UNIX (Sun, AIX, HP-UX and Linux articles)

SMIT Fast Paths (For Reference)

2012-05-29T14:47:00.000-03:00

Taken from http://archive.rootvg.net/smit.htm

You can access SMIT tasks and sub-menus directly by using a fast path.
Example: smit mkuser takes you directly to the menu Add a User.
At any menu in SMIT, you can show the fast path to that menu by pressing the F8 key.

Application/Task	Fast Path
Software Installation and Maintenance Install and Update Software Install Software Update Installed Software to Latest Level (Update All) Install Software Bundle Update Software by Fix (APAR) Install and Update from ALL Available Software List Software and Related Information List Installed Software and Related Information List Installed Software List Applied but Not Committed Software Updates Show Software Installation History Show Fix (APAR) Installation Status List Fileset Requisites List Fileset Dependents List Files Included in a Fileset List Fileset Containing File Show Installed License Agreements List Software on Media and Related Information List Filesets in a Bundle List Software on Installation Media List Software Fixes (APARs) on Installation Media List Supplemental Fileset Information on Installation Media Show License Agreements on Installation Media Software Maintenance and Utilities Commit Applied Software Updates (Remove Saved Files) Reject Applied Software Updates (Use Previous Version) Remove Installed Software Copy Software to Hard Disk for Future Installation Check Software File Sizes After Installation Verify Software Installation and Requisites Network Installation Management Configure Network Installation Management Client Fileset Install and Update Software List Software on Media and Related Information List Filesets in a Bundle List Software on Installation Media List Software Fixes (APARs) on Installation Media Manage Network Install Permissions Manage Network Install Resource Allocation System Backup Manager Back Up the System Back Up This System to Tape/File Create a Generic Backup CD List Files in a System Image Restore Files in a System Image	install install_update install_latest update_all install_bundle update_by_fix install_all list_software list_installed list_installed_sw list_applied_sw show_history show_apar_stat list_requisites list_dependents list_files what_fileset installed_license list_media list_bundle list_media_sw list_media_fixes list_media_info license_on_media maintain_software commit reject remove bffcreate check_files verify_install nim_client niminit nim_client_inst nim_client_list nim_c_list_bundle nim_c_list_sw nim_c_list_fixes nim_perms nim_c_mac_res backsys sysbackup mksysb mkcdgeneric lsmksysb restmksysb
Software License Management Manage Nodelocked Licenses Add Nodelocked License from a File Add Nodelocked License from the Keyboard Delete a Nodelocked License Manage License Servers and License Databases Show Server Characteristics Manage Concurrent Use and Use Once Licenses Manage Vendor Information in License Databases Show License Usage on Servers Show License Usage Summary Show Licenses Currently Being Used Show License Information by Server Show Licenses Held by a Specific User Show License Agreements Show Installed License Agreements Show License Agreements on Installation Media	licenses manage_nodelocked add_nodelocked_from_file add_nodelocked_from_keyboard delete_nodelocked manage_servers show_server_characteristics manage_prod_licenses manage_vendors show_server_status show_total_license_usage show_current_license_usage show_installed_licenses show_user_license_held show_license_agree installed_license license_on_media
Devices Install/Configure Devices Added After IPL Printer/Plotter TTY PTY Console Fixed Disk CD ROM Drive Read/Write Optical Drive Diskette Drive Tape Drive Communication Graphic Displays Graphic Input Devices Low Function Terminal (LFT) SCSI Initiator Device SCSI Adapter Asynchronous I/O Multimedia List Devices Configure/Unconfigure Devices Unconfigure a Device Configure a Defined Device Install Additional Device Software PCI Hot Plug Manager Unconfigure a Device Configure a Defined Device Install/Configure Devices Added After IPL ISA Adapters	dev cfgmgr printer tty pty console disk cdrom rwopt diskette tape commodev g_display input lft scsiid scsia aio mm lsattr devcfg devcfg_ucfg devcfg_cfg devinst devdrpci rmdev mkdev cfgmgr devisa
System Storage Management (Physical & Logical Storage) Logical Volume Manager Volume Groups List All Volume Groups Add a Volume Groups Set Characteristics of a Volume Group List Contents of a Volume Group Remove a Volume Group Activate a Volume Group Deactivate a Volume Group Import a Volume Group Export a Volume Group Mirror a Volume Group Unmirror a Volume Group Synchronize LVM Mirrors Back Up a Volume Group Remake a Volume Group List Files in a Volume Group Backup Restore Files in a Volume Group Backup Logical Volumes List All Logical Volumes by Volume Group Add a Logical Volume Set Characteristics of a Logical Volume Show Characteristics of a Logical Volume Remove a Logical Volume Copy a Logical Volume Physical Volumes Add a Disk Change Characteristics of a Physical Volume List Contents of a Physical Volume Move Contents of a Physical Volume Paging Space Add Another Paging Space Change/Show Characteristics of a Paging Space Remove a Paging Space Activate a Paging Space Deactivate a Paging Space File Systems List All File Systems List All Mounted File Systems Add/Change/Show/Delete File Systems Mount a File System Mount a Group of File Systems Unmount a File System Unmount a Group of File Systems Verify a File System Backup a File System Restore a File System List Contents of a Backup Files & Directories Backup a File or Directory Restore a File or Directory List Contents of a Backup Removable Disk Management List All Mounted File Systems on a Disk Unmount File Systems on a Disk Remove a Disk from the Operating System Remove a Disk Open Door System Backup Manager Back Up the System List Files in a System Image Restore Files in a System Image	storage lvm vg lsvg2 mkvg vgsc lsvg1 reducevg2 varyonvg varyoffvg importvg exportvg mirrorvg unmirrorvg syncvg vgbackup restvg lsbackvg restsavevg lv lsvg mklv lvsc lslv rmlv cplv pv makdsk chpv lspv migratepv pgsp mkps chps rmps swapon swapoff fs lsfs mount manfs mountfs mountg umountfs umountg fsck backfilesys restfilesys listtoc filemgr backfile restfile listtoc rds lsmntdsk umntdsk removedsk rmvdsk1 open_door backsys sysbackup lsmksysb restmksysb
