Sun BluePrints Rescue Project
Sun Blueprint program was at least partially a reaction to IBM Red Books
program but it never managed to get to the same level. In this sense it's
funny that they call them blue. Still some of blueprints are honest attempt
to help Sun administrators and represent great values. Still a lot of them
are typical corporate junk.
That's typical for IBM too (some Redbooks and red papers are written
in obscure jargon and there is a strong suspicion that they were written
to hide information not to inform the readers and
that IBM famous note "this page is intentionally left blank" has some
subtle meaning indeed ;-) and is probably a side effect of
the size of the company.
As Sun put it:
Articles are maintained in this archive
for the benefit and historical reference
of our readers. Details of the recommendations set forth
in these articles may not reflect Sun's latest hardware and software
releases.
Caution, careful analysis and common
sense should be exercised when applying these Sun BluePrints articles
to newer products and software releases.
We will try to connect and preserver some of them "for the benefit and historical reference
of our readers". It looks like this page is one of the few on
the Web that contain more or less sizable list of Sun blueprints
published.
Unfortunately Oracle did not preserve this part of Sun legacy and links
below try to provide some information about selected blueprints that still
are available.
- 20110814 : The Solaris Fingerprint Database - A Security Tool for Solaris Operating Environment Files by Vasanthan Dasan, Alex Noordergraaf, and Lou Ordorica ( The Solaris Fingerprint Database - A Security Tool for Solaris Operating Environment Files, Aug 14, 2011 )
- 20110814 : Performance Forensics by Bob Sneed ( Performance Forensics, Aug 14, 2011 )
- 20110814 : Still available via Google ( Aug 14, 2011 )
- 20110814 : InformIT Understanding Tuning TCP TCP Tuning Domains ( InformIT Understanding Tuning TCP TCP Tuning Domains, Aug 14, 2011 )
- 20110814 : Sun BluePrints Online - Articles by Sarma Vempat ( Sun BluePrints Online - Articles , )
- 20110814 : Creating a Customized Boot CD/DVD for the Solaris Operating System for x86 Platforms by John Cecere, Dana Fagerstrom ( Creating a Customized Boot CD/DVD for the Solaris Operating System for x86 Platforms, )
- 20110814 : Configuring JumpStart Servers to Provision Sun x86-64 Systems by Pierre Reynes ( Configuring JumpStart Servers to Provision Sun x86-64 Systems, )
- 20110814 : Securing Web Applications through a Secure Reverse Proxy by Anh-Duy Nguyen ( Securing Web Applications through a Secure Reverse Proxy, )
Rescued by somebody in Oracle
March 2006
The Solaris Fingerprint Database (sfpDB) enables you
to verify the integrity of files distributed with the Solaris Operating
Environment. By validating that these files have not been modified administrators
can determine whether their systems have, or have not, been hacked and
had trojaned malicious replacements for system files installed.
Originally from Dec, 2003
The health care industry
has well-established protocols for the triage, diagnosis, and treatment
of patient complaints, while the resolution of system-performance complaints
often seems to take a path that lacks any recognizable process or discipline.
This article draws from lessons and concepts of health care delivery
to provide ideas for addressing system-performance complaints with predictable
and accurate results. Specific tools from the Solaris Operating System
are discussed. This article is applicable to all audience levels.
[Aug 14, 2011] Still available via Google
See also
fs-performance-149840
[Jan, 2004]
Design, Features, and Applicability of Solaris File Systems
- by Brian Wong
The Solaris Operating System includes
many file systems, and more are available as add-ons. Deciding which
file system to apply to a particular application can be puzzling
without insight into the design criteria and engineering tradeoffs
that go into each product. This article offers a taxonomy of file
systems, describes some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different
file systems, and provides insight into the issues you should consider
when deciding how to apply the set of file systems that are available
for specific applications. This article requires an intermediate
reader.
Bluprint is gone but main content is preserved in this article.
[March, 2004]
Understanding Tuning TCP - by Deepak Kakadia
This article describes some of key
Transport Control Protocol (TCP) tunable parameters related to performance
tuning. More importantly, it describes how these tunables work,
how they interact with each other, and how they impact network traffic
when they are modified. This article requires an advanced level
reader.
12/2006
December 2006
The Messenger Express Web-based email client includes a
Personal Address Book (PAB) application for
storing and managing user's personal
information, such as email addresses and
phone numbers.
Sun Java System Communications Express,
the unified Web client introduced in
Sun Java Enterprise System 2004Q2
supersedes Messenger Express and Calendar
Express. Communications Express also
includes Address Book Store (ABS) that
provides all of the functionality of PAB and
is better integrated with mail and calendar
components.
When upgrading from Messenger Express
(also known as Webmail) to Communications
Express, you need to migrate users' PAB
entries to ABS. (This migration does not
occur automatically as part of the upgrade
process.) A new tool, pab2abs.pl, has been
made available that provides improved
performance over the earlier migration tool,
runMigrate.sh. This article describes how
you can use the pab2abs.pl tool to either
migrate a single or a few users, or to
migrate your entire PAB database.
Note: This article is available in
PDF Format only.
This article explains the mechanics of the boot process on the Solaris
Operating System for x86 platforms so that you understand what is needed
to create a customized CD/DVD. It discusses both the hard disk and CD/DVD
boot processes, and points out the differences between the two.
There are a number of practical applications for this topic, including:
- Jumpstart Software - The feature in Solaris that allows access
to Solaris installation media and configuration rules over a network
- Diagnostics - The ability to create a bootable CD for the purpose
of diagnosing system problems without accessing or modifying the
copy of the operating system that is installed on the target system
- Restoration - The ability to create a bootable CD with tools
that aid in the repair and restoration of a down system
- Diskless clients that cannot do PXE booting-PXE is a DHCP-based
network-based installation technology similar to Solaris Jumpstart.
Some older x86-based system are incapable of using PXE
- Canned Firewall-The creation of a bootable CD that starts Solaris
on a system configured with multiple network interfaces. A preset
ipf configuration is then used to establish a network firewall on
that system.
This article begins by examining the layout of a hard disk in the
x86 architecture and the components on it that are used for booting.
It then describes the pieces that are unique to a CD boot. Finally,
this article puts the pieces together and creates an image file that
can be burned to CD.
Organizations are constantly challenged to deploy systems throughout
the enterprise with consistent and reliable configurations. Solaris
JumpStart technology provides a mechanism for fully automating the Solaris
Operating System (Solaris OS) installation process. With the ability
to locate installation information over the network or from a local
CD-ROM drive, and use customized profiles, JumpStart facilitates the
rapid and consistent deployment of Solaris OS-based systems.
Many organizations have relied on UltraSPARC/Solaris platforms for years,
and use JumpStart technology for operating system deployment. With the
introduction of Sun x86-64 based systems, organizations are now seeking
ways to use existing JumpStart servers to deploy the Solaris OS and
Linux operating environment on Sun x86-64 based systems. This article
describes how to modify existing JumpStart servers to support the deployment
of the Solaris OS and Linux operating environment on Sun x86-64 based
systems, as well as how to use standard Linux installation tools for
configuring Sun x86-64 based systems.
[April, 2004]
Building OpenSSH--Tools and Tradeoffs, Updated for OpenSSH 3.7.1p2
-by Jason Reid
This article updates the information
in the January 2003 Sun BluePrints OnLine article,
"Building OpenSSH--Tools and Tradeoffs". This article contains
information about gathering the needed components, deciding the compile-time
configuration decisions, building the components, and finally assembling
OpenSSH. The script file,
"Building OpenSSH Tools TAR", provides tools that simplify
the packaging and deployment of the OpenSSH tool on the Solaris Operating
Environment. This article targets an advanced audience.
[April, 2004]
Building a Bootable DVD to Deploy a Solaris Flash Archive
-by John S. Howard
This article provides techniques to augment
a DVD-ROM-based installation with the services and behaviors typically
provided by a JumpStart server. The techniques presented in this article
can be used when you need to perform an automated installation of a
Solaris Flash archive, but are unable to use a JumpStart server. This
article describes a procedure to create a bootable installation DVD-ROM
with a complete software stack on a DVD that you can use to perform
a standardized and fully automated installation of the software stack
from the DVD.
This article also examines the structure of a bootable Solaris OS DVD
and provides information about modifying installation behaviors to perform
an automated install of a Solaris Flash archive from a DVD.
[Jan, 2004]
Solaris Operating System Availability Features -by Thomas
M. Chalfant
The processor offlining feature enables
a processor to be removed from use by Solaris in response to one or
more L2 cache errors. The page retirement feature enables a page of
memory to be removed from use by Solaris in response to repeated ECC
errors within a memory page on a DIMM. This paper provides detailed
discussion regarding the algorithm, implementation, kernel tunables,
and messages you are likely to see on a system running the appropriate
kernel updates. This article is ideal for an intermediate to advanced
reader.
This article describes recommended practices
for setting up the Sun ONE Proxy Server software to represent a secure
content server to outside clients, preventing direct, unmonitored access
to your server's data from outside your company. This article uses recommended
practices to secure your web applications behind a firewall and leverage
access and authentication using the Sun ONE platform products.
This article assumes an intermediate
reader who is familiar with installing and configuring the Sun ONE Proxy
Server. It also assumes that the reader can configure the firewall router
to allow a specific server on a specific port access through the firewall
without allowing any other machines in or out.
Design, Features, and Applicability of Solaris File Systems
by Brian Wong
The Solaris Operating System includes
many file systems, and more are available as add-ons. Deciding which
file system to apply to a particular application can be puzzling without
insight into the design criteria and engineering tradeoffs that go into
each product. This article offers a taxonomy of file systems, describes
some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different file systems,
and provides insight into the issues you should consider when deciding
how to apply the set of file systems that are available for specific
applications. This article requires an intermediate reader.
[Feb, 2001]
Auditing in the Solaris 8 Operating Environment -by William
Osser and Alex Noordergraaf
The use of the Solaris 8 Operating Environment
auditing (BSM) has never been well understood. This article presents
an auditing configuration optimized for the Solaris 8 OE. The recommended
configuration will audit activity on a system without generated
gigabytes of data every day. In addition, the configuration
files are available for download from
http://www.sun.com/blueprints/tools.
Softpanorama Recommended
Old Sun sites
Books
-
A Strategy for Managing Performance (December 2002)
-by John Brady
This article addresses the importance of adopting and executing a thorough
performance management strategy in your compute environment. Managing
performance puts you in the position of being proactive and in control
of your compute resources, not vice versa, while saving revenue at the
same time. This article offers suggestions for developing a performance
management strategy that enables you to predict and correct potential
performance problems, to control resources, to track changes for capacity
planning and to consolidate resources.
-
System Performance Management: Moving from Chaos to Value
(July 2001)
-by Jon Hill and Kemer Thomson
This article presents the rationale for formal system performance management
from a management, systems administrative and vendor perspective. It
describes four classes of systems monitoring tools and their uses. The
article discusses the issues of tool integration, "best-of-breed versus
integrated suite" and the decision to "buy versus build."
-
Performance Oriented System Administration (December 2002)
-by Bob Larson
In most cases, using the default configuration for an operating system
helps ensure that cascading effects don't overly complicate system tuning
and maintenance. In some cases, however, you might need to tune a system.
This article explains the algorithms and heuristics surrounding the
most important tunables and describes several kernel tunables and the
algorithms behind them.
-
Performance Forensics (December 2003)
-by Bob Sneed
The health care industry has well-established protocols for the triage,
diagnosis, and treatment of patient complaints, while the resolution
of system-performance complaints often seems to take a path that lacks
any recognizable process or discipline. This article draws from lessons
and concepts of health care delivery to provide ideas for addressing
system-performance complaints with predictable and accurate results.
Specific tools from the Solaris Operating System are discussed. This
article is applicable to all audience levels.
-
Application Troubleshooting: Alternate Methods of Debugging
(November 2001)
-by Christopher Duncan
What to do when applications are crashing or hanging is a critical issue
for any software user. Few people will have the resources and skill
set to debug the application directly using a source code debugger.
In many cases source code debugging may not even be an option. This
paper will discuss a variety of options open to a Solaris Operating
Environment user to narrow down the causes and scope of a application
failure. The article discusses programs such as truss, proc tools and
features of the Solaris runtime linker.
-
Design, Features, and Applicability of Solaris File Systems
(January 2004)
-by Brian Wong
The Solaris Operating System includes many file systems, and more are
available as add-ons. Deciding which file system to apply to a particular
application can be puzzling without insight into the design criteria
and engineering tradeoffs that go into each product. This article offers
a taxonomy of file systems, describes some of the strengths and weaknesses
of the different file systems, and provides insight into the issues
you should consider when deciding how to apply the set of file systems
that are available for specific applications. This article requires
an intermediate reader.
-
System Management Services Software: An Inside Look (January
2003)
-by Tom Chalfant
This article addresses some of the more advanced topics of System Management
Services (SMS) software including the Management Network (MAN) and SMS
security. In addition, it provides insight to a new security feature
that enables you to use secure shell for file synchronization between
system controllers (SCs).
