
The value column can have a * or a list of elements separated by commas. An element is either a number in the ranges shown above or two numbers in the range separated by a hyphen (meaning an inclusive range).

Note: The specification of days can be made in two fields: month day and weekday. If both are specified in an entry, they are cumulative meaning both of the entries will get executed .

4. Crontab Example
_______

A line in crontab file like below removes the tmp files from /home/someuser/tmp each day at 6:30 PM.

30 18 * * * rm /home/someuser/tmp/*

Changing the parameter values as below will cause this command to run at different time schedule below :

min	hour	day/month	month	day/week	Execution time
30	0	1	1,6,12	*	-- 00:30 Hrs on 1st of Jan, June & Dec.
:
0	20	*	10	1-5	--8.00 PM every weekday (Mon-Fri) only in Oct.
:
0	0	1,10,15	*	*	-- midnight on 1st ,10th & 15th of month
:
5,10	0	10	*	1	-- At 12.05,12.10 every Monday & on 10th of every month
:

Note : If you inadvertently enter the crontab command with no argument(s), do not attempt to get out with Control-d. This removes all entries in your crontab file. Instead, exit with Control-c.

5. Crontab Environment
___________
cron invokes the command from the user's HOME directory with the shell, (/usr/bin/sh).
cron supplies a default environment for every shell, defining:
HOME=user's-home-directory
LOGNAME=user's-login-id
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:.
SHELL=/usr/bin/sh

Users who desire to have their .profile executed must explicitly do so in the crontab entry or in a script called by the entry.

6. Disable Email
____________

By default cron jobs sends a email to the user account executing the cronjob. If this is not needed put the following command At the end of the cron job line .

>/dev/null 2>&1

7. Generate log file
________________

To collect the cron execution execution log in a file :

30 18 * * * rm /home/someuser/tmp/* > /home/someuser/cronlogs/clean_tmp_dir.log

Chapter 8

Managing Disks and FileSystem

Format Command

The format utility's main menu items allow you to do the following tasks:

analyze

Run read, write, and compare tests.

backup

Search for backup labels.

current

Display the device name, manufacturer and model of the current disk.

defect

Retrieve and print defect lists.

disk

Choose the disk that will be used in subsequent operations (known as the current disk.)

fdisk

(x86 systems only.) Run the fdisk(1M) program to create a Solaris fdisk partition.

format

Format and verify the current disk.

inquiry

Display the vendor, product name, and revision level of the current drive.

label

Write a new label to the current disk.

partition

Create and modify slices.

quit

Exit the format menu.

repair

Repair a specific block on the disk.

save

Save new disk and slice information.

type

Identify the manufacturer and model of the current disk.

verify

Print the following information about the disk: manufacturer and model, number of cylinders, alternate cylinders, heads and sectors, and partition table.

volname

Label the disk with a new eight character volume name.

PRVTOC

The prtvtoc command allows the contents of the VTOC (volume table of contents) to be viewed. The command can be used only by the super-user.

The device name can be the file name of a raw device in the form of /dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s2 or can be the file name of a block device in the form of /dev/dsk/c?t?d?s2

example# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2

* /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 partition map

* Dimension:

*  512 bytes/sector

*   80 sectors/track

*    9 tracks/cylinder

*  720 sectors/cylinder

*  2500 cylinders

*  1151 accessible cylinders

* Flags:

* 1: unmountable

* 10: read-only

*                            First     Sector    Last

* Partition  Tag     Flags   Sector    Count     Sector    Mount Directory

    0         2      00           0     76320     76319   /

    1         3      01       76320   132480    208799

    2         5      00           0   828720    828719

    5         6      00     208800    131760    340559    /opt

    6         4      00     340560    447120    787679    /usr

    7         8      00     787680      41040   828719    /export/home

example#

Adding Disks under Solaris

Once the disk has been physically installed, the system should recognize a new device on the SCSI bus. After powering up the system, hold down the Stop key (on some Suns, this is labeled L1), and hit the A key to enter the boot monitor.

At the boot monitor, probe-scsi can be used to list the SCSI devices the system recognizes:

Type 'go' to resume

Type help for more information

ok probe-scsi

Target 5

  Unit 0  Disk     HP        C37245       5153

Note: on some older Suns, it may be necessary to enter "n" at the boot monitor to enter the newer command mode before probing for disks.

After verifying that the new disk is recognized by the system, reboot the machine by issuing "boot -r" from the boot monitor. The -r option tells the system to reconfigure for the new device.

During the boot process, the new disk should be recognized and a message should be printed to the console. (On some Suns, it may not be printed to the screen, but will be written to the system log -- in this case, the dmesg command should be used to review the boot messages). The messages should be similar to this:

   sd5 at esp0: target 5 lun 0

   sd5 is /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@5,0

   WARNING: /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@5,0 (sd5):

    corrupt label - wrong magic number

    Vendor 'HP', product 'C3724S', 2354660 512 byte blocks

In this example, the disk is located on controller 0, SCSI ID 5. The "corrupt label" warning means that the disk doesn't have a Solaris label on it yet.