Security and Users Users Add a User Change a User's Password Change/Show Characteristics of a User Lock/Unlock a User's Account Reset User's Failed Login Count Remove a User List All Users Groups List All Groups Add a Group Change/Show Characteristics of a Group Remove a Group Passwords Change a User's Password Change/Show Password Attributes for a User Login Controls Change/Show Login Attributes for a User Change/Show Login Attributes for a Port Roles Add a Role Change/Show Characteristics of a Role Remove a Role List All Roles	security users mkuser passwd chuser lockuser failed_logins rmuser lsuser groups lsgroup mkgroup chgroup rmgroup passwords passwd passwdattrs logins login_user login_port roles mkrole chrole rmrole lsrole
Communications Applications and Services TCP/IP Minimum Configuration & Startup Further Configuration Hostname Static Routes Network Interfaces Name Resolution Client Network Services Server Network Services Manage Print Server Select BSD style rc Configuration Authentication Configuration Use DHCP for TCPIP Configuration & Startup IPV6 Configuration IPV6 Static Routes IPV6 Network Interfaces IPV6 Daemon/Process Configuration Quality of Service Configuration & Startup Start Using the QoS Subsystem Stop Using the QoS Subsystem NFS Configure TCP/IP (If Not Already Configured) Network File System (NFS) Configure NFS on This System Add a Directory to Exports List Change/Show Attributes of an Exported Directory Remove a Directory from Exports List Add a File System for Mounting Change/Show Attributes of an NFS File System Remove Remove an NFS File System	commo tcpip mktcpip configtcp hostname route netinterface namerslv clientnet ruser server setbootup_option auth_config usedhcp configtcp6 route6 inet6 daemon6 configqos startqos stopqos nfs_menus tcpip nfs nfsconfigure mknfsexp chnfsexp rmnfsexp mknfsmnt chnfsmnt rmnfsmnt
Print Spooling Start a Print Job Manage Print Jobs Cancel a Print Job Show the Status of Print Jobs Prioritize a Print Job Hold/Release a Print Job Move a Job Between Print Queues Manage Print Queues Show Status of Print Queues Stop a Print Queue Start a Print Queue Set the System's Default Print Queue Add a Print Queue Add an Additional Printer to an Existing Print Queue Change/Show Print Queue Characteristics Remove a Print Queue Manage Print Server Programming Tools	spooler qprt jobs qcan qchk qpri qhld qmove pqmanage qstatus qstop qstart qdefault mkpq mkqprt chpq rmpq server pqtools
Problem Determination Error Log Generate Error Report Change/Show Characteristics of the Error Log Clean the Error Log System Dump Change the Primary Dump Device Change the Secondary Dump Device Change the Directory to which Dump is Copied on Boot Copy a System Dump from a Dump Device to a File Copy a System Dump from a Dump Device to Diskette Always Allow System Dump System Dump Compression Check Dump Resources Utility Alog Show an Alog file Change/Show Characteristics of an Alog File Hardware Diagnostics Verify Software Installation and Requisites	problem error errpt errdemon errclear dump dumpchgp dumpchgs dumpchgd dump_copy_file dump_copy_dskt dump_allow dump_comprs dump_checkr alog alog_show alog_change diag verify_install
Performance and Resource Scheduling Resource Status & Monitors Analysis Tools Resource Controls Remove a Process Set Initial Priority of a Process Change Initial Priority of a Process Set System Run Level Schedule Jobs Power Management Configure/Unconfigure Power Management System State Transition from Enable State Display Power Management Battery Workload Management Work on alternate configurations Copy a configuration Create a configuration Select a configuration Enter configuration description Remove a configuration Work on a set of Subclasses Add a class Change/Show Characteristics of a class General characteristics of a class CPU resource management Memory resource management diskIO resource management Remove a class Class assignment rules Create a new Rule Change/Show Characteristics of a Rule Start/Stop/Update WLM Start Workload Management Update Workload Management Stop Workload Management Assign/Unassign processes to a class/subclass	performance monitors analysis controls kill nice renice telinit at pm pmConfig pmState pmDisplaySelect pmBattery wlm wlmconfig wlmconfig_copy wlmconfig_create wlmconfig_select wlmconfig_enter wlmconfig_delete wlmsubclass wlmaddclass wlmchclass wlmclass_gal wlmclass_cpu wlmclass_mem wlmclass_bio wlmrmclass wlmrs crewlmrs chgwlmrs wlmmanage wlmstart wlmupdate wlmoff wlmassign
System Environments Stop the System Assign the Console Change/Show Date and Time Change/Show Date & Time Change Time Zone Using System Defined Values Change Time Zone Using User Inputted Values Manage Language Environment Change/Show Primary Language Environment Add Additional Language Environments Remove Language Environments Change/Show Language Hierarchy Set User Languages Change/Show Applications for a Language Convert System Messages and Flat Files Change/Show Characteristics of Operating System Change/Show Number of Licensed Users Manage AIX Floating User Licenses for this Server Broadcast Message to all Users Manage System Logs Change/Show Characteristics of System Dump Internet and Documentation Services Change/Show Default Browser Change Documentation and Search Server Change/Show Default Documentation Language Web-based System Manager Change System User Interface Change/Show Default Documentation Language Manage Remote Reboot Facility Manage System Hang Detection	system shutdown chcons chtz_date date chtz chtz_user mlang chlang mle_add_lang mle_rm_lang_hdr mle_hier_cmd_hdr chlang_user mle_chapp_menu nu_iconv chgsys chlicense netls_server wall logs dump web_configure change_default_browser change_doc_search_server chdoclang web_based_system_manager dt_config chdoclang rrbtty shd
Processes and Subsystems Processes Remove a Process Bind a Process to a Processor Unbind a Process Subsystems Query a Subsystem Start a Subsystem Stop a Subsystem Stop a Single Subsystem Stop All Subsystems Refresh a Subsystem Trace Subsystem Start Trace Stop Trace Subservers Query a Subserver Start a Subserver Stop a Subserver Trace Subserver Start Trace Stop Trace	src process kill bindproc unbindproc subsys qssys startssys stopssys stopassys stopallssys refresh tracessys tracessyson tracessysoff subserver qserver startserver stopserver traceserver startserver.trace stopserver.trace