-
WebStart Flash (November 2001)
-by John S. Howard and Alex Noordergraaf
The Solaris Operating Environment Flash installation component extends
JumpStart technology by adding a mechanism to create a system archive,
a snapshot of an installed system, and installation of the Solaris Operating
Environment from that archive. This article introduces the concepts
and best practices for a Flash archive, describes the master machine,
and suggested storage strategies, and provides a complete example of
creating a Flash archive and installing a Web server with Flash.
-
Hardware Replication Challenges (November 2003)
-by Selim Daoud
This article describes the challenges of keeping valuable hardware-replicated
data safe. Being able to access and manipulate the cloned data is crucial
and often neglected. This article describes the different types of data
replication and the procedure to access a hardware-replicated set of
data. This article targets an intermediate audience.
-
Configuring Boot Disks (December 2001)
-by John S. Howard and David Deeths
This article is the fourth chapter of the Sun BluePrints book titled
Boot Disk Management: A Guide For The Solaris Operating Environment
(ISBN 0-13-062153-6), which is available through www.sun.com/books,
amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
This chapter presents a reference configuration of the root disk and
associated disks that emphasizes the value of configuring a system for
high availability and high serviceability. This chapter explains the
value of creating a system with both of these characteristics, and outlines
the methods used to do so.
-
Using filesync for Disaster Recovery, Business Continuance, and Mobility
(July 2003)
-by John Rosander
The Solaris Operating Environment filesync(1) command can be used for
disaster recovery, business continuance, and mobility. This article
details how to use the filesync(1) command to synchronize directories
between Sun servers, and between Sun servers and Linux laptops. This
article is ideal for a reader with an intermediate level of expertise.
-
The IT Utility Model--Part II (August 2003)
-by Emlyn Pagden
This article is the second part of a two-part series and provides solutions
for implementing and maintaining a utility model within a service provider
or data center environment. This article also discusses the required
financial management systems, and describes the application software
and hardware required to support each of the solution areas of a utility
model. This article is targeted to an advanced audience.
-
The IT Utility Model--Part I (July 2003)
-by Emlyn Pagden
This article is part one of a two-part series that describes the current
business requirements for a utility model, and discusses the current
commercial and political issues faced when implementing one. Both financial
and technical aspects are covered, from detailing what a utility model
is and why it is needed, to describing the mechanism required for capturing
compute resource consumption to accurately bill customers. The intended
audience for this article is IT Architects, Finance staff, and Executive
officers. This article is targeted for an advanced level of expertise.
-
Planning to Fail (December 2000)
-by John S. Howard
This article presents design guidelines and "best practices" for the
selection and configuration of system software such as Veritas Volume
Manager, Dynamic Mulit-pathing, Dynamic Reconfiguration, and Live Update.
It also focuses on which versions and combinations of these software
tools result in viable configurations, and which combinations to avoid.
-
Architecting a Service Provider Infrastructure for Maximum Growth
(June 2000)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to Sun BluePrints OnLine
Stan introduces the first of a new series of Sun BluePrints OnLine articles
that will examine the issues involved with building scalable and highly
available service provider infrastructures. ISPs, ASPs, NSP's corporate
Web services, Telco services, and digital wireless network services
all benefit from the principles that will be discussed in these series
of articles.
-
Establishing an Architectural Model (February 2002)
-by John V. Nguyen
This article is the complete third chapter of the upcoming Sun BluePrints
book, Designing ISP Architectures, ISBN 0-13-045496-6. This article
introduces an architectural model as a framework for designing platform-independent
ISP architectures, based upon expertise and Sun best practices for designing
ISP architectures. Ideal for IT architects and consultants who design
ISP architectures, John's complete book will be available beginning
March 2002 through www.sun.com/books, amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble
bookstores.
-
Enterprise Network Design Patterns: High Availability (December
2003)
-by Deepak Kakadia, Sam Halabi, and Bill Cormier
This article describes how to create highly available network designs,
using Sun technologies and network switching/routers. Its content is
geared for an advanced reader.
-
Network Design Patterns: N-Tier Data Centers (October 2003)
-by Deepak Kakadia and Richard Croucher
This article describes design concepts and principles that can be extremely
valuable in the construction of optimal Sun ONE N-Tier Data Center architectures.
When trying to deliver complete and optimal solutions, there is a void
on how to assemble the various Sun ONE components to craft a complete
working system. This paper describes in detail how to assemble the various
building blocks of an N-Tier system.
[Nov 2000] ****
Solaris Operating Environment Minimization for Security: A Simple, Reproducible
and Secure Application Installation Methodolgy - Updated for Solaris
8 Operating Environment -by Alex Noordergraaf
This article updates the
original OS Minimization article's required package listings for Solaris
8 Operating Environment and 64bit UltraSPARC II hardware.
Review:
This is a very good paper. It explains
how to remove unnecessary packages -- actually they consider a very
practical case of Solaris + Netscape Enterprise Server. The paper
a little bit weak on the tool side, though.
The Solaris Operating Environment
installation process requires the selection of one of four installation
clusters:
-
- Core
- End User
- Developer
- Entire Distribution
Each installation cluster represents
a specific group of packages (operating system modules) to be installed.
This grouping together of packages into large clusters is done to
simplify the installation of the OS for the mass market. Because
each of these installation clusters contains support for a variety
of hardware platforms (SolarisTM Operating Environment
(Intel Platform Edition), microSPARCTM, UltraSPARCTM,
UltraSPARC II, and so on) and software requirements (NIS, NIS+,
DNS, OpenWindowsTM, Common Desktop Environment (CDE),
Development, CAD, and more), far more packages are installed than
will actually ever be used on a single Solaris Operating Enironment.
The Core cluster installs the smallest
Solaris Operating Environment image. Only packages that may be required
for any SPARCTM or Solaris Operating Environment (Intel
Platform Edition) system are installed. The End User cluster
builds on the Core cluster by also installing the window managers
included with the Solaris Operating Environment (OpenWindows and
CDE). The Developer and Entire Distribution clusters include
additional libraries, header files, and software packages that may
be needed on systems used as compile and development servers.
The size of the clusters varies significantly:
the Core cluster contains only 39 packages and uses 52MBytes; the
End User cluster has 142 packages and uses 242 MBytes; the Developer
cluster has 235 packages and consumes 493 MBytes of disk space.
Experience to date has shown that in many cases, a secure server
may require only 10 Solaris Operating Environment packages and use
as few as 36MBytes of disk space.
Installing unnecessary services,
packages, and applications can severely compromise system security.
One well known example of this is the rpc.cmsd daemon, which is
unnecessary on many data center systems. This daemon is installed
and started by default when the End User, Developer, or Entire Distribution
cluster is chosen during the installation process.
There have been many bugs filed against
the rpc.cmsd subsystem of OpenWindows/CDE in the last few years,
and at least two CERT advisories (CA-99-08, CA-96.09). To make matters
even worse, scanners for rpc.cmsd are included in the most common
Internet scanning tools available on the Internet. The best protection
against rpc.cmsd vulnerabilities is to not install the daemon at
all, and avoid having to insure it is not accidentally enabled.
The problem described above is well
known in the computer industry, and there are hundreds of similar
examples. Not surprisingly, almost every security reference book
ever written discusses the need to perform "minimal OS installations"
[Garfinkel]. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Other
than the occasional firewall, no software applications are shipped
with lists of their package requirements, and there's no easy way
of determining this information other then through trial and error.
Because it is so difficult to determine
the minimal set of necessary packages, system administrators commonly
just install the Entire Distribution cluster. While this may be
the easiest to do from the short-term perspective of getting a system
up and running, it makes it nearly impossible to secure the system.
Unfortunately, this practice is all too common, and is even done
by so-called experts brought in to provide infrastructure support,
web services, or application support. (If your organization is outsourcing
such activities, be sure to require the supplier to provide information
on what their OS installation policies and procedures are, or you
may be in for some unpleasant surprises.)
The rest of this article presents
one method for determining the minimal set of packages required
by a particular application--the iPlanetTM Enterprise
Server. Future articles will discuss other applications. The tentative
list includes NFSTM Servers (with SecureRPC and Solstice
DiskSuiteTM), iPlanetTM WebTop, and SunTM
Cluster. If you have followed this procedure and developed the scripts
for a particular application, please forward them to the authors
for inclusion in future articles.
Solaris Operating Environment Security: Updated for Solaris 9 Operating
Environment (December 2002) -by Alex Noordergraaf and Keith Watson
This article provides recommendations
on how to secure a Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE). Securing
a Solaris OE system requires that changes be made to its default configuration.
The changes outlined in this article address the majority of the methods
that intruders use to gain unauthorized or privileged access to an improperly
configured system. Implementing the changes recommended in this article
requires planning, testing, and documentation to be successful in securing
a computing environment.
Solaris Operating Environment Network Settings for Security
Auditing System Security (May 2003) -by Alex Noodergraaf and
Glenn Brunette
This article describes how to audit (validate) a system's security using
the Solaris Security Toolkit software. You can use the information and procedures
in this article to maintain an established security profile after hardening.
For systems that are already deployed, you can use this information to assess
security before hardening.
This article is the entire sixth chapter of the Sun BluePrints book,
"Securing Systems With the Solaris Security Toolkit", by Alex Noodergraaf
and Glenn Brunette (ISBN 0-13-141071-7)
General Security
-
Public Key Infrastructure Overview (August 2001)
-by Joel Weise
This article removes some of the mystique, fear and misconceptions with
Public Key Infrastructures (PKI), by providing an overview of what it
is, how it works, why and when it should be used, and the benefits it
can provide. After reading this article individuals should be better
able to determine their requirements for a PKI and what features they
need for their particular business.
-
A Patch Management Strategy for the Solaris Operating Environment
(January 2003)
-by Ramesh Radhakrishnan
Managing software patches is complex and time consuming. This article
offers a high-level strategy for managing patches in a variety of different
types of compute environments that are running on the Solaris operating
environment. This article divides the patch management process into
seven phases, each of which can be tailored to suit your distinct IT
environment. This article does not discuss the step-by-step process
of installing Solaris OE patches, but instead addresses higher-level
concepts that can be used with any patch installation utility. This
article is intended for IT managers, IT architects, lead system administrators,
and anyone interested in developing a patch management strategy.
-
Securing Web Applications through a Secure Reverse Proxy
(November 2003)
-by Anh-Duy Nguyen
This article describes recommended practices for setting up the Sun
ONE Proxy Server software to represent a secure content server to outside
clients, preventing direct, unmonitored access to your server's data
from outside your company. This article uses recommended practices to
secure your web applications behind a firewall and leverage access and
authentication using the Sun ONE platform products.
This article assumes an intermediate reader who is familiar with installing
and configuring the Sun ONE Proxy Server. It also assumes that the reader
can configure the firewall router to allow a specific server on a specific
port access through the firewall without allowing any other machines
in or out.
- ***
Securing the Sun Fire 12K/15K System Controller (January 2004)
-by Alex Noordergraaf, Steven Spadaccini and Dina Nimeh
This article provides recommendations on how to securely deploy the
Sun Fire 12K and 15K system controllers (SC). These recommendations
apply to environments where security is a concern, particularly environments
where the uptime requirements of the SC and/or the information on the
Sun Fire server is critical to the organization. This article is one
in a series that provides recommendations for enhancing security of
a Sun Fire system. After securing the SC, we recommend that you use
the
"Securing the Sun Fire 12K and 15K Domains" article to secure
the SC domains. This article includes updates related to System Management
Services (SMS) version 1.4.
- ***
Securing the Sun Fire 12K/15K Domains (January 2004)
-by Alex Noordergraaf, Steven Spadaccini and Dina Nimeh
This article documents security modifications that you can implement
on Sun Fire 12K and 15K domains without adversely affecting their behavior.
The configuration changes in this article enable Solaris Operating Environment
(OE) security features and disable potentially insecure services and
daemons. This article is one in a series that provides recommendations
for enhancing security of a Sun Fire system. Before securing the domains,
we recommend that you use the
"Securing the Sun Fire 12K and 15K System Controllers" article
to secure the system controllers. This article includes updates related
to System Management Services (SMS) version 1.4.
-
Securing Linux Systems With Host-Based Firewalls: Implemented With
Linux iptables (November 2003)
-by Ge' Weijers
This article provides information and recommendations for securing Linux
operating systems with host-based firewalls. This article aims to provide
readers with a template for constructing a host-based firewall that
provides a useful layer of protection against the risks of exposing
a system to internal and/or external users. Additionally, readers can
gain an understanding of construction methods for host-based firewalls
in general and Linux-based firewalls in particular. This article targets
an intermediate audience.
