Archive
Posts in Solaris
Keeping up to date with opensolaris developments
If you are like me, you like to keep up with the latest Solaris happenings. For the latest putbacks into opensolaris, you can check out the genunix putback page: Genunix putback log To keep up with new ARC case submissions, you can keep an eye on the PSARC page: PSARC page If you would prefer to get e-mail notifications for putbacks and new PSARC cases, you can sign up on the opensolaris mailing list page.
$ read more →Greping through binary data with zgrep and gzcat
I periodically need to look for a given string in one or more compressed log files. Taking the time (and resources) to decompress each file on the file system takes time, especially when I don't plan to leave the file uncompressed. When these situations arise, I turn to my good friends gzcat and zgrep. The zgrep utility allows you to look for a pattern in one or more compressed files…
$ read more →Solaris SNMP agent updated to net-snmp version 5.4.1
I just saw that the opensolaris net-snmp software was updated to version 5.4.1: This is a welcome addition, and will provide admins with a number of new capabilities (e.g., disk monitoring) that aren't available in the net-snmp 5.0.9 build that is currently part of Solaris!
$ read more →Dealing with cron bad user messages on Solaris hosts
While reviewing the cron logs on one of my Solaris hosts, I noticed a number of entries similar to the following: These errors are typically generated when the account the job run as doesn't exist, or when the user's shadow entry is locked (locked accounts have a LK in the /etc/shadow password field). In this specific case a password or NP entry (the account doesn't have a password, and logins are denied) wasn't assigned to the arr user, so the account was still listed in the locked state. Setting a strong password fixed the issue, and everything is working swimmingly!
$ read more →Viewing PCI bus throughput on Solaris systems
The PCI and PCI express interconnect technologies have become the defacto standard for connecting peripherals to most motherboards. 64-bit 66 MHZ PCI interconnects run with speeds up to 528MB/s, and share the available bandwidth between devices on the PCI bus. PCI express x32 runs with speeds up to 8 GB/s, and provides dedicated "lanes" to connect each peripheral directly to the motherboards chipsets. This allows PCI express devices to utilize all of the available bandwidth, and maximizes throughput since PCI express devices do not need to compete with other devices on the bus…
$ read more →