Copying a file system to another location using ufsdump/ufsrestore

2012-01-17T15:09:00.001-02:00

ufsdump 0f - /dev/vx/rdsk/tempdg/apps | (cd /target_dir; ufsrestore xf -)

tar: file name too long (how to fix)

2011-10-14T13:47:00.003-03:00

To avoid skipping files with names longer than 255 chars, use the "E" option on tar:

# tar Ecpf - /zones | gzip >> zones-usrtp1sspap009.tar.gz

Command above is useful when you don't have too much space left to compress/gzip a file

Issue on SunFire 15K

2011-08-18T11:25:00.003-03:00

This is just for the records ... One of my customers scheduled a maintenance on a SunFire 15K and the CE swapped the boards without a proper "power OFF" on SMS (SC). Here's the way to fix the issue:

SEEPROM probe took 0 seconds.
Reading Component Health Status (CHS) information ...
CHS reports Port IO6/P0 status NOT_GOOD. Treating as blacklisted.
NOTE: Crunching Slot IO6 because BBC is not GOOD, can't connect IO Boards.

How to fix:
setchs -c IO7/P0 -r " " -s ok
setchs -c IO6/P0 -r " " -s ok

This command will clear the CHS component status'. Then, you will only need to setkeyswitch the domain (off/on) to rerun POST and voila.

Hope that helps someone out there in trouble.

Mounting ISO images on Solaris

2010-12-04T14:00:00.002-02:00

mount /root/solaris.iso file under /mnt directory

# lofiadm -a /root/solaris.iso /dev/lofi/1

# mount -F hsfs -o ro /dev/lofi/1 /mnt

to unmount

# umount /mnt

# lofiadm -d /dev/lofi/1

lofi = loopback file driver

lucreate bug (copying the whole filesystems to NewBE) - How to fix

2010-05-28T15:33:00.001-03:00

So, I'm here again ... Bored as usual, lol ... Decided to write this to unbore me a little bit, rofl ....

I'm not sure if you ever faced this issue, but I can say I've had many frustrating times and had to redo a lot of lucreates because of this.

I don't know why, but some versions of Solaris LiveUpgrade appear to be buggy (when you start a lucreate command, it simply copy the whole filesystem structure under / to your little slice0).

EG:You have /apps, /u001, etc. lucreate copies everything sitting on the / FS to your NewBE partition (and of course that I don't have to say how this will end and which message you will receive during the process - NO SPACE LEFT ON DEVICE).

So, to avoid this thing to happen and have a 100% safe copy of your CurrentBE, run lucreate as follows:

# lucreate -n NewBE -m /:/dev/dsk/<C#T#D#>s0:ufs -m -:/dev/dsk/<C#T#D#>s1:swap -m /var:/dev/dsk/<C#T#D#>s5:ufs -f /tmp/LU_exclude_list

You can see that I've added a file path name on the -f parameter (this is to avoid lucreate to copy the FS specified on the file LU_exclude_list).

The file content is a pretty simple text file with a list of your filesystems mount points:

# cat /tmp/LU_exclude_list
/appPOC
/apps
/u001
/u002
/u003

Hope this helps ... Cya!!!!