-
Deploying the Solaris Operating Environment Using a Solaris Security
Toolkit CD (September 2003)
-by Steven Spadaccini
The Solaris Security Toolkit is a collection of shell scripts combined
to form a flexible and extensible framework for rapidly deploying hardened
platforms running the Solaris Operating Environment. The Toolkit is,
however, quite versatile and can be used for much more than just hardening
a system. This article discusses how the Toolkit can be used to construct
a bootable CD, based on Sun's JumpStart framework, for building and
configuring new systems. This article is authored for intermediate and
advanced system administrators.
-
Securing the Sun Cluster 3.x Software (February 2003)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
To provide a robust environment where Sun Cluster 3.x software can be
deployed, very specific requirements are placed on the configuration
of the Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE). This article describes
how to secure the Solaris OE and the Sun Cluster 3.x software. Before
the release of Sun Cluster 3.0 (12/01) software, no secured configurations
were supported. This article includes updates for Sun Cluster 3.1 software.
-
Building Secure Sun Fire Link Interconnect Networks Using Midframe
Servers (February 2003)
-by Joe Higgins
This article describes how to install and deploy the Sun Fire Link interconnect
so that it can be securely managed and operated. The software architecture
and the steps to secure the Sun Fire Link interconnect software are
documented.
-
System Management Services Software: An Inside Look (January
2003)
-by Tom Chalfant
This article addresses some of the more advanced topics of System Management
Services (SMS) software including the Management Network (MAN) and SMS
security. In addition, it provides insight to a new security feature
that enables you to use secure shell for file synchronization between
system controllers (SCs).
-
Trust Modeling for Security Architecture Development (December
2002)
-by Donna Andert, Robin Wakefield, and Joel Weise
Information technology architects must build applications, systems,
and networks that match ordinary users' expectations of trust in terms
of identity, authentication, service level agreements, and privacy.
This article describes the vocabulary of trust relationships and demonstrates
the practical importance of using trust modeling to formalize the threshold
for risk.
-
Minimizing the Solaris Operating Environment for Security: Updated
for Solaris 9 Operating Environment (November 2002)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
This article provides tips, instructions, and preferred practices for
minimizing the Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) to increase
system security. It focuses on operating system (OS) installation practices
for minimizing and automating Solaris OE installations. It provides
a simple, reproducible, and secure application installation methodology.
-
Securing LDAP Through TLS/SSL--A Cookbook (June 2002)
-by Stefan Weber
Deploying secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) connections
is becoming more demanding. This article details the steps on how to
set up the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) Directory Server software
so that it can be accessed securely from command line tools.
-
How Hackers Do It: Tricks, Tools, and Techniques (May 2002)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
Learn how to build and maintain secure systems and implement preventive
solutions against the common tricks, tools, and techniques used by hackers
to gain unauthorized access to Solaris Operating Environment systems.
-
Securing the Sun Cluster 3.0 Software (May 2002)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
Reduce susceptibility to attacks and increase the reliability, availability,
and serviceability of systems that run Sun Cluster 3.0 software by implementing
the recommendations for configuring the Solaris Operating Environment
and supported agents detailed in this article.
-
Server Virtualization Using Trusted Solaris 8 Operating Environment
(February 2002)
-by Glenn Faden
Building on the concepts presented in his follow-on article, Maintaining
Network Separation with Trusted Solaris 8 Operating Environment,
expands on the techniques of configuring labeled networks to show how
the Trusted Solaris Operating Environment can be deployed by a network
service provider to support multiple customers within a single infrastructure.
Through the use of the appropriate Trusted Solaris Operating Environment
functionality, each customer can have its own virtual server or community.
This article describes best practices for administrative procedures
and configuration files that are required to set up fully contained
communities.
-
Developing a Security Policy (December 2001)
-by Joel Weise and Charles R. Martin
Security policy development is a frequently overlooked component of
overall security architectures. This article details the importance
of security policies and the basic steps involved in their creation.
-
Sun Cluster 3.0 12/01 Security: with the Apache and iPlanet Web and
Messaging Agents (December 2001)
-by Alex Noordergraaf, Mark Hashimoto and Richard Lau
This article takes a first step in providing secured configurations
for Sun Cluster 3.0 software by describing how three specific agents
can be deployed in a secured configuration that is supported by Sun
Microsystems. Sun Cluster 3.0 software is used by organizations to provide
additional assurance that mission-critical services will be available
despite unexpected hardware or software failures.
-
Kerberos Network Security in the Solaris Operating Environment
(October 2001)
-by Wyllys Ingersoll
This article describes how to correctly and securely configure Kerberos
in the Solaris Operating Environment. It provides best practices and
recommendations.
-
Securing Systems with Host-Based Firewalls - Implemented With SunScreen
Lite 3.1 Software (September 2001)
-by Martin Englund
This article provides a discussion of why host-based firewalls can be
an effective alternative to choke-point based firewalls or an additional
layer of security in an environment. Details are then provided on how
to implement a host-based firewalls using Sun's free host-based firewall
software - SunScreen SecureNet Lite.
-
The Solaris Fingerprint Database - A Security Tool for Solaris Operating
Environment Files (May 2001)
-by Vasanthan Dasan, Alex Noordergraaf, and Lou Ordorica
The Solaris Fingerprint Database (sfpDB) enables you to verify the integrity
of files distributed with the Solaris Operating Environment. By validating
that these files have not been modified administrators can determine
whether their systems have, or have not, been hacked and had trojaned
malicious replacements for system files installed.
- Updated
Solaris Operating Environment Security - Updated for Solaris 8
Operating Environment (April 2001)
-by Alex Noordergraaf and Keith Watson
This article discusses how system and network security can be dramatically
improved on a Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) system. Specific
security recommendations are made for Solaris OE versions 2.5.1 through
8. This revised version, of the original Solaris OE Security
Sun BluePrints published in January of 2000, incorporates all security-related
updates in Solaris 8 OE.
-
Maintaining Network Separation with Trusted Solaris 8 Operating Environment
(March 2001)
-by Glenn Faden
Glenn Faden describes how Mandatory Access Control (MAC) can be used
to provide concurrent access to two isolated networks without compromising
the separation.
-
Auditing in the Solaris 8 Operating Environment (February
2001)
-by William Osser and Alex Noordergraaf
The use of the Solaris 8 Operating Ennvironment auditing (BSM) has never
been well understood. This article presents an auditing configuration
optimized for the Solaris 8 OE. The recommended configuration will audit
activity on a system without generated gigabytes of data every day.
In addition, the configuration files are available for download from
http://www.sun.com/blueprints/tools.
-
Directory Server Security (December 2000)
-by Tom Bialaski
This article provides an overview of what the LDAP security model consists
of and what security changes need to be made to accommodate the Solaris
Operating Environment naming service requirements.
-
Building Secure N-Tier Environments (October 2000)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
This article provides recommendations on how to architect and implement
secure N-Tier ecommerce environments.
-
JumpStart Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating
Environment - Part 3 (September 2000)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
This article is third in a three part series describing an automated
toolkit for implementing the security modifications documented in earlier
Sun BluePrints onLine articles. In conjuction with this final article
the toolkit itself is being made freely available.
-
JumpStart Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating
Environment - Part 2 (August 2000)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
This article is part two of a three part series that presents the JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts toolkit. We continue with an in-depth
review of the configuration files, directories, and scripts used by
the toolkit to enhance the security of Solaris Operating Environment
systems. This series is a must read for anyone interested in upgrading
the security of their site.
-
JumpStart Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating
Environment - Part 1 (July 2000)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
This article is part one of a three part series presenting the JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts tool (Toolkit) for the Solaris Operating
Environment. The Toolkit is a set of scripts which automatically harden
and minimize Solaris Operating Environment systems. The modifications
made are based on the recommendations made in the previously published
Sun BluePrints OnLine security articles.
-
Solaris Operating Environment Security (January 2000)
-by Keith Watson and Alex Noordergraaf
This article splits the discussion of the Solaris Operating Environment
system security into two parts.
-
Solaris Operating Environment Minimization for Security: A Simple,
Reproducible and Secure Application Installation Methodology
(December 1999)
-by Keith Watson and Alex Noordergraaf
Discuss OS minimization as a technique for reducing system vulnerabilities;
a simple method for duplicating these installations on large numbers
of servers is also introduced. (See
"November 2000" updated
for the Solaris 8 Operating Environment)
- Updated (11/01)
Solaris Operating Environment Network
Settings for Security (December 1999)
-by Keith Watson and Alex Noordergraaf
Discuss the many low-level network options available within Solaris
and their impact on security. (See
"December 2000" updated for the
Solaris 8 Operating Environment)
-
Linux Overview for Solaris Users (August 2003)
-by John Cecere
This article provides a technical overview of the Linux operating environment
and compares and contrasts it with the Solaris Operating Environment
(Solaris OE). The purpose of this article is to quickly familiarize
advanced system administrators with the Linux OE and to provide a reference
for Solaris to Linux usage. This article is for intermediate and advanced
readers who are experienced with the Solaris OE and are tasked with
deploying, servicing,maintaining, and using Linux-based systems.
-
Securing Sun Linux Systems: Part I, Local Access and File Systems
(July 2003)
-by Glenn Brunette, Michael Hullhorst, and Ge Weijers
This article is the first part of a two-part series that provides recommendations
for securing the Sun Linux 5.0 operating system. This part provides
recommendations for securing local access and file systems. The information
in this article applies only to the Sun Linux 5.0 distribution, although
some of the techniques or recommendations might apply to other Linux
distributions. This article is ideal for a reader with a beginner to
Intermediate level of expertise.
-
Securing Sun Linux Systems: Part II, Network Security (July
2003)
-Glenn Brunette, Michael Hullhorst, and Ge Weijers
The second in a two-part series, this article provides recommendations
for securing the Sun Linux 5.0 operating system. This part provides
specific recommendations for network security. The information in this
article applies only to the Sun Linux 5.0 distribution, although some
techniques or recommendations may apply to other Linux distributions.
This article is ideal for a reader with a beginner to Intermediate level
of expertise.
-
Role Based Access Control and Secure Shell--A Closer Look At Two
Solaris Operating Environment Security Features (June 2003)
-by Thomas M. Chalfant
To aid the customer in adopting better security practices, this article
introduces and explains two security features in the Solaris operating
environment. The first is Role Based Access Control and the second is
Secure Shell. The goal is to provide you with enough information to
make an effective decision to use or not use these features at your
site as well as to address configuration and implementation topics.
This article is targeted to the intermediate level of expertise.
-
Responding to Customer's Security Incidents--Part 1: Establishing
Teams and a Policy (March 2003)
-by Vijay Masurkar
This article is the first of a series of articles that discuss building
teams, establishing a security incident response policy, and executing
it. The article is intended to provide highlights and best practices
information about computer security incident response, building teams
to process security incidents, and developing important factors in establishing
a security incident response policy framework. The primary audience
consists of computer security managers, security policy developers,
system administrators, and other related staff responsible for the creation
or operation of a computer incident response team and/or a computer
security incident response (CSIR) policy and service.
-
Responding to Customer's Security Incidents--Part 2: Executing a
Policy (April 2003)
-by Vijay Masurkar
This article is the second in a series that discusses a policy of security
incident responses. The article describes the policy best practices
and execution features - evaluation, containment, and eradication of
and recovery from a security incident - for responding to a customer's
incident within the policy scope. Part one of this series,
"Responding to Customer's Security Incidents (Part 1): Establishing
Teams and a Policy" was a March 2003 Sun BluePrints OnLine article.
-
Responding to Customer's Security Incidents--Part 3: Following Up
After an Incident (September 2003)
-by Vijay Masurkar
The third in a five-part series, this article focuses on following up
after an incident and presents the best practices that should be executed
in the follow-up phase. These topics include acquiring incident data,
resorting to legal actions when deemed necessary, and conducting post-incident
activities such as taking inventory of the affected assets, assessing
the damage, and capturing the lessons learned. This article is intended
for advanced readers such as computer security managers, security policy
developers, system administrators, and other related staff, who are
responsible for the creation or operation of a computer security incident
response policy and service.
-
Responding to a Customer's Security Incidents--Part 4: Processing
Incident Data (October 2003)
-by Vijay Masurkar
This fourth article focuses on authenticating, preserving, and processing
the incident data. Only the salient points for best practices that should
be executed in processing the incident data are discussed here. These
practices are typically preceded by a recovery phase and are only starting
points for a more detailed analysis for building a policy with the associated
processes and procedures. This article is targeted to an advanced reader.
-
IP Network Multipathing (Updated) (August 2001)
-by Mark Garner
IP Network Multipathing allows a server to have multiple network adapters
connected to the same subnet. This article looks at the features of
IP Network Multipathing and the steps required to configure it for network
adapter resilience.
-
Internet Protocol Network Multipathing (Update) (November
2002)
-by Mark Garner
This article looks at the features of Internet Protocol network multipathing
and the steps required to configure it for network adapter resilience.
This article is an update to the IPMP article published in November
2002. This revision addresses Bug ID: 4451678, "Synopsis: in.mpathd
does not accurately detect interface failures in active-standby config".