Device nodes

The correct device nodes for the disk are automatically added when a "boot -r" is issued. If the system hasn't been rebooted using the -r option, here is a script that will configure the system for the new disk.

Formatting, Partitioning and Labeling

The format utility is used to format, partition, and label disks. It is menu driven. The raw disk device is given as an argument; if no argument is given, format will print a list of available disks and ask the user to pick one.

# format /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s2

selecting /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s2

[disk formatted]

FORMAT MENU:

        disk       - select a disk

        type       - select (define) a disk type

        partition  - select (define) a partition table

        current    - describe the current disk

        format     - format and analyze the disk

        repair     - repair a defective sector

        label      - write label to the disk

        analyze    - surface analysis

        defect     - defect list management

        backup     - search for backup labels

        verify     - read and display labels

        save       - save new disk/partition definitions

        inquiry    - show vendor, product and revision

        volname    - set 8-character volume name

        quit

Typing format at the prompt will perform a low-level format on the disk. This is usually not necessary with a new disk, since they generally come pre-formatted, but may help to map out any additional defects the drive may have developed.

The next step is to partition the drive. Type partition at the prompt to switch to the partition menu:

format> partition

PARTITION MENU:

        0      - change `0' partition

        1      - change `1' partition

        2      - change `2' partition

        3      - change `3' partition

        4      - change `4' partition

        5      - change `5' partition

        6      - change `6' partition

        7      - change `7' partition

        select - select a predefined table

        modify - modify a predefined partition table

        name   - name the current table

        print  - display the current table

        label  - write partition map and label to the disk

        quit

Type in print to get a listing of the current partition table. Note that the second partition represents the entire disk:

partition> print

Current partition table (original):

Total disk cylinders available: 3361 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders        Size            Blocks

  0 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

  1 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

  2     backup    wu       0-3360          1.12GB    (3361/0/0) 2352700

  3 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

  4 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

  5 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

  6 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

  7 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

We will be splitting the disk up into two equal partitions, numbers 3 and 4. The first partition will span cylinders 0 through 1680, the second will span cylinders 1681 through 3360. The partition size can be specified in blocks, cylinders, or megabytes by using the b, c, and mb suffixes when entering the size.

partition> 3

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders        Size            Blocks

  3 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)          0

Enter partition id tag[unassigned]:

Enter partition permission flags[wm]:

Enter new starting cyl[0]: 0

Enter partition size[0b, 0c, 0.00mb]: 1680c

partition> 4

Enter partition id tag[unassigned]:

Enter partition permission flags[wm]:

Enter new starting cyl[0]: 1681

Enter partition size[0b, 0c, 0.00mb]: 1680c

Once the disk has been partitioned, the label should be written to the disk:

partition> label

Ready to label disk, continue? y

The new partition table can be printed from the format utility, or may be viewed using the prtvtoc command:

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/s0t5d0s2

* /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s2 partition map

* Dimensions:

*     512 bytes/sector

*     140 sectors/track

*       5 tracks/cylinder

*     700 sectors/cylinder

*    3363 cylinders

*    3361 accessible cylinders

* Flags:

*   1: unmountable

*  10: read-only

* Unallocated space:

*       First     Sector    Last

*       Sector     Count    Sector

*     1176000       700   1176699

*                          First     Sector    Last

* Partition  Tag  Flags    Sector     Count    Sector  Mount Directory

       2      5    01          0   2352700   2352699

       3      0    00          0   1176000   1175999

       4      0    00    1176700   1176000   2352699

Creating new filesystems

Finally, new filesystems can be created on the disk using the newfs command, and each filesystem is checked for integrity using fsck:

# newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s3

newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s3: (y/n)? y

/dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s3:     1176000 sectors in 1680 cylinders of 5 tracks, 140 sectors

        574.2MB in 105 cyl groups (16 c/g, 5.47MB/g, 2624 i/g)

super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:

 32, 11376, 22720, 34064, 45408, 56752, 68096, 79440, 89632, 100976, 112320,

 123664, 135008, 146352, 157696, 169040, 179232, 190576, 201920, 213264,

 224608, 235952, 247296, 258640, 268832, 280176, 291520, 302864, 314208,

 325552, 336896, 348240, 358432, 369776, 381120, 392464, 403808, 415152,

 426496, 437840, 448032, 459376, 470720, 482064, 493408, 504752, 516096,

 527440, 537632, 548976, 560320, 571664, 583008, 594352, 605696, 617040,

 627232, 638576, 649920, 661264, 672608, 683952, 695296, 706640, 716832,

 728176, 739520, 750864, 762208, 773552, 784896, 796240, 806432, 817776,

 829120, 840464, 851808, 863152, 874496, 885840, 896032, 907376, 918720,

 930064, 941408, 952752, 964096, 975440, 985632, 996976, 1008320, 1019664,

 1031008, 1042352, 1053696, 1065040, 1075232, 1086576, 1097920, 1109264,

 1120608, 1131952, 1143296, 1154640, 1164832,

# fsck -y /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s3

** /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s3

** Last Mounted on

** Phase 1 - Check Blocks and Sizes

** Phase 2 - Check Pathnames

** Phase 3 - Check Connectivity

** Phase 4 - Check Reference Counts

** Phase 5 - Check Cyl groups

2 files, 9 used, 551853 free (13 frags, 68980 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)

Chapter 9

Admin's Guide to Solstice Disk Suite

Understanding and setting up Solstice DiskSuite in Solaris

About Solstice DiskSuite:

SolsticeTM DiskSuiteTM 4.2.1 is a software product that manages data and disk drives.