Fast way to unencapsulate rootdisk on Veritas

2009-12-30T10:08:00.001-02:00

1. boot single user mode alternate boot device like cdrom, spare disk or net
ok> boot cdrom -s

2. fsck the root filesystem
# fsck -y /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 (assuming root disk is c0t0d0)

3. mount the root filesystem on /a
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a

4. cp /a/etc/system /a/etc/system.vxvm

5. vi /a/etc/system and remove the following 2 entries

rootdev:/pseudo/vxio@0:0
set vxio:vol_rootdev_is_volume=1

6. cp /a/etc/vfstab /a/etc/vfstab.vxvm

7. cp /a/etc/vfstab.prevm /a/etc/vfstab

8. rm /a/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/root-done

9. touch /a/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d/install-db

10. reboot

df: cannot canonicalize .: Permission denied

2009-12-28T11:11:00.006-02:00

I often use Solaris Live Upgrade to run quarter patching process in one of my customers. It's a very safe way to patch your system and you also have an untouched disk available (just in case you need to back out).

During this year, we've experienced a "not-well-known" issue with Live Upgrade. If you go to a directory (it usually happens with /var) and try the command below, you get a permission denied message (it seems to happen only with older versions of LU):

$ sudo pkginfo -l SUNWluu
   PKGINST: SUNWluu
      NAME: Live Upgrade 2.0 10/01 (usr)
CATEGORY: application
      ARCH: sparc
   VERSION: 11.8,REV=2001.10.30.17.21

$ cd /var
$ df -k .
df: cannot canonicalize .: Permission denied

This happens because Live Upgrade doesn't do a proper copy of the mount-point directory's permission (it usually does a chmod 750 on the mount-point dir, instead of a 755). It also denies a normal user to list/create files on the file system (can impact some apps to work properly).

File system directory un-mounted would look like this:

$ ls -ld /var
drwx------ 41 root sys 1024 Mar 16 2009 /var
$

We have opened a case with Sun to help us troubleshooting (unfortunately they didn't help us finding a permanent solution for this issue).

So, based on the history above I decided to develop by myself a permanent fix (feel free to use/suggest any new idea you might have):

1 - This issue only happens with Solaris 8 and/or 9 (haven't seen any similar issue on S10).

2 - If you want to permanently avoid this (and other issues) when you are starting to create the NewBE, I suggest you to install the Solaris 10 version of Live Upgrade on your Solaris 8/9 (you can find the packages in the following directory tree)

Solaris_10/Product/SUNWlur

Solaris_10/Product/SUNWluu

Copy the whole directory tree (use tar) to your server and remove the old packages:

pkgrm SUNWluu SUNWlur

Now, install the new packages:

pkgadd –d . SUNWluu SUNWlur

Common errors that happens using older versions of Live Upgrade:

cpio: Error with fstatat() of "opt/ecc/exec/MSR520/diskqueue/SST/GMACBR120.00101806c8be_ENW.que", errno 2, No such file or directory

cpio: Cannot open "./usr/emc/API/symapi/ipc/storwatchd", skipped, errno 122, Operation not supported on transport endpoint

cpio: pathname is too long

3 – If you want to be 100% safe from this issue (also after upgrading your Live Upgrade), you can use the following simple script that my co-worker developed together with myself:

#!/sbin/sh

# Script to fix the issue regarding the mountpoint permissions.

case "$1" in

'start')

echo "Fixing mountpoint permissions..."

for i in `grep -v "^#" /etc/vfstab| awk '{print $3}'| egrep -v '^-$|^/tmp$|^/$|^/proc$|^/dev/fd$' `

echo $i

chmod u+rwx,g+rx,o+rx $i

done

;;

echo "Usage: $0 { start }"

exit 1

;;

esac

exit 0

Copy this output and save it to a file on /etc/init.d (we named it as mountpoint_fix_permissions).

Then, do the following to make this script always run when you reboot the server:

# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/mountpoint_fix_permissions

# ln /etc/init.d/mountpoint_fix_permissions /etc/rcS.d/S65mountpoint_fix_permissions

# ls -li S65mountpoint_fix_permissions /etc/init.d/mountpoint_fix_permissions

122723 -rwxr--r-- 2 root other 383 Dec 19 19:44 /etc/init.d/mountpoint_fix_permissions

122723 -rwxr--r-- 2 root other 383 Dec 19 19:44 S65mountpoint_fix_permissions

This script will grep /etc/vfstab looking for file system paths and will chmod 755 all of them before they get mounted (to avoid the issue).

This is what will happen when the script runs:

VxVM starting special volumes ( swapvol rootvol var )...

Fixing mountpoint permissions...

/var

/apps

/u001

/u003

/u010

/u011

/u012

/u013

/u014

/u099

/u100

/u110

/u510

Now you should be all set to avoid complaints from your customer :-)

PS: This issue can sometimes impact on application’s behavior (so make sure that you have it fixed).

Bug Reference:

http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5065412

This is bug #4697677

Can't open boot_archive

2009-10-07T19:41:00.004-03:00

During a disaster recovery exercise in one of my customers, I had to deal with this frustrating error and tried almost everything to solve it (since we didn't had too much time for debugging, I've opened a software case with Sun.