This problem is resolved by applying patch 108528-15 and above. This
problem was fixed in the Solaris 9 Operating Environment.
-
Building Secure Sun Fire Link Interconnect Networks Using Sun Fire
15K and Sun Fire 12K Servers (August 2003)
-by Joe Higgins and Steven Spadaccini
Deploying a secure distributed computer system can be difficult. This
article describes how to install and deploy the Sun Fire Link product
so that it can be securely managed and operated. The article documents
the software architecture and steps needed to secure the Sun Fire Link
interconnect. The commands used in configuration steps are either Fire
Link Manager (FM) or Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) tools.
The article also includes a section on how to create, configure, and
secure a Sun Fire Link fabric. This article requires a general knowledge
of Solaris OE system administration and is written for advanced system
administrators.
-
Understanding Gigabit Ethernet Performance on Sun Fire Servers
(February 2003)
-by Jian Huang
The recent network-centric computing has been exercising tremendous
pressure on servers' network performance. With the increasing popularity
of gigabit Ethernet, especially the availability of lower-cost copper-based
gigabit Ethernet adapters, the question of how Sun's servers perform
in this arena has become one of the most important issues that Sun engineering
teams are trying to address. This paper presents an overview of the
performance of the new Sun GigaSwift Ethernet MMF Adapter card on a
Sun Fire server in terms of TCP/IP networking.
Most of the previous effort on TCP/IP network performance has been focused
on bulk-transfer traffic, which imposes on servers a continuous flow
of packets with sizes equal to the Maximal Transfer Unit (MTU) of the
underlying carrier.
In the client-server computing environment, however, not all requests
from clients, nor all replies from the servers are constantly large.
The traffic of small packets, whose size is below that of the MTU of
the carrier, is also very commonly seen. Hence, this paper investigates
the performance of both the bulk-transfer and small-packet traffic on
a Sun Fire 6800 server.
In addition to presenting a performance picture, this paper also takes
the initiative to study the root cause of the behavior of Sun servers
by revealing some of the implementation details of the Solaris Operating
Environment (Solaris OE). A set of tuning parameters that affect TCP/IP
network performance is discussed and some tuning recommendations is
given.
-
(April 2002) Enterprise Management Systems Part I: Architectures
and Standards
-by Deepak Kakadia, Dr. Tony Thomas, Dr. Sridhar Vembu and Jay Ramasamy
The first in a two-part series focused on managing services in Service
Driven Networks (SDNs), this article presents a summary of typical architectures
and a clarification of the standards to help the reader better understand
the implementations of various third-party vendor EMSystems solutions.
-
Enterprise Quality of Service (QoS) Part II: Enterprise Solution
using Solaris Bandwidth Manager 1.6 Software (March 2002)
-by Deepak Kakadia
Deepak's article is the second in a two-part series that focuses on
Quality of Service (QoS) issues. This article explores possible approaches
to deploying an Enterprise Quality of Service solution using Solaris
Bandwidth Manager 1.6 software. It also presents an integrated close-loop
solution using Sun Management Center 3.0 software, which exploits API's
offered by both products and creates a policy-based QoS solution for
the enterprise.
-
Enterprise Quality of Service (QoS): Part I - Internals (February
2002)
-by Deepak Kakadia
In a two-article series, distinguished Sun BluePrints author works to
clear the confusion surrounding QoS by explaining what it is, how it
is implemented, and how to use it in an enterprise. This month's part
one article details the basics surrounding the "what" and "how" of implementation,
as well as the internals of QoS. Be sure to return to Sun BluePrints
OnLine next month for his second article which will focus on how to
deploy QoS in an enterprise.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part III: NTP
Monitoring and Troubleshooting (September 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This article is the third in a series of three articles that discuss
using Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize system clocks. The
goal of this article is to provide an effective understanding of NTP
troubleshooting and monitoring.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part II: Basic
NTP Administration and Architecture (August 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This is Part 2 of a three-article series that discusses how to use Network
Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize system clocks. This article explains
the basics of client and server administration, covering various client/server
configurations, as well as authentication and access control mechanisms.
This article also provides a number of suggestions for an effective
NTP architecture.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part I: Introduction
to NTP (July 2001)
-David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This article is the first of a series on the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
NTP allows synchronizing clocks on different network nodes, which is
critical in today's networked world. This first article provides an
overview of why time synchronization is important and introduces basic
NTP concepts.
-
Maintaining Network Separation with Trusted Solaris 8 Operating Environment
(March 2001)
-by Glenn Faden
Glenn Faden describes how Mandatory Access Control (MAC) can be used
to provide concurrent access to two isolated networks without compromising
the separation.
-
Policy-Based Networks (October 1999)
-by Jean-Christophe Martin
Explores the network policy concept in greater depth, and see how it
is implemented in the Solaris Bandwidth Manager software.
-
Resource Management: Solaris Bandwidth Manager (June 1999)
-by Evert Hoogendoorn
Evert explains the benefits of Solaris Bandwidth Manager.
-
Sun/Oracle Best Practices (January 2001)
-by Bob Sneed
In this paper, Best Practice concepts are first defined, then specific
high-impact technical issues common with Oracle in the Solaris Operating
Environment are discussed.
-
Solaris Operating System and ORACLE Relational Database Management
System Performance Tuning (October 2003)
-by Ramesh Radhakrishna
This article focuses on the performance problems at the Resource Tier
(database server). The assumption is that the database server is a Sun
server running an ORACLE Relational Management System (RDBMS). The article
requires a general knowledge of Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS)
and Oracle RDBMS system administration. It is written for beginner-
and intermediate-level system administrators responsible for Sun systems,
and for Sun's customer engineers, and database administrators responsible
for tuning Oracle databases.
-
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers (March 2003)
-byGlenn Fawcett
There are a handful of common performance issues that arise when trying
to scale Oracle database applications on Solaris Operating Enironment.
These issues are sometimes difficult to identify and address. This paper
incorporates the experiences of Sun's Strategic Application Engineering
group in tuning Oracle RDBMS systems on a variety of workloads. There
are accompanying document,
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers Appendices, that
supplements the information in this article.
-
Monitoring and Tuning Oracle - Chapter 22 Part 1 (July 2002)
-by Allan N. Packer
Allan N. Packer shares Oracle monitoring and tuning recommendations
from his recently-released book,
"Configuring and Tuning Databases on the Solaris Platform", ISBN#
0-13-083417-2. In this article, Allan examines ways of managing Oracle
behavior, changing tunable parameters, calculating the buffer cache
hit rate, and other topics. The article goes on to discuss Oracle monitoring
using the utlbstat/utlestat scripts.
-
Drill-Down Monitoring of Database Servers - Chapter 21 (June
2002)
-by Allan N. Packer
Database expert, Allan N. Packer, shares database best practices from
his recently-released book,
"Configuring and Tuning Databases on the Solaris Platform", ISBN#
0-13-083417-2. In this article, Allen presents a process for identifying
and resolving problems with the performance of database servers.
-
Monitoring and Tuning Oracle - Chapter 22, Part II (August
2002)
-by Allan N. Packer
Building on his July 2002 Sun BluePrints OnLine article, Allan continues
to provide more best practices for Oracle monitoring using utlbstat/utlestat
scripts and to recommend parameter settings for OLTP and DSS environments.
Issues ranging from load performance to dynamic reconfiguration and
Oracle recovery are also examined. Additional Oracle monitoring and
tuning recommendations are available in his recently released book
"Configuring and Tuning Databases on the Solaris Platform."
-
Dynamic Reconfiguration and Oracle 9i Dynamically Resizeable SGA
(January 2004)
-by Erik Vanden Meersch and Kristien Hens
This article explains how Oracle 9i can operate in combination with
Sun's dynamic reconfiguration (DR). It provides a brief overview of
DR, intimate shared memory (ISM), dynamic intimate shared memory (DISM),
and dynamically resizable system global area (SGA), and explains how
these technologies fit together. In addition, this article provides
step-by-step details for configuring Oracle relational databases on
Sun Fire servers so that the DR capabilities of the Sun platform can
be maximized. This article requires an intermediate reader.
-
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers (March 2003)
-byGlenn Fawcett
There are a handful of common performance issues that arise when trying
to scale Oracle database applications on Solaris Operating Enironment.
These issues are sometimes difficult to identify and address. This paper
incorporates the experiences of Sun's Strategic Application Engineering
group in tuning Oracle RDBMS systems on a variety of workloads. There
are accompanying document,
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers Appendices, that
supplements the information in this article.
- APPENDICES -
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers Appendices (March
2003)
-by Glenn Fawcett
These are the appendices for the article
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle 9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers (March 2003)
-
ORACLE Middleware Layer Net8 Performance Tuning Utilizing Underlying
Network Protocol (October 2002)
-by Gamini Bulumulle
This article discusses performance optimization and tuning of SQL*Net
based on an arbitrary UNP which could be TCP/IP, SPX/IP or DECnet. SQL*Net
performance can be maximized by synchronization with tunable parameters
of the UNP, for example, buffer size. This article explain how total
SQL*Net transaction performance can be divided into components of connect
time and query time, where Total SQL*Net (Net8) Transaction Time = Connect
Time + Query Time. Connect time can be maximized by calibration of tunable
parameters of SQL*Net and the UNP when designing and implementing networks.
Query time is typically affected by database tuning parameters which
are outside the scope of this article. However, database tuning parameters,
which impact network performance, are discussed.
-
Best Practices for Deploying the Sun StorADE Utility (January
2004)
-by Christian Cadieux and Mike Monahan
This article discusses the Sun Automated Diagnostic Environment (StorADE)
utility. The StorADE utility provides centralized monitoring and diagnostics
for most Sun storage product offerings. The first part of this article
provides an overview and describes how to plan a StorADE deployment.
The second part provides step-by-step installation information with
best practice recommendations for StorADE configuration; whether the
environment contains complex storage area networks (SANs), or straightforward
direct-connect devices. This article is intended for IT architects,
administrators, and anyone looking for an introductory article on a
storage monitoring utility.
-
Solaris Volume Manager Performance Best Practices (November
2003)
-by Glenn Fawcett
Compelling new features such as soft partitioning and automatic device
relocation make the Solaris Volume Manager software a viable candidate
for storage management needs. Solaris Volume Manager software features
enhance storage management capabilities beyond what is handled by intelligent
storage arrays with hardware RAID. Now Solaris Volume Manager software
is integrated with the Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) and
does not require additional license fees. This article provides specific
Solaris Volume Manager tips for system, storage, and database administrators
who want get the most of Solaris Volume Manager software in their data
centers. This article targets an intermediate audience.
- APPENDICES -
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers Appendices (March
2003)
-by Glenn Fawcett
These are the appendices for the article
Avoiding Common Performance Issues When Scaling RDBMS Applications
With Oracle 9i Release 2 And Sun Fire Servers (March 2003)
-
Configuring Databases Using Soft Links (January 2003)
-by Carlos Godinez
This article explains the advantages of using symbolic (soft) links
when configuring databases and provides techniques and examples for
using them. This article presents information that will enable you to
manage database configuration efficiently and accurately.
-
Managing Shared Storage in a Sun Cluster 3.0 Environment With Solaris
Volume Manager Software (November 2002)
-by Kristien Hens and Peter Dennis
Traditionally, VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) has been the volume manager
of choice for shared storage in enterprise-level configurations. In
this article, a free and easy-to-use alternative, Solaris Volume Manager
software, which is part of the Solaris 9 Operating Environment (Solaris
9 OE) is explored. This mature product offers similar functionality
to VxVM. Moreover, it is tightly integrated into the Sun Cluster 3.0
software framework and, therefore, should be considered to be the volume
manager of choice for shared storage in this environment.
-
Memory Hierarchy in Cache-Based Systems (November 2002)
-by Ruud Van Der Pas
This article will help the reader understand the architecture of modern
microprocessors by introducing and explaining the most common terminology
and addressing some of the performance related aspects. Written for
programmers and people who have a general interest in microprocessors,
this article presents introductory information on caches and is designed
to provide understanding on how modern microprocessors work and how
a cache design impacts performance.
Despite improvements in technology, microprocessors are still much faster
than main memory. Memory access time is increasingly the bottleneck
in overall application performance. As a result, an application might
spend a considerable amount of time waiting for data. This not only
negatively impacts the overall performance, but the application cannot
benefit much from a processor clock-speed upgrade either. One method
for overcoming this problem is to insert a small high-speed buffer memory
between the processor and main memory. Such a buffer is generally referred
to as cache memory, or cache for short.
-
Configuring Boot Disks With Solaris Volume Manager Software
(October 2002)
-by Erik Vanden Meersch and Kristien Hens
This article is an update to the April 2002 Sun BluePrints OnLine article,
Configuring Boot Disks With Solstice DiskSuite Software.
This article focuses on the Solaris 9 Operating Environment, Solaris
Volume Manager software, and VERITAS Volume Manager 3.2 software. It
describe how to partition and mirror the system disk, and how to create
and maintain a backup system disk. In addition, this article presents
technical arguments for the choices made, and includes detailed runbooks.