Solstice DiskSuite 4.2.1 runs on all SPARCTM systems running SolarisTM 8, and on all x86 systems running Solaris 8.

DiskSuite's diskset feature is supported only on the SPARC platform edition of Solaris. This feature is not supported on x86 systems.

Tableof Contents

1.Advantages of Disksuite

2. Disksuite terms

3. Disksuite Packages

4. Installing DiskSuite 4.2.1 in Solaris 8

5. Creating State Database

6. Creating MetaDevices

6.1. Concatenated Metadevice

6.2. Striped Metadevice

6.3 Mirrored Metadevice

6.3.1 Simple mirror

6.3.2 Mirroring a unmountable Partition

6.3.3 root mirroring & /usr mirroring

6.3.4 Making alternate root disk bootable

6.3.5 Setting alternate boot path for root mirror

6.4 RAID 5

6.5 TransMeta Device

6.5.1 TransMeta device for unmountable partition

6.5.2 TransMeta device for non unmountable partition.

6.5.3 TransMeta device using Mirror

6.6 Hotspare Pool

6.6.1 Adding a Hotspare to Mirror

6.6.2 Adding a Hotspare to RAID5

6.6.3 Adding a disk to Hotspare Pool.

6.7 disksets

6.7.1 Creating two diskset

6.7.2 Adding disk to diskset

6.7.3 Creating Mirror in Diskset

7. TroubleShooting

7.1 Recovering from Stale State Database Replicas

7.2 Metadevice Errors

8.0 Next Steps

1. Advantages of Disksuite

Solstice disk suite provides three major functionalities :

1. Over come the disk size limitation by providing for joining of multiple disk slices to form a bigger volume.

2. Fault Tolerance by allowing mirroring of data from one disk to another and keeping parity information in RAID5.

3. Performance enhancement by allowing spreading the data space over multiple disks .

2. Disksuite terms

Metadevice :A virtual device composed of several physical devices - slices/disks . All the operations are carried out using metadevice name and transparently implemented on the individual device.

RAID : A group of disks used for creating a virtual volume is called array and depending on disk/slice arrangement these are called various types of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disk ).

RAID 0 Concatenation/Striping

RAID 1 Mirroring

RAID 5 Striped array with rotating parity.

Concatenation :Concatenation is joining of two or more disk slices to add up the disk space . Concatenation is serial in nature i.e. sequential data operation are performed serially on first disk then second disk and so on . Due to serial nature new slices can be added up without having to take the backup of entire concatenated volume ,adding slice and restoring backup .

Striping :Spreading of data over multiple disk drives mainly to enhance the performance by distributing data in alternating chunks - 16 k interleave across the stripes . Sequential data operations are performed in parallel on all the stripes by reading/writing 16k data blocks alternatively form the disk stripes.

Mirroring : Mirroring provides data redundancy by simultaneously writing data on to two sub mirrors of a mirrored device . A submirror can be a stripe or concatenated volume and a mirror can have three mirrors . Main concern here is that a mirror needs as much as the volume to be mirrored.

RAID 5 : RAID 5 provides data redundancy and advantage of striping and uses less space than mirroring . A RAID 5 is made up of at least three disk which are striped with parity information written alternately on all the disks . In case of a single disk failure the data can be rebuild using the parity information from the remaining disks .

3. Disksuite Packages :

Solstice disk suite is a part of server edition of the Solaris OS and is not included with desktop edition . The software is in pkgadd format & can be found in following locations in CD :

Solaris 2.6 - “Solaris Server Intranet Extensions 1.0” CD.

Solaris 7 - “Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0”

Solaris 8 - “Solaris 8 Software 2 of 2”

Solaris 2.6 & 2.7 Solstice Disk suite version is 4.2 . Following packages are part of it but only the "SUNWmd" is the minimum required package and a patch.

SUNWmd - Solstice DiskSuite

SUNWmdg - Solstice DiskSuite Tool

SUNWmdn - Solstice DiskSuite Log Daemon

Patch No. 106627-04 (obtain latest revision)

Solaris 8 DiskSuite version is 4.2.1 .Following are the minimum required packages ..

SUNWmdr Solstice DiskSuite Drivers (root)

SUNWmdu Solstice DiskSuite Commands

SUNWmdx Solstice DiskSuite Drivers (64-bit)

4. Installing DiskSuite 4.2.1 in Solaris 8

# cd /cdrom/sol_8_401_sparc_2/Solaris_8/EA/products/DiskSuite_4.2.1/sparc/Packages

# pkgadd -d .

The following packages are available:

1 SUNWmdg Solstice DiskSuite Tool