This is a sample of the msg:

Boot device: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/disk@2,0:a File and args: -s -r

Can't open boot_archive

Evaluating:
The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
{0} ok

After a few hours debugging the issue with Sun, we came in the conclusion that the disk had a new bootblock (kernel 139555-08) which was seeking for the boot archive area (but it wasn't there, therefore that's the reason for the msg error). Actually, we did some OS patch changes prior to the DR exercise, but unfortunately we had to back out.

The mystery of the entire history is that the image that was applied to the disk a few days ago was using an old kernel version (127111-11) and the bootblock that is compatible with this kernel version should be there (but it wasn't :\)

Anyway, after the whole damn troubleshooting this is what we've done to fix the issue:

1) Boot from an old disk (that has an older kernel version - in our case we booted using 127111-11)

2) Install a new boot block:

************************************************
# To install boot block in the root disk:
# installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk/dev/rdsk/cXtXdXs0
************************************************

3) Reboot the server and be happy

If you still face issues, you might need to reboot in failsafe mode and sync your bootarchive. To do that, go to {OK} prompt and type:

boot -F failsafe

A message like this will appear:

An out of sync boot archive was detected on /dev/dsk/c1t2d0s0.
The boot archive is a cache of files used during boot and
should be kept in sync to ensure proper system operation.

Do you wish to automatically update this boot archive? [y,n,?] y

Updating boot archive on /dev/dsk/c1t2d0s0.
The boot archive on /dev/dsk/c1t2d0s0 was updated successfully.

Reboot and you should be all set :)

Finding the port number of a process (useful when lsof doesn't help).

2009-10-07T15:23:00.004-03:00

Hi Folks,

I've been away for many months due to work/vacation but now I'm back (I'll try to post new things on a regular basis :)

Sometime ago I had a request from a WEBLOGIC guy to kill a process that was using a specific port, but the real issue was: *he didn't know the PID # and LSOF was not working*

So, I started g00gling around and found a small script that does the job. The script uses one of the proc tools "PFILES" to grep for the port # given in the command line:

# ./portfind.sh 161

Greping for your port, please be patient (CTRL+C breaks)

sockname: AF_INET 10.13.204.20 port: 8161

Is owned by pid 1438

sockname: AF_INET 0.0.0.0 port: 161

Is owned by pid 2474

# ps -ef | egrep '1438|2474'

root 1438 1 0 Sep 28 ? 0:03 ./snmpmagt /opt/patrol/PATROL/Solaris28-sun4/lib/snmpmagt.cfg NOV

root 2474 1 0 Sep 28 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/snmp/snmpdx -f 0 -y -c /etc/snmp/conf

root 2490 2474 0 Sep 28 ? 11:36 mibiisa -r -p 32855

Here is the script code:

#!/bin/bash

# is the port we are looking for

if [ $# -lt 1 ]

then

echo "Please provide a port number parameter for this script"

echo "e.g. %content 1521"

exit

echo "Greping for your port, please be patient (CTRL+C breaks)"

for i in `ls /proc`

pfiles $i | grep AF_INET | grep $1

if [ $? -eq 0 ]

then

echo Is owned by pid $i

echo ——

done

Enjoy

Installing and configuring Sun Cluster 3.2 x86 on VMware Server

2009-03-10T22:18:00.040-03:00

This tutorial will explain step-by-step how to setup Sun Cluster 3.2 (two-node cluster) using VMware Server (free).

This environment is very useful for lab purposes and also as a tool to study for SC 3.2 certification.

First of all, you need to download and install VMware Server (I'm currently using version 1.0.8). After installing VMware, we'll need to setup two Solaris 10 VM servers (use the custom option on the virtual machine configuration).

Now, this is a very important part to pay attention (#1):

1 - You will need to check if your CPU has the Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) or Pacifica (AMD) :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization

2 - If your CPU doesn't have support for 64-bit virtual machines (in my case), VMware will show a message stating that 64-bit OSs won't be supported:

3 - If this message doesn't appear, then you probably have a CPU that supports 64-bit virtualization (so you can proceed with Solaris 10 - 64-bits).

4 - If you don't have support for 64 bits VM, you will have to use "Solaris 10" version (I will give further instructions regarding how to download/install 32-bit modules for Sun Cluster - without this module you won't be able to use SC 3.2 under 32-bit VMs).

5 - Memory for VM - I strongly recommend setting at least 1GB for each VM, if you plan to use Oracle DBs under the cluster management (otherwise 512-768 MB should suffice).

6 - Network connection - Leave the default option (Use bridged networking - later on we'll setup two additional network adapters that will be used as the transports for the cluster).

7 - SCSI Adapter - Choose "LSI Logic"

8 - Disk - Choose "Create a new virtual disk", SCSI as virtual disk type and 15 GB of disk space

9 - Now, we need to setup two additional network adapters for the cluster transporter (for that, click on Edit virtual machine settings and then click on Add button.

10 - Choose Ethernet Adapter as the hardware type.