-
Sun StorEdge[tm[ Instant Image 3.0 and Oracle8i Database Best Practices
(August 2002)
-by Art Licht
A methodology for implementing the Sun StorEdge Instant Image 3.0 Point-In-Time
(PIT) copy technology to perform non-intrusive and efficient backup
operations on Oracle8i databases, without impacting business operations
is presented. A method customers can use to repurpose the PIT Oracle8i
data for parallel business processes is also included.
-
Reducing the Backup Window With Sun StorEdge Instant Image Software
(July 2002)
-by Selim Daoud
This article discusses the advantages and methods of using a point-in-time
(PIT) type of backup system versus a more traditional backup approach
that requires extended downtime. This article is for anyone interested
in reducing the backup window (improving the uptime of important applications)
while backing up a system that is nearly online.
-
LAN-Free Backups Using the Sun StorEdge Instant Image 3.0 Software
(June 2002)
-by Art Licht
As data grows in size and backup windows shrink, performing backups
across the LAN is no longer the ideal method. This article gives an
overview of LAN and SAN backup practices and includes procedures for
performing LAN-free backups.
-
Network Storage Evaluations Using Reliability Calculations
(June 2002)
-by Selim Daoud
This article uses a case study to introduce concepts and calculations
for systematically comparing redundancy and reliability factors as they
apply to network storage configurations.
-
Storage Resource Management: A Practitioner's Approach (April
2002)
-by Stevan Arbona and Joe Catalanotti
Storage resource management (SRM) best practices are presented, with
a particular focus on the positive impact that SRM can have on controlling
costs by increasing operational efficiency.
-
Configuring Boot Disks With Solstice DiskSuite Software (April
2002)
-by Erik Vanden Meersch and Kristien Hens
How to partition the system disk, mirror it, and create and maintain
a contingency boot disk are presented. Topics include two-, three-,
and four-disk configurations, their associated runbooks, and the SUNBEsdm
package with scripts.
-
Configuring Boot Disks (December 2001)
-by John S. Howard and David Deeths
This article is the fourth chapter of the Sun BluePrints book titled
Boot Disk Management: A Guide For The Solaris Operating Environment
(ISBN 0-13-062153-6), which is available through www.sun.com/books,
amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
This chapter presents a reference configuration of the root disk and
associated disks that emphasizes the value of configuring a system for
high availability and high serviceability. This chapter explains the
value of creating a system with both of these characteristics, and outlines
the methods used to do so.
-
Sun StorEdge T3 Array: Installation, Configuration and Monitoring
Best Practices (October 2001)
-by Ted Gregg
In order to fully realize the benefits of the capabilities built into
the Sun StorEdge T3 array, it must be installed, configured, and monitored
with best practices for RAS. This article details these best practices.
It includes both Sun StorEdge T3 array configuration and host system
configuration recommendations, along with brief descriptions of some
of the available software installation and monitoring tools.
Sun StorEdge T3 Dual Storage Array Part 3 - Basic Management
(April 2001)
-by Mark Garner
The final article in the series looks at the configuration of basic
management and monitoring functions on the T3 array. It concludes with
example Expect scripts that could be used as a starting point for automating
your own T3 installations.
-
Sun StorEdge T3 Dual Storage Array Part 2 - Configuration
(March 2001)
-by Mark Garner
This second article in the series addresses the installation and configuration
of a T3 array partner group. It covers how two single arrays would be
reconfigured to form a partner group, how the new devices are created
on the host and how VERITAS Volume Manager integrates into the solution.
-
Sun StorEdge T3 Dual Storage Array Part 1 - Installation, Planning
and Design (February 2001)
-by Mark Garner
This article looks at the planning and design requirements for the installation
of a Sun StorEdge T3 Array partner group. It is the first of three articles
which address planning and design, configuration and basic management
of a Sun StorEdge T3 Array.
-
Storage Area Networks: A blueprint for Early Deployment (January
2001)
-by Brian Wong
This paper surveys the applications to which Storage Area Networks (SANs)
aspire, the available SAN technology-and its limitations-and attempts
to prepare users for forthcoming technology, so that they can deploy
real operational storage in data centers without further delay.
-
Wide Thin Disk Striping (October 2000)
-by Bob Larson
In this article, the technique of using stripes to distribute data and
indexes over several disks is described. The article also contains the
recommendations to use wide-thin stripes to maximize operational flexibility
while minimizing complexity.
-
Online Backups Using the VxVM Snapshot Facility (September
2000)
-by John S. Howard
Complete and accurate backups performed in a timely fashion are crucial
to every datacenter. This article presents a procedure utilizing the
snapshot facility of the Veritas Volume Manager software which enables
the System Administrator to perform timely, complete and accurate online
backups with minimal impact to the user or application.
-
Sun StorEdge T3 Single Storage Array Design and Installation
(September 2000)
-by Mark Garner
This article provides a roadmap for the cinfiguration of a single Sun
StorEdge T3 Storage Array. It addresses: Prerequisites, Storage Layout
Design, Implementation, Configuration and Basic Management.
-
Toward a Reference Configuration for VxVM Managed Boot Disks
(August 2000)
-by Gene Trantham and John S. Howard
Gene and John outline the fundamental procedures typically followed
in a boot disk encapsulation and the problems this default encapsulation
introduces. A best practice for VxVM installation, root disk encapsulation
and a reference configuration is presented.
(See the Sun BluePrints book
Boot Disk Management: A Guide for the Solaris Operating Environment
by John S. Howard and David Deeths ISBN # 0-13-062153-6 for updated
information about the topics detailed in this article.)
-
SCSI-Initiator ID (August 2000)
-by David Deeths
Changing the SCSI-initiator ID is necessary for cluster configurations
that share SCSI devices between multiple hosts. This article walks you
through the process, and also provides an excellent background on SCSI
issues in clustered systems.
-
VxVM Private Regions: Mechanics and Internals of the VxVM Confirguration
Database (July 2000)
-by Gene Trantham
Gene discuss the functions of the VxVM public and private regions, the
configuration database, and the special considerations for root disk
encapsulation.
-
Scrubbing Disk Using the Solaris Operating Environment Format Program
(June 2000)
-by Rob Snevely
Rob explains how to effectively scrub disks on a Solaris Operating Environment
system, using the format utility.
-
Veritas VxVM Storage Management Software (May 2000)
-by Gene Trantham
Gene explains the underlying actions VxVM during boot disk encapsulation,
and details the mechanism by which it seizes and manages a boot device.
Performance
-
Performance Forensics (December 2003)
-by Bob Sneed
The health care industry has well-established protocols for the triage,
diagnosis, and treatment of patient complaints, while the resolution
of system-performance complaints often seems to take a path that lacks
any recognizable process or discipline. This article draws from lessons
and concepts of health care delivery to provide ideas for addressing
system-performance complaints with predictable and accurate results.
Specific tools from the Solaris Operating System are discussed. This
article is applicable to all audience levels.
-
Capacity Planning as a Performance Tuning Tool--Case Study for a
Very Large Database Environment (July 2003)
-by Gamini Bullumille and Marcos Bordin
This article discusses the performance and scaleability impact due to
severe CPU and I/O bottlenecks in a very large database (over 20 terabytes).
It describes the methodologies used to collect performance data in a
production environment, and explains how to evaluate and analyze the
memory, CPU, network, I/O, and Oracle database in a production server
by using the following tools:
- Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) Standard UNIX
tools
- Oracle STATSPACK performance evaluation software from ORACLE Corporation
- Trace Normal Form (TNF)
- TeamQuest Model software from Team Quest Corporation
- VERITAS Tool VxBench from VERITAS Corporation
The article is intended for use by intermediate to advanced performance
tuning experts, database administrators, and TeamQuest specialists.
It assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of performance
analysis tools and capacity planning. The expertise level of this article
is intermediate to advanced.
-
Understanding Gigabit Ethernet Performance on Sun Fire Servers
(February 2003)
-by Jian Huang
The recent network-centric computing has been exercising tremendous
pressure on servers' network performance. With the increasing popularity
of gigabit Ethernet, especially the availability of lower-cost copper-based
gigabit Ethernet adapters, the question of how Sun's servers perform
in this arena has become one of the most important issues that Sun engineering
teams are trying to address. This paper presents an overview of the
performance of the new Sun GigaSwift Ethernet MMF Adapter card on a
Sun Fire server in terms of TCP/IP networking.
Most of the previous effort on TCP/IP network performance has been focused
on bulk-transfer traffic, which imposes on servers a continuous flow
of packets with sizes equal to the Maximal Transfer Unit (MTU) of the
underlying carrier.
In the client-server computing environment, however, not all requests
from clients, nor all replies from the servers are constantly large.
The traffic of small packets, whose size is below that of the MTU of
the carrier, is also very commonly seen. Hence, this paper investigates
the performance of both the bulk-transfer and small-packet traffic on
a Sun Fire 6800 server.
In addition to presenting a performance picture, this paper also takes
the initiative to study the root cause of the behavior of Sun servers
by revealing some of the implementation details of the Solaris Operating
Environment (Solaris OE). A set of tuning parameters that affect TCP/IP
network performance is discussed and some tuning recommendations is
given.
-
BluePrint for Benchmarking Success (January 2003)
-by Hans Joraandstad and Barbara Perz
This article provides best practices for benchmarking and it's ideal
for those using benchmarking to gather information that will help make
a decision on which computer to buy.
-
Memory Hierarchy in Cache-Based Systems (November 2002)
-by Ruud Van Der Pas
This article will help the reader understand the architecture of modern
microprocessors by introducing and explaining the most common terminology
and addressing some of the performance related aspects. Written for
programmers and people who have a general interest in microprocessors,
this article presents introductory information on caches and is designed
to provide understanding on how modern microprocessors work and how
a cache design impacts performance.
Despite improvements in technology, microprocessors are still much
faster than main memory. Memory access time is increasingly the bottleneck
in overall application performance. As a result, an application might
spend a considerable amount of time waiting for data. This not only
negatively impacts the overall performance, but the application cannot
benefit much from a processor clock-speed upgrade either. One method
for overcoming this problem is to insert a small high-speed buffer memory
between the processor and main memory. Such a buffer is generally referred
to as cache memory, or cache for short.
-
HPC Administration Tips and Techniques (October 2002)
-by Omar Hassaine
This article gives an introduction to the features introduced in the
latest Sun HPC ClusterTools 4 software, including best practices for
configuration and mixed clusters. It describes how to configure a checkpointing
and migration environment using both Sun Grid Engine and Condor standalone
checkpointing libraries. This article also includes discussion about
administrative best practices.
-
Application Performance Optimization (March 2002)
-by Börje Lindh
This article provides a brief introduction to optimization on the Solaris
Operating Environment. To explore this subject in more detail, refer
to Rajat Garg's and Ilya Sharapov's Sun BluePrints book, Techniques
for Optimizing Applications, published July 2001(ISBN 0-13-093476-3).
-
Sizing Sun Ray Servers Running Windows Applications with SunPCi IIpro
Coprocessor Cards (November 2001)
-by Don DeVitt
This paper addresses the task of sizing a server capable of supporting
Wintel based applications on a Sun Ray Server utilizing Sun Pci IIpro
co-processor cards. The paper integrates the the informationof several
previously published documents and sizing tools to determine a baselineconfiguration.
The paper also suggests many best practice options for configuring the
server.
-
Supporting Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Applications from Sun Enterprise
Servers (June 2001)
-by Don DeVitt
This article explores using multiple SunPCi II Pro cards running on
Sun Enterprise servers to support Microsoft Windows 2000 Server applications.
New SunPCi II Pro hardware and software now support multiple cards in
one Sun Enterprise server. Benchmarks and Sizing information for a Windows
2000 Terminal Server environment are discussed.
-
Administering Sun Cluster 2.2 Environments (October 2000)
-by David Deeths
David Deeths discusses the fundamentals and best practices of installing,
configuring, and managing a Sun Cluster 2.2 environment. He also offers
many tips for effective cluster administration and how to increase and
maintain a high level of system availability.
-
Sun HPC ClusterTools Software Best Practices(September 2000)
-by Omar Hassaine
This paper discusses the Best Practices for successfully configuring,
installing and using the Sun High Performance Computing (HPC) ClusterTools
software. It also covers the current status of the Sun HPC ClusterTools
in the field and briefly describes the architecture.
-
Static Performance Tuning (May 2000)
-by Richard Elling
Richard discusses a class of problems that can affect system performance
which is not dynamic by nature, and cannot be detected by conventional
dynamic tuning tools.
-
Tales from the Trenches: The Case of the RAM Starved Cluster
(April 2000)
-by Richard Elling
Richard discusses how Veritas File System (VxFS) affects memory on a
Solaris Operating Environment server. He also describes a real world
example of the interactions between the Solaris Operating Environment
Version 2.5.1, VxFS Version 2.3.1, and user applications.