11 - Choose Custom and VMnet1 (Repeat the steps 9-10-11, but now you will have to choose VMnet2)

12 - Go to Host >> Virtual network settings in the menu.

13 - Click on Host virtual adapters tab and add a new VMnet -> (VMnet2)

14 - Now we need to add another disk that will be the quorum disk (click on Edit Virtual Machines and then click on the ADD button)

15 - Add the disk as a SCSI disk, name it as quorum.vmdk and use around 100MB of disk space.

16 - Create a similar VM (another hostname) with the same HW settings (after that, add the quorum.vmdk using the same SCSI ID using the option "Use an existing virtual disk")

17 - Now, another important part - you will need to edit your VM config file to allow SCSI reservations (for that you need to disable disk locking and add the following lines into your VM config file - Hint: VM config file ends with a .VMX extension):

disk.locking = "false"
scsi0.sharedBus = "virtual"

-- These lines must be added on both VMs config file --

Now we are all set to start installing Solaris 10 and configure Sun Cluster. Boot your VM from the CD-ROM using a recent Solaris 10 ISO image (I'm assuming you have enough knowledge to make a fresh Solaris 10 install, so I will only specify the filesystem sizes to be set during the install):

Wait for the installation/reboot to finish and we should have 2 VMs running Solaris 10 (32 or 64 bits). Now we need to install VMware tools to convert the PCN devices to VMXNET devices (I had some problems while trying to install SC 3.2 using PCN, so I strongly recommend to install it).

To install VMware tools, click with the right button on your VM name and choose "Install VMware tools" (have in mind that you need to unmount any cd-rom currently mounted - after clicking it, VMware will mount a virtual cdrom on the server(s) containing the drivers you will have to install):

/vol/dev/dsk/c0t0d0/vmwaretools 1568 1568 0 100% /cdrom/vmwaretools

Go to /cdrom/vmwaretools (or whatever the mount point is), copy the file to /var/tmp/vmtools, uncompress it and run the installation perl script:

# cd /cdrom/vmwaretools

# ls -la

total 2973

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root sys 2048 out 30 22:39 .

drwxr-xr-x 3 root nobody 512 mar 12 23:38 ..

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1519013 out 30 22:39 vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz

# mkdir /var/tmp/vmtools

# cp vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz /var/tmp/vmtools

# cd /var/tmp/vmtools

# gzcat vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz | tar xvf -
# cd vmware-tools-distrib

# ./vmware-install.pl

Hit ENTER for all options (default) and when you finish don't forget to do the following:

* Rename your hostname.* files on /etc:

# ls -l /etc/hostname*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 mar 12 16:48 /etc/hostname.pcn0
# mv /etc/hostname.pcn0 /etc/hostname.vmxnet0

* Replace entries on /etc/path_to_inst (from PCN to VMXNET):

# cp /etc/path_to_inst /etc/path_to_inst.backup ; sed -e 's/pcn/vmxnet/g' /etc/path_to_inst >> /etc/path_to_inst.2 ; mv /etc/path_to_inst.2 /etc/path_to_inst

* Reboot the server (init 6)

After reboot process you should have the vmxnet module properly loaded and your vmxnet0 interface up (check with ifconfig -a).

*Optional* - I strongly recommend to follow this step, but you can configure SC without remote access control if you want:

To make things easier during the install, create a new ssh key as root (hit ENTER for everything) and copy the public file for the secondary node (/.ssh).

# ssh-keygen -t dsa
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (//.ssh/id_dsa):
Created directory '//.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in //.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in //.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:34:8e:32:54:b4:bb:d2:5e:71:ec:55:01:09:cd:34:a3 root@earth

Connect on the secondary node and rename the public file to authorized_keys

Try to connect by SSH/SFTP and see if you will be asked for a password (if you did everything right, you won't be asked for a password).

We are ready to start installing/configuring Sun Cluster. Download Sun Cluster 3.2 x86, upload it on both VMs, unzip and run installer (on Solaris_x86 subdir).

* Choose option 4,5,6 to install (everything else is default - hit ENTER)

Enter a comma separated list of products to install, or press R to refresh the list [] {"<" goes back, "!" exits}: 4,5,6

Choose Software Components - Confirm Choices

--------------------------------------------
Based on product dependencies for your selections, the installer will install:
[X] 4. Sun Cluster 3.2

* * Java DB 10.2

[X] 6. Sun Cluster Agents 3.2

Important Step:

If your CPU doesn't have support for IVT or Pacifica (as I explained before), you will have to install the 32-bit modules for Sun Cluster 3.2 (unfortunately I'm not authorized by the author to distribute the package, but your can obtain it by sending an email for Matthias Pfuetzner from Sun Microsystems - as I did to obtain it).

* State in the email that you wan to use it only for *LAB* purposes (he told me that Sun doesn't give support for 32-bit clusters, thus you will only be able to obtain this module by sending him an email)

When you download the 32-bit module, install it after unpacking by running pkgadd -d SUNWscka (if you do not install it and your VMs are 32-bit, the cluster WILL NOT work and the modules WILL NOT be loaded during the boot - so, remember to install it if your VMs are 32-bit).

Add the /usr/cluster/bin directory to your PATH variable on /etc/profile (so that you don't have to type the absolute path everytime you need to run a command).

At last! We will configure a cluster now... Before running scinstall, make sure you have both nodes added on each /etc/hosts file!

Run the command scinstall and follow the steps to install a two-node cluster:

# scinstall

*** Main Menu ***

Please select from one of the following (*) options:

* 1) Create a new cluster or add a cluster node

2) Configure a cluster to be JumpStarted from this install server

3) Manage a dual-partition upgrade

4) Upgrade this cluster node

5) Print release information for this cluster node

* ?) Help with menu options

* q) Quit

Option: 1

*** New Cluster and Cluster Node Menu ***

Please select from any one of the following options:

1) Create a new cluster

2) Create just the first node of a new cluster on this machine

3) Add this machine as a node in an existing cluster

?) Help with menu options

q) Return to the Main Menu

Option: 1

*** Create a New Cluster ***

This option creates and configures a new cluster.

You must use the Java Enterprise System (JES) installer to install

the Sun Cluster framework software on each machine in the new cluster

before you select this option.

If the "remote configuration" option is unselected from the JES

installer when you install the Sun Cluster framework on any of the

new nodes, then you must configure either the remote shell (see

rsh(1)) or the secure shell (see ssh(1)) before you select this

option. If rsh or ssh is used, you must enable root access to all of

the new member nodes from this node.

Press Control-d at any time to return to the Main Menu.

Do you want to continue (yes/no) [yes]?

>>> Typical or Custom Mode <<<

This tool supports two modes of operation, Typical mode and Custom.

For most clusters, you can use Typical mode. However, you might need

to select the Custom mode option if not all of the Typical defaults

can be applied to your cluster.

For more information about the differences between Typical and Custom

modes, select the Help option from the menu.

Please select from one of the following options:

1) Typical

2) Custom

?) Help

q) Return to the Main Menu

Option [1]:

>>> Cluster Name <<<

Each cluster has a name assigned to it. The name can be made up of

any characters other than whitespace. Each cluster name should be

unique within the namespace of your enterprise.

What is the name of the cluster you want to establish? cluster-lab

>>> Cluster Nodes <<<

This Sun Cluster release supports a total of up to 16 nodes.

Please list the names of the other nodes planned for the initial

cluster configuration. List one node name per line. When finished,

type Control-D:

Node name (Control-D to finish): earth

Node name (Control-D to finish): mars

Node name (Control-D to finish): ^D

This is the complete list of nodes:

earth

mars

Is it correct (yes/no) [yes]?

Attempting to contact "mars" ... done

Searching for a remote configuration method ... done

The Sun Cluster framework is able to complete the configuration

process with secure shell access (sshd).

Press Enter to continue:

>>> Cluster Transport Adapters and Cables <<<

You must identify the two cluster transport adapters which attach

this node to the private cluster interconnect.

For node "earth",

What is the name of the first cluster transport adapter? vmxnet1

Will this be a dedicated cluster transport adapter (yes/no) [yes]?

All transport adapters support the "dlpi" transport type. Ethernet

and Infiniband adapters are supported only with the "dlpi" transport;

however, other adapter types may support other types of transport.

For node "earth",

Is "vmxnet1" an Ethernet adapter (yes/no) [no]? yes

Is "vmxnet1" an Infiniband adapter (yes/no) [no]?

For node "earth",

What is the name of the second cluster transport adapter? vmxnet2

Will this be a dedicated cluster transport adapter (yes/no) [yes]?

For node "earth",

Name of the switch to which "vmxnet2" is connected [switch2]?

For node "earth",

Use the default port name for the "vmxnet2" connection (yes/no) [yes]?

For node "mars",

What is the name of the first cluster transport adapter? vmxnet1

Will this be a dedicated cluster transport adapter (yes/no) [yes]?

For node "mars",

Name of the switch to which "vmxnet1" is connected [switch1]?

For node "mars",

Use the default port name for the "vmxnet1" connection (yes/no) [yes]?

For node "mars",

What is the name of the second cluster transport adapter? vmxnet2

Will this be a dedicated cluster transport adapter (yes/no) [yes]?

For node "mars",

Name of the switch to which "vmxnet2" is connected [switch2]?

For node "mars",

Use the default port name for the "vmxnet2" connection (yes/no) [yes]?

>>> Quorum Configuration <<<

Every two-node cluster requires at least one quorum device. By

default, scinstall will select and configure a shared SCSI quorum

disk device for you.

This screen allows you to disable the automatic selection and

configuration of a quorum device.

The only time that you must disable this feature is when ANY of the

shared storage in your cluster is not qualified for use as a Sun

Cluster quorum device. If your storage was purchased with your

cluster, it is qualified. Otherwise, check with your storage vendor

to determine whether your storage device is supported as Sun Cluster

quorum device.

If you disable automatic quorum device selection now, or if you

intend to use a quorum device that is not a shared SCSI disk, you

must instead use scsetup(1M) to manually configure quorum once both

nodes have joined the cluster for the first time.

Do you want to disable automatic quorum device selection (yes/no) [no]?

Is it okay to create the new cluster (yes/no) [yes]?