-
Scenario Planning - Part 2 (March 2000)
-by Adrian Cockcroft
Presents part two of the Scenario Planning article and explains how
to follow-up a simple planning methodology based on a spreadsheet that
is used to break down the problem and experiment with alternative future
scenarios.
-
Fast Oracle Parallel Exports on Sun Enterprise Servers (March
2000)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to Sun BluePrints OnLine
Gives a script that performs very fast Oracle database exports by taking
advantage of parallel processing on SMP machines. This script can be
invaluable for situations where you need to perform exports of large
mission-critical databases that require high availability.
-
Scenario Planning - Part 1 (February 2000)
-by Adrian Cockcroft
Discusses scenario planning techniques to help predict latent demand
during overload periods. In this part 1 he explains how to simplify
your model down to a single bottleneck.
-
Upgrading the Solaris PC NetLink Software (January 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Highlights some of the subtle upgrade options that many system administrators
will want to be aware of as they move from one version of Solaris PC
NetLink software to the next.
-
Observability (December 1999)
-by Adrian Cockcroft
Discusses Capacity Planning and Performance Management techniques.
-
Processing Accounting Data into Workloads (October 1999)
-by Adrian Cockcroft
Information about Solaris operating system accounting to include code
examples that extract the data in a usable format and pattern match
it into workloads.
Back to Top
JumpStart
-
Deploying the Solaris Operating Environment Using a Solaris Security
Toolkit CD (September 2003)
-by Steven Spadaccini
The Solaris Security Toolkit is a collection of shell scripts combined
to form a flexible and extensible framework for rapidly deploying hardened
platforms running the Solaris Operating Environment. The Toolkit is,
however, quite versatile and can be used for much more than just hardening
a system. This article discusses how the Toolkit can be used to construct
a bootable CD, based on Sun's JumpStart framework, for building and
configuring new systems. This article is authored for intermediate and
advanced system administrators.
-
Managing Data Centers With Sun Management Center Change Manager
(October 2002)
-John S. Howard
Deploying and updating software are two of the most challenging and
time consuming tasks facing datacenter managers. The Sun Management
Center (Sun MC) Change Manager software provides a framework and tools
for quickly and efficiently deploying, replicating, updating, and managing
software over a large number of systems. This article presents techniques
and best practices for using Sun Management Center Change Manager software.
-
Customizing JumpStart Framework for Installation and Recovery
(August 2002)
-by John S. Howard and Alex Noordergraaf
Techniques to augment a CDROM-based installation with the services and
behaviors provided by a JumpStart server are detailed in this article.
These techniques are suitable to situations when a hands-free Solaris
Operating Environment (Solaris OE) installation is necessary but when
a JumpStart server cannot be used. This article is a chapter from the
Sun BluePrints book,
"JumpStart Technology: Effective Use in the Solaris Operating Environment",
ISBN# 0-13-062154-4.
-
Using Live Upgrade 2.0 With JumpStart Technology and Web Start Flash
(April 2002)
-by John S. Howard
In this final installment of his three-part series on Solaris Live Upgrade
2.0 (LU) technology, John S. Howard provides recommendations and techniques
for integrating LU with the JumpStart software framework and the Solaris
Web Start Flash software.
-
WebStart Flash (November 2001)
-by John S. Howard and Alex Noordergraaf
The Solaris Operating Environment Flash installation component extends
JumpStart technology by adding a mechanism to create a system archive,
a snapshot of an installed system, and installation of the Solaris Operating
Environment from that archive. This article introduces the concepts
and best practices for a Flash archive, describes the master machine,
and suggested storage strategies, and provides a complete example of
creating a Flash archive and installing a Web server with Flash.
-
Cluster Platform 220/1000 Architecture-A Product from the SunTone
Platforms Portfolio (August 2001)
-by Enrique Vargas
This article will provide customers a better understanding of this product
capabilities by presenting its hardware and software architecture as
well as best practices used in integrating the design.
-
Automating LDAP Client Installations (July 2001)
-by Tom Bialaski
The article explains how to configure a native LDAP client at installation
time, which is a new feature in Solaris 8 Operating Environment U3.
The basics of sysidtools and creating a sysidcfg
file for hands-off installation is covered along with how they relate
to LDAP. Hard to find (non-documented) tips are provided to avoid common
pitfalls.
-
Building a JumpStart Infrastructure (April 2001)
-by Alex Noordergraaf
This article discussed how the core JumpStart components interract.
Recommendations on how to structure the JumpStart server are provided
in addition to step by step instructions on how to get a basic automated
JumpStart environment up and running as quickly as possible.
-
Customizing the JumpStart Boot Image Recovery (March 2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article includes techniques and recommendations for creating a
recovery platform by augmenting the Solaris OE boot image (mini-root).
This article will also examine the boot and installation processes by
demonstrating how to adapt those processes for system recovery.
-
Building a Bootable JumpStart Installation CD-ROM (March
2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article presents an examination of the structure of a bootable
Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) CD-ROM and procedures for
how to create a bootable JumpStart installation CD-ROM. This CD can
be used to complete a standardized, hands-free Solaris OE installation
in environments where the disk space or networking constraints do not
allow for a JumpStart server.
-
MR System for Rapid Recovery (January 2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article is an introduction to the MR system for rapid recovery.
As the system uptime requirements have become more exacting, the length
of time it takes to boot these larger and more complex systems has grown.
By implementing MR on your JumpStart servers it may be possible to reduce
the number of reboots required during a system recovery or service event.
This minimization of reboots will speed recovery and service time as
well as enable the system administrator to use datacenter tools during
system recovery procedures.
- Updated (November 2000)
-by Alex Noordergraaf and Glenn Brunette
In parallel with the "JASS" Toolkit version 0.2 release all three articles
describing the "JASS Toolkit have been updated and revised to document
new updates and functionality.
-
JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating Environment
- Part 1
JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating Environment
- Part 2
JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating Environment
- Part 3
-
JumpStart Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating
Environment - Part 3 (September 2000) -Alex Noordergraaf
This article is third in a three part series describing an automated
toolkit for implementing the security modifications documented in earlier
Sun BluePrints onLine articles. In conjuction with this final article
the toolkit itself is being made freely available.
-
JumpStart Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating
Environment - Part 2 (August 2000) -Alex Noordergraaf
This article is part two of a three part series that presents the JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts toolkit. We continue with an in-depth
review of the configuration files, directories, and scripts used by
the toolkit to enhance the security of Solaris Operating Environment
systems. This series is a must read for anyone interested in upgrading
the security of their site.
-
JumpStart Architecture and Security Scripts for the Solaris Operating
Environment - Part 1 (July 2000) -Alex Noordergraaf
This article is part one of a three part series presenting the JumpStart
Architecture and Security Scripts tool (Toolkit) for the Solaris Operating
Environment. The Toolkit is a set of scripts which automatically harden
and minimize Solaris Operating Environment systems. The modifications
made are based on the recommendations made in the previously published
Sun BluePrints OnLine security articles.
-
JumpStart Mechanics: Using JumpStart Application for Hands- Free
Installation of Unbundled Software - Part 2 Automatic Encapsulation
of the Root Disk (June 2000)
-by John S. Howard
John provides procedures to fully automate the initial configuration
of Sun Enterprise Volume Manager and automate encapsulation of the boot
disk using JumpStart.
-
JumpStart Mechanics: Using JumpStart Application for Hands-Free Installation
of Unbundled Software - Part 1 (May 2000)
-by John S. Howard
John discusses automating and standardizing the installation of the
Solaris Operating Environment along with the associated unbundled software
products and datacenter management tools.
-
Solaris 8 Additions to sysidcfg (March 2000)
-by Rob Snevely
Shows you how to do fully hands-off installations of the Solaris 8 Operating
Environment. He also discusses how to use Jumpstart and sysidcfg
to provide uniform Solaris Operating Environment installations and save
you time.
-
Setting Up a Solaris Operating Environment Install Server and the
Solaris JumpStart Feature (December 1999)
-by Rob Snevely
A walkthrough on setting up an install server.
-
JumpStart: NIS and sysidcfg (October 1999)
-by Rob Snevely
How to use JumpStart technology to allows automation of the install
process.
Naming and Directory Services
-
Using the LDAP to NIS+ Gateway (September 2003)
-by Tom Bialaski and Michael Haines
There are two approaches that you can take when transitioning from NIS+
to LDAP-based services. One approach is to replace your naming service
clients with the Secured LDAP Client. The second approach is to keep
your current NIS+ clients, and deploy a transition tool to gain access
to LDAP naming service data. The first approach is covered in chapter
four of the just released Sun BluePrints book, "LDAP in the Solaris
Operating Environment -- Deploying Secure Directory Services", by
Michael Haines and Tom Bialaski. The second approach, using the NIS+
to LDAP Gateway, is discussed in this article. This article is intended
for IT architects and administrators who have deployed an earlier version
of the directory server software, and who are interested in upgrading
to the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 software version.
This Sun BluePrints book is scheduled for publication in the Fall of
2003 and will be available at the
Sun
BluePrints Publication page, the amazon.com website, and Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
-
Transition Guide--Upgrading From the iPlanet Directory Server 5.1
Software to the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 Software (August
2003)
-by Tom Bialaski and Michael Haines
The information in this article is derived from an upcoming Sun BluePrints
book, "LDAP in the Solaris Operating Environment -- Deploying Secure
Directory Services," by Michael Haines and Tom Bialaski. This book is
scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2003.
That book and this article cover the recently released Sun ONE Directory
Server 5.2 software, which introduces several significant features,
including support for the Secured LDAP Client. This article discusses
important differences in the packaging, installation, and configuration
of the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 software as compared with the previous
version. This article also discusses how to configure the software to
support Secured LDAP Clients. This article is intended for IT architects
and administrators who have deployed an earlier version of the directory
server software, and who are interested in upgrading to the Sun ONE
Directory Server 5.2 software version.
-
Writing an Authentication Plug-in for a Sun ONE Directory Server
(March 2003)
-by Nicola Venditti
The Sun ONE Directory Server has an advanced application program interface
(API) for writing plug-ins that extend the directory server's functionality.
In this article, information is provided for a better understanding
of the tasks involved in writing a plug-in. The impact and benefit plug-ins
can provide to the directory server is explained. In addition, a sample
preoperation
plug-in is provided.
-
Understanding Solaris 9 Operating Environment Directory Services
(December 2002)
-by Tom Bialaski
This article examines the differences between the Solaris 8 Operating
Environment (Solaris OE) Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
Client and the Solaris 9 OE Secured LDAP Client, and explains how to
support them on the same directory server. In addition, this article
details troubleshooting tips for common implementation problems.
-
Extending Authentication in the Solaris 9 Operating Environment Using
Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM): Part II (October 2002)
-by Michael Haines and Joep Vesseur
This article is part two of a two-part series and details the PAM application
programming interface (API) and the PAM service provider interface (SPI).
Also included are procedures on how to effectively write PAM modules
when using the Solaris 9 Operating Environment (Solaris 9 OE). By writing
these PAM service modules, it is possible to extend the capability of
the Solaris 9 OE authentication mechanisms in a number of different
ways.
Part one,
Extending Authentication in the Solaris 9 Operating Environment Using
Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM): Part I, was published
in the September 2002 issue of Sun BluePrints Online.
-
Extending Authentication in the Solaris 9 Operating Environment Using
Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM): Part I (September 2002)
-Michael Haines
This article is the first of a two-part series that offers a technical
overview of how the Solaris 9 Operating Environment implementation of
Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) works. This article demonstrates
straightforward methods for configuring PAM to accommodate site-specific
security policy requirements and examines the PAM architecture and its
components.
-
Securing LDAP Through TLS/SSL--A Cookbook (June 2002)
-by Stefan Weber
Deploying secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) connections
is becoming more demanding. This article details the steps on how to
set up the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) Directory Server software
so that it can be accessed securely from command line tools.
-
Solaris Operating Environment LDAP Capacity Planning and Performance
Tuning (May 2002)
-by Steve Lopez
Experienced System Administrators can increase the performance and scalability
of Netscape Directory by utilizing the key practice methodologies presented
in this article. These include key practices for the capacity planning
of the LDAP naming service on the Solaris Operating Environment, as
well as performance tuning examples and exercises.
-
Automating LDAP Client Installations (July 2001)
-by Tom Bialaski
The article explains how to configure a native LDAP client at installation
time, which is a new feature in Solaris 8 Operating Environment U3.
The basics of sysidtools and creating a sysidcfg
file for hands-off installation is covered along with how they relate
to LDAP. Hard to find (non-documented) tips are provided to avoid common
pitfalls.
-
Running Multiple Solaris Operating Environment Naming Services on
a Client (May 2001)
-by Tom Bialaski
The native LDAP client installation program assumes that you will not
be running another naming service on your client. Some customers, who
I have worked with, do not want to disable NIS when they configure native
LDAP. This can be done, but there is no readily available document which
describes how to do it. The article not only describes this procedure,
but also highlights best practices for running NIS and LDAP together.