During the cluster creation process, sccheck is run on each of the

new cluster nodes. If sccheck detects problems, you can either

interrupt the process or check the log files after the cluster has

been established.

Interrupt cluster creation for sccheck errors (yes/no) [no]?

Cluster Creation

Log file - /var/cluster/logs/install/scinstall.log.1312

Testing for "/globaldevices" on "earth" ... done

Testing for "/globaldevices" on "mars" ... done

Started sccheck on "earth".

Started sccheck on "mars".

sccheck completed with no errors or warnings for "earth".

sccheck completed with no errors or warnings for "mars".

Configuring "mars" ... done

Rebooting "mars" ... done

Configuring "earth" ... done

Rebooting "earth" ... done

Ok, now you should have both machines working as a cluster (let's check with scstat command):

# scstat

------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Cluster Nodes --

                    Node name           Status
                    ---------           ------
Cluster node:     mars                Online
Cluster node:     earth               Online

------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Cluster Transport Paths --

                    Endpoint               Endpoint               Status
                    --------               --------               ------
Transport path:   mars:vmxnet2           earth:vmxnet2          Path online
Transport path:   mars:vmxnet1           earth:vmxnet1          Path online

------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Quorum Summary --

Quorum votes possible:      3
Quorum votes needed:        2
Quorum votes present:       3

-- Quorum Votes by Node --

Node Name Present Possible Status
--------- ------- -------- ------

Node votes: mars 1 1 Online
Node votes: earth 1 1 Online

-- Quorum Votes by Device --

Device Name Present Possible Status
----------- ------- -------- ------

Device votes: /dev/did/rdsk/d3s2 1 1 Online

------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Device Group Servers --

Device Group Primary Secondary
------------ ------- ---------

-- Device Group Status --

Device Group Status
------------ ------

-- Multi-owner Device Groups --

Device Group Online Status
------------ -------------

------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------

-- IPMP Groups --

Node Name Group Status Adapter Status
--------- ----- ------ ------- ------

IPMP Group: mars sc_ipmp0 Online vmxnet0 Online

IPMP Group: earth sc_ipmp0 Online vmxnet0 Online

------------------------------------------------------------------

Your cluster is ready! =)

Below you can find some "must use" tips taken from Geoff Ongley's homepage and also an example taken from ES-345 course material (a simple daemon managed by the cluster - useful to make failover/failback simulations):

Discovered Problems

Interconnect (”Cluster Transport”) is marked faulted

For example, if you do an scstat, or an scstat -W you see:

Transport path: mail-store1:e1000g2 mail-store0:e1000g2 faulted

Transport path: mail-store1:e1000g1 mail-store0:e1000g1 Path online

(at boot it might be “waiting” for quite some time)

In some cases you can disconnect and reconnect the adapter in VMware. However, in others you may have to be more drastic.

Check you can ping the other node via this path - if you can, then you should be all good to run the following commands:

scconf -c -m endpoint=mail-store0:e1000g2,state=disabled

where mail-store0 is your current node, and e1000g2 is the failed adapter. After you’ve done this, you can re-enable it:

scconf -c -m endpoint=mail-store0:e1000g2,state=enabled

And you should now have an online path shortly afterwards:

bash-3.00# scstat -W

-- Cluster Transport Paths --

Endpoint Endpoint Status

-------- -------- ------

Transport path: mail-store1:e1000g2 mail-store0:e1000g2 Path online

Transport path: mail-store1:e1000g1 mail-store0:e1000g1 Path online

All good

Cluster Panics with pm_tick delay [number] exceeds [another number]

Try the following:

Stop VMs being paged to disk in VMWare (only use physical memory for your VMs). This is a VMWare server, host setting from memory
Ensure Memory Trimming is disabled for your VMware Server Sun Cluster Guests
On each Cluster node, in order, configure the heartbeats to be father apart, and have a longer timeout:

scconf -w heartbeat_timeout=60000

scconf -w heartbeat_quantum=10000

Hopefully this will leave you with a much more stable cluster on VMware.

Making a Customized Application Fail Over With a Generic Data Service Resource

In this task, you can see how easy it is to get any daemon to fail over in the cluster, by using the Generic Data Service (so that you do not have to invent your own resource type).

Perform the following steps on the nodes indicated:

1. On all nodes (or do it on one node and copy the file to other nodes in the same location), create a daemon that represents your customized application:

# vi /var/tmp/myappdaemon

#!/bin/ksh

while :

sleep 10

done

2. Make sure the file is executable on all nodes.

3. From any one node, create a new failover resource group for your application:

# clrg create -n node1,node2,[node3] myapp-rg

4. From one node, register the Generic Data Service resource type:

# clrt register SUNW.gds

5. From one node, create the new resource and enable the group:

# clrs create -g myapp-rg -t SUNW.gds \

-p Start_Command=/var/tmp/myappdaemon \

-p Probe_Command=/bin/true -p Network_aware=false \

myapp-res

# clrg online -M myapp-rg

6. Verify the behavior of your customized application.

a. Verify that you can manually switch the group from node to node.

b. Kill the daemon. Wait a little while and note that it restarts on the same node. Wait until clrs status shows that the resource is fully online again.

c. Repeat step b a few times. Eventually, the group switches over to the other node.

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