PC Interoperability
-
Migrating to the Solaris Operating System: Migrating From Tru64 UNIX
(Novembe 2003)
-by Ken Pepple, Brian Down, and David Levy
This article presents a fictional case study that illustrates the methodology,
tools, and best practices used to migrate a Tru64 environment to a Solaris
environment.
BR> This article is the complete tenth chapter of the Sun BluePrints
book, "Migrating to the Solaris Operating System", by Ken Pepple,
Brian Down, and David Levy, which is available at our
Sun BluePrints publication page, amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble
bookstores. This article targets an intermediate audience.
-
Desktop Architecture Selection Guide (October 2003)
-by Howard Carlton
This article examines some of the main business drivers behind the current
trend towards adoption of thin client desktop solutions. The article
provides useful insights on the benefits and drawbacks of the various
candidate components for an alternative desktop environment. It also
provides guidelines on non-functional requirements and project life-cycle
approaches. This article is targeted to an introductory reader.
-
Migrating to the Solaris Operating System: Migration Strategies
(September 2003)
-by Ken Pepple, Brian Down, and David Levy
This article defines the most important terms in migration, and differentiates
between these terms. In addition, it presents migration strategies,
the benefits and risks of each strategy, and the appropriateness of
each strategy for various situations. This article is ideal for a beginning
to intermediate audience.
This article is the complete third chapter of the Sun BluePrints book,
"Migrating to the Solaris Operating System", which will be available
at the
Sun
BluePrints Publication page, the amazon.com website, and Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstores at the end of October, 2003.
-
Windows NT Server Consolidation and Performance Improvements with
Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 Software (August 2002)
-by Don DeVitt
This article focuses on best practices to help data center managers
meet cost reduction goals in supporting multiple users accessing servers
through PC clients. New features in Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software
that improve performance and add new options for consolidating Windows
NT servers are discussed.
-
Sizing Sun Ray Servers Running Windows Applications with SunPCi IIpro
Coprocessor Cards (November 2001)
-by Don DeVitt
This paper addresses the task of sizing a server capable of supporting
Wintel based applications on a Sun Ray Server utilizing Sun Pci IIpro
co-processor cards. The paper integrates the the informationof several
previously published documents and sizing tools to determine a baselineconfiguration.
The paper also suggests many best practice options for configuring the
server.
-
Supporting Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Applications from Sun Enterprise
Servers (June 2001)
-by Don DeVitt
This article explores using multiple SunPCi II Pro cards running on
Sun Enterprise servers to support Microsoft Windows 2000 Server applications.
New SunPCi II Pro hardware and software now support multiple cards in
one Sun Enterprise server. Benchmarks and Sizing information for a Windows
2000 Terminal Server environment are discussed.
-
Sharing NFS and Remote File Systems via Solaris PC NetLink Software
(November 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
This article offers best practice solutions for sharing NFS and remote
file systems via Solaris PC NetLink software. These solutions help your
enterprise avoid potential conflicts in the decision to allow access
to files using Solaris PC NetLink software.
-
Using Solaris Resource Manager with Solaris PC NetLink Software -
Part 2 (June 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Don presents part 2 of this article in which he includes an experiment
that is performed to determine a useful range of shares that can be
allocated to the Solaris PC NetLink software by the Solaris Resource
Manager software.
-
Using Solaris Resource Manager with Solaris PC NetLink Software -
Part 1 (May 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Don discusses the use of Solaris PC NetLink with Solaris Resource Manager.
-
Troubleshooting the Computer Browser Service with Solaris PC NetLink
Software (April 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Don discusses trouble-shooting network browsing with Solaris PC NetLink
software.
-
Managing the Solaris PC NetLink Registry (February 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
highlights the importance of documenting and managing changes to the
Solaris PC NetLink registry and establishing procedures for maintaining
the state server.
-
Upgrading the Solaris PC NetLink Software (January 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Highlights some of the subtle upgrade options that many system administrators
will want to be aware of as they move from one version of Solaris PC
NetLink software to the next.
-
Tracing Resource Consumption of Solaris PC NetLink Software Users
(December 1999)
-by Don DeVitt
Shows the Solaris Operating Environment commands and the Solaris PC
NetLink software commands for determining which PC clients are consuming
resources via Solaris PC NetLink software.
-
SunPCi Supporting Highly Available PC Applications with Solaris
(August 1999)
-by Don DeVitt
Creating a highly available environment for supporting PC applications,
using the newly introduced SunPCi card.
-
Transitioning to Solaris PC NetLink 1.0 (June 1999)
-by Don DeVitt
Don takes you through step-by-step on setting up the Solaris PC NetLink.
High Availability
Data Center Practices
-
Migrating to the Solaris Operating System: Migrating From Tru64 UNIX
(November 2003)
-by Ken Pepple, Brian Down, and David Levy
This article presents a fictional case study that illustrates the methodology,
tools, and best practices used to migrate a Tru64 environment to a Solaris
environment.
BR> This article is the complete tenth chapter of the Sun BluePrints
book, "Migrating to the Solaris Operating System", by Ken Pepple,
Brian Down, and David Levy, which is available at our
Sun BluePrints publication page, amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble
bookstores. This article targets an intermediate audience.
-
Migrating to the Solaris Operating System: Migration Strategies
(September 2003)
-by Ken Pepple, Brian Down, and David Levy
This article defines the most important terms in migration, and differentiates
between these terms. In addition, it presents migration strategies,
the benefits and risks of each strategy, and the appropriateness of
each strategy for various situations. This article is ideal for a beginning
to intermediate audience.
This article is the complete third chapter of the Sun BluePrints book,
"Migrating to the Solaris Operating System", which will be available
at
Sun
BluePrints Publication page, the amazon.com website, and Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstores at the end of October, 2003.
-
Sun Fire 15K/12K Server Preferred Practices (July 2003)
-by Lee Lustig
Many documents about configuring Sun Fire servers have been written
at Sun Microsystems. This article consolidates the information in those
documents to derive a set of preferred practices you can quickly reference
while planning an implementation. This article addresses preferred practices
at a high level, referencing supporting documentation when a more in-depth
technical discussion is warranted. This article is targeted for an introductory
level of expertise.
-
Role Based Access Control and Secure Shell--A Closer Look At Two
Solaris Operating Environment Security Features (June 2003)
-by Thomas M. Chalfant
To aid the customer in adopting better security practices, this article
introduces and explains two security features in the Solaris operating
environment. The first is Role Based Access Control and the second is
Secure Shell. The goal is to provide you with enough information to
make an effective decision to use or not use these features at your
site as well as to address configuration and implementation topics.
This article is targeted to the intermediate level of expertise.
-
Using NTP on the Sun Fire 15K/12K Server (June 2003)
-by Jason Beloro
This article addresses the time skew issues for the Sun Fire 12K/F15K
server and explains how the system controllers and domains can be configured
as NTP clients to external servers. A sample configuration is also provided.
This article is targeted to the intermediate level of expertise.
-
Consolidation Methodology (June 2003)
-by David Hornby and Ken Pepple
A proven methodology is critical to the success of a consolidation project.
This article outlines the major phases of the consolidation methodology
developed by Sun Professional Services. If you are considering, or have
already begun, a consolidation project for your data center, you can
use the methodology presented in this article to get a consolidation
effort underway.
This article is the complete fourth chapter of the Sun BluePrints book,
Consolidation in the Data Center, by David Hornby and Ken Pepple (ISBN
#0-13-045495-8). The later chapters in this book address the feasibility,
assessment, architecture, implementation, and management phases in detail.
-
An Architecture for Creating and Managing Integrated Software Stacks
(May 2003)
-by John S. Howard
Creating and managing complex, integrated system software stacks are
some of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks facing data center
managers. This article examines the challenges of these tasks and provides
an architecture for software stack creation and management.
-
A Patch Management Strategy for the Solaris Operating Environment
(January 2003)
-by Ramesh Radhakrishnan
Managing software patches is complex and time consuming. This article
offers a high-level strategy for managing patches in a variety of different
types of compute environments that are running on the Solaris operating
environment. This article divides the patch management process into
seven phases, each of which can be tailored to suit your distinct IT
environment. This article does not discuss the step-by-step process
of installing Solaris OE patches, but instead addresses higher-level
concepts that can be used with any patch installation utility. This
article is intended for IT managers, IT architects, lead system administrators,
and anyone interested in developing a patch management strategy.
-
BluePrint for Benchmarking Success (January 2003)
-by Hans Joraandstad and Barbara Perz
This article provides best practices for benchmarking and it's ideal
for those using benchmarking to gather information that will help make
a decision on which computer to buy.
-
Configuring Databases Using Soft Links (January 2003)
-by Carlos Godinez
This article explains the advantages of using symbolic (soft) links
when configuring databases and provides techniques and examples for
using them. This article presents information that will enable you to
manage database configuration efficiently and accurately.
-
Managing Data Centers With Sun Management Center Change Manager
(October 2002)
-John S. Howard
Deploying and updating software are two of the most challenging and
time consuming tasks facing datacenter managers. The Sun Management
Center (Sun MC) Change Manager software provides a framework and tools
for quickly and efficiently deploying, replicating, updating, and managing
software over a large number of systems. This article presents techniques
and best practices for using Sun Management Center Change Manager software.
-
Sun Fire Systems Design and Configuration Guide (September
2002)
-Nathan Wiger and Roger Blythe
This article details key features of the Sun Fire product line and presents
a process you can follow to determine which server best meets your needs.
An excerpt from the new Sun BluePrints book, "Sun Fire Systems Design
and Configuration Guide" by Nathan Wiger and Roger Blythe, this article
provides best practice design consideration, rules of thumb, and sample
server configurations.
-
Consolidation in the Data Center (September 2002)
-by Ken Pepple and David Hornby
Data center consolidation is about reducing the number of devices
you have to manage and reducing the number of ways you use to manage
them. This article introduces various types of consolidations you can
perform - servers, applications, storage, shared services, networks,
and people resources - and describes some of the benefits of each type
of consolidation.
-
Sun StorEdge[tm[ Instant Image 3.0 and Oracle8i Database Best Practices
(August 2002)
-by Art Licht
A methodology for implementing the Sun StorEdge Instant Image 3.0 Point-In-Time
(PIT) copy technology to perform non-intrusive and efficient backup
operations on Oracle8i databases, without impacting business operations
is presented. A method customers can use to repurpose the PIT Oracle8i
data for parallel business processes is also included.
-
An Information Technology Management Reference Architecture Implementation
(July 2002)
-by Edward Wustenhoff
This article is the fifth in a series of articles by Edward Wustenhoff
on the data center management infrastructure. The focus of this article
is on the implementation of the management infrastructure. It is a follow-up
article on the
"An information Technology Management Reference Architecture article
published earlier by Edward Wustenhoff and the Sun BluePrints group.
It describes the implementation of IT management reference architecture
in the Authorized iForce Ready Center (iFRC) program that displays an
IDC Mail and Messaging Architecture. The iFRC program is a Sun program
that provides reference implementations and proof of concepts to assist
our customers in avoiding common pitfalls. This article describes the
technical aspects and details of the management and organization (M&O)
architecture deployment.
-
An Information Technology Management Reference Architecture
(June 2002)
-by Edward Wustenhoff
Building on Edward's prior Sun BluePrints OnLine articles, this article
describes the results of a proof-of-concept process to create an IT
management reference architecture that displays IDC mail and messaging,
as conducted at Sun's iForce Ready Center.
-
Deployment Considerations for Data Center Management Tools
(May 2002)
-by Edward Wustenhoff
Build a better management infrastructure by understanding more about
the basic building blocks, architecture, and key design elements of
a complete Systems Management Tools Framework, as presented in this
first article in a two-part series.
-
Using Live Upgrade 2.0 With JumpStart Technology and Web Start Flash
(April 2002)
-by John S. Howard
In this final installment of his three-part series on Solaris Live Upgrade
2.0 (LU) technology, John S. Howard provides recommendations and techniques
for integrating LU with the JumpStart software framework and the Solaris
Web Start Flash software.
-
Service Level Agreement in the Data Center (April 2002)
-by Edward Wustenhoff
Building on the definitions, processes, and best practices supporting
the Service Level Management (SLM) process presented in the first article
in this two-part series, this article explores Service Level Agreements
(SLAs). Best practices for keeping SLAs simple, measurable, and realistic--thus
avoiding the most common pitfalls of overpromising and underdelivering
on agreements--are detailed and templates are provided that illustrate
the translation of SLA principles to real-world examples.
-
Using Live Upgrade 2.0 With a Logical Volume Manager (March
2002)
-by John S. Howard
Part two of a three-part series by John S. Howard, this article addresses
best practices for upgrading systems, specifically using Live Upgrade
2.0 (LU 2.0) with a logical volume manager. As system administrators
know, system upgrades can be time-consuming and error-prone processes.
Further, mission-critical systems or datacenter systems typically cannot
afford to be taken down for much time to test patches and execute software
upgrades. While the examples in this article use VERITAS Volume Manager
(VxVM), the concepts and high-level procedural steps are the same whether
you use LU 2.0 with Solstice DiskSuite software.
-
Service Level Management in the Data Center (March 2002)
-by Edward Wustenhoff
Service Level Management (SLM) provides the methodology and discipline
for measuring overall system performance parameters and forms the basis
for implementing service level agreements (SLAs). This article presents
a basic definition of SLM, details the SLM process, and provides best
practices for using SLM. Tasks described include all aspects of gathering
the metrics needed, at all platform layers, to evaluate compliance with
SLAs and to ensure continuous improvement in overall system performance.
Future articles from this author will investigate best practices surrounding
SLAs.
-
Managing Solaris Operating Environment Upgrades with Live Upgrade
2.0 (February 2002)
-by John S. Howard
Performing an upgrade of an operating system and the associated system
software is one of the most time-consuming and error prone tasks facing
system administrators. Compounding the upgrade process is the reality
that most mission-critical or datacenter systems cannot afford to be
taken down for any length of time to test patches and execute software
upgrades. This article, part one of a three-part series, focuses on
how Live Upgrade (LU) provides a mechanism to manage and upgrade multiple
on-disk Solaris Operating Environments without taking the systems down.
LU provides a framework to upgrade and work within multiple on-disk
environments and reboots into the new Solaris Operating Environment
after completion of changes to the on-disk software images.
-
Data Center Design Philosophy (January 2002)
-by Rob Snevely
This article is from the entire first chapter of the Sun BluePrints
book, Enterprise Data Center Design and Methodology, (ISBN 0-13-047393-6),
which is available beginning January 30th through www.sun.com/books,
amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
This article lays the foundation for addressing challenges of data center
design, through a presentation of the more important design issues,
priorities, and philosophies. The article concludes with a summary of
the ten most important design guidelines.
-
The Intelligent Architectures Design Philosophy (December
2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article introduces the design philosophy and tenets of the Intelligent
Architectures (IA) approach to systems architecture: a philosophy centered
on the use of archetypes - original models after which similar things
are patterned. This article presents the IA archetypes in brief, as
well as rules and recommendations for combining archetypes to design
systems and datacenters.
-
Configuring Boot Disks (December 2001)
-by John S. Howard and David Deeths
This article is the fourth chapter of the Sun BluePrints book titled
Boot Disk Management: A Guide For The Solaris Operating Environment
(ISBN 0-13-062153-6), which is available through www.sun.com/books,
amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part III: NTP
Monitoring and Troubleshooting (September 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This article is the third in a series of three articles that discuss
using Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize system clocks. The
goal of this article is to provide an effective understanding of NTP
troubleshooting and monitoring.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part II: Basic
NTP Administration and Architecture (August 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This is Part 2 of a three-article series that discusses how to use Network
Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize system clocks. This article explains
the basics of client and server administration, covering various client/server
configurations, as well as authentication and access control mechanisms.
This article also provides a number of suggestions for an effective
NTP architecture.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part I: Introduction
to NTP (July 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This article is the first of a series on the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
NTP allows synchronizing clocks on different network nodes, which is
critical in today's networked world. This first article provides an
overview of why time synchronization is important and introduces basic
NTP concepts.
-
Datacenter Naming Scheme (May 2001)
-by Mark Garner
Eighty percent of outages are allegedly the result of people or proces
issues. An intuitive and informative naming scheme can define and highlight
the composition and function of components within a service infrastructure.
The article looks at the merits of such a naming scheme and includes
an example system for servers, storage, networks and cables that may
help reduce operational error.
-
Customizing the JumpStart Boot Image Recovery (March 2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article includes techniques and recommendations for creating a
recovery platform by augmenting the Solaris OE boot image (mini-root).
This article will also examine the boot and installation processes by
demonstrating how to adapt those processes for system recovery.
-
MR System for Rapid Recovery (January 2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article is an introduction to the MR system for rapid recovery.
As the system uptime requirements have become more exacting, the length
of time it takes to boot these larger and more complex systems has grown.
By implementing MR on your JumpStart servers it may be possible to reduce
the number of reboots required during a system recovery or service event.
This minimization of reboots will speed recovery and service time as
well as enable the system administrator to use datacenter tools during
system recovery procedures.
-
Sun/Oracle Best Practices (January 2001)
-by Bob Sneed
In this paper, Best Practice concepts are first defined, then specific
high-impact technical issues common with Oracle in the Solaris Operating
Environment are discussed.
-
Planning for Large Configurations of Netra t1 Servers (January
2001)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to the Sun BluePrints OnLine
This article examines a wide range of management and serviceability
issues that should be considered when planning a large (and possibly
geographically disbursed) server farm consisting of Netra t1 servers.
The use of the Netra alarms and lights-out management (LOM) module is
discussed in some detail. Consideration is also given to several other
topics, including the power and cooling issues that arise when up to
32 Netra t1 servers are mounted within a single rack or cabinet.
-
An Introduction to Live Upgrade (July 2000)
-by John S. Howard
John provides an introduction and overview of Live Upgrade and also
provides techniques and best practices for the usage of Live Upgrade.
-
Disaster Recovery Requirements Analysis (July 2000)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to Sun BluePrints OnLine
Stan discusses how to successfully implement a disaster recovery program
through careful and exhaustive disaster recovery requirements analysis.
He also provides a disaster recovery requirements analysis form that
can serve as the basis for an iterative negotiation process that helps
all parties to arrive at realistic expectations and well-understood
disaster recovery service level agreements.
-
JumpStart Mechanics: Using JumpStart Application for Hands- Free
Installation of Unbundled Software - Part 2 Automatic Encapsulation
of the Root Disk (June 2000)
-by John S. Howard
John provides procedures to fully automate the initial configuration
of Sun Enterprise Volume Manager and automate encapsulation of the boot
disk using JumpStart.
-
The Art of Production Environment Engineering (June 2000)
-by Bill Walker
Bill addresses the production environment needs of the datacenter using
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Fault Configuration
Application Performance Security model (FCAPS), Information Technology
Infrastructure Library framework (ITIL), a basic IT reference model,
and the SunReady Methodology's roadmap to prodution.
-
JumpStart Mechanics: Using JumpStart Application for Hands-Free Installation
of Unbundled Software - Part 1 (May 2000)
-by John S. Howard
John discusses automating and standardizing the installation of the
Solaris Operating Environment along with the associated unbundled software
products and datacenter management tools.
-
Solaris 8 Additions to sysidcfg (March 2000)
-by Rob Snevely
Shows you how to do fully hands-off installations of the Solaris 8 Operating
Environment. He also discusses how to use Jumpstart and sysidcfg
to provide uniform Solaris Operating Environment installations and save
you time.
-
Fast Oracle Parallel Exports on Sun Enterprise Servers (March
2000)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to Sun BluePrints OnLine
Gives a script that performs very fast Oracle database exports by taking
advantage of parallel processing on SMP machines. This script can be
invaluable for situations where you need to perform exports of large
mission-critical databases that require high availability.
-
An Overview of Methodology (April 1999)
-by Adrian Cockcroft
An in-depth overview on Service Level Definitions and Interactions and
Resource Management Control Loop.
-
Dynamic Reconfiguration (April 1999)
-by Enrique Vargas
The fundamentals of Dynamic Reconfiguration.
Rapid Recovery Techniques
-
Tuning ORACLE to Minimize Recovery Time: For Solaris Operating System
on SPARC (November 2003)
-by James Mauro
This article provides recommendations for tuning ORACLE on SPARC processor-based
systems running the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) to minimize
recovery in the event of a system or database failure. This article
is relevant for any audience level
-
Deploying the Solaris Operating Environment Using a Solaris Security
Toolkit CD (September 2003)
-by Steven Spadaccini
The Solaris Security Toolkit is a collection of shell scripts combined
to form a flexible and extensible framework for rapidly deploying hardened
platforms running the Solaris Operating Environment. The Toolkit is,
however, quite versatile and can be used for much more than just hardening
a system. This article discusses how the Toolkit can be used to construct
a bootable CD, based on Sun's JumpStart framework, for building and
configuring new systems. This article is authored for intermediate and
advanced system administrators.
-
Sun StorEdge[tm[ Instant Image 3.0 and Oracle8i Database Best Practices
(August 2002)
-by Art Licht
A methodology for implementing the Sun StorEdge Instant Image 3.0 Point-In-Time
(PIT) copy technology to perform non-intrusive and efficient backup
operations on Oracle8i databases, without impacting business operations
is presented. A method customers can use to repurpose the PIT Oracle8i
data for parallel business processes is also included.
-
Customizing the JumpStart Boot Image for Recovery (March
2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article includes techniques and recommendations for creating a
recovery platform by augmenting the Solaris OE boot image (mini-root).
This article will also examine the boot and installation processes by
demonstrating how to adapt those processes for system recovery.
-
MR Systme for Rapid Recovery (January 2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article is an introduction to the MR system for rapid recovery.
As the system uptime requirements have become more exacting, the length
of time it takes to boot these larger and more complex systems has grown.
By implementing MR on your JumpStart servers it may be possible to reduce
the number of reboots required during a system recovery or service event.
This minimization of reboots will speed recovery and service time as
well as enable the system administrator to use datacenter tools during
system recovery procedures.
-
SCSI-Initiator ID (August 2000)
-by David Deeths
Changing the SCSI-initiator ID is necessary for cluster configurations
that share SCSI devices between multiple hosts. This article walks you
through the process, and also provides an excellent background on SCSI
issues in clustered systems.
-
Disaster Recovery Requirements Analysis (July 2000)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to Sun BluePrints OnLine
Stan discusses how to successfully implement a disaster recovery program
through careful and exhaustive disaster recovery requirements analysis.
He also provides a disaster recovery requirements analysis form that
can serve as the basis for an iterative negotiation process that helps
all parties to arrive at realistic expectations and well-understood
disaster recovery service level agreements.
-
A Sun StorEdge Rapid Restore Solution for Disaster Resiliency
(April 2000)
-by Raza Hussain
Raza gives a quick and efficient method for using point in time images
to minimize the potential of data loss and expedite the restoration
of business to normal.
-
SSP Best Practices (March 2000)
-by John S. Howard
Presents best practice procedures and configurations for the SSP and
backup SSP. In addition, an overview of the MR system for rapid recovery
of systems or domains.
-
Rapid Recovery Techniques: Auditing Custom Software Configurations
(February 2000)
-by Richard Elling
The fourth article in a series that covers rapid recovery techniques
for the Solaris Operating Environment.
-
Rapid Recovery Techniques for the Solaris Operating Environment
(January 2000)
-by Richard Elling
Discusses the Solaris Operating Environment software registry, the ease
of building packages, and the use of these packages in an automated
installation environment.
-
Rapid Recovery Techniques: Repairing File Ownership and Mode
(December 1999)
-by Richard Elling
The second article in a series that will discuss rapid recovery techniques
for the Solaris Operating Environment.
-
Rapid Recovery Techniques: Exploring the Solaris Software Registry
(October 1999)
-by Richard Elling
How to use processes to recover from errors caused by people.
-
Solaris Operating System Availability Features (January 2004)
-by Thomas M. Chalfant
The processor offlining feature enables a processor to be removed from
use by Solaris in response to one or more L2 cache errors. The page
retirement feature enables a page of memory to be removed from use by
Solaris in response to repeated ECC errors within a memory page on a
DIMM. This paper provides detailed discussion regarding the algorithm,
implementation, kernel tunables, and messages you are likely to see
on a system running the appropriate kernel updates. This article is
ideal for an intermediate to advanced reader.
-
Provisioning in Replicated, Mission-Critical Environments
(March 2003)
-by Jay Daliparthy and James Falkner
This article introduces the concepts and best practices for using Solaris
Flash and Solaris Live Upgrade technologies to perform quick, consistent,
controlled, and reproducible Solaris Operating Environment installations
and upgrades. Creating, archiving, and deploying a Flash archive is
covered along with how to create and manage multiple boot environments.
-
A Patch Management Strategy for the Solaris Operating Environment
(January 2003)
-by Ramesh Radhakrishnan
Managing software patches is complex and time consuming. This article
offers a high-level strategy for managing patches in a variety of different
types of compute environments that are running on the Solaris operating
environment. This article divides the patch management process into
seven phases, each of which can be tailored to suit your distinct IT
environment. This article does not discuss the step-by-step process
of installing Solaris OE patches, but instead addresses higher-level
concepts that can be used with any patch installation utility. This
article is intended for IT managers, IT architects, lead system administrators,
and anyone interested in developing a patch management strategy.
-
Using Live Upgrade 2.0 With JumpStart Technology and Web Start Flash
(April 2002)
-by John S. Howard
In this final installment of his three-part series on Solaris Live Upgrade
2.0 (LU) technology, John S. Howard provides recommendations and techniques
for integrating LU with the JumpStart software framework and the Solaris
Web Start Flash software.
-
Using Live Upgrade 2.0 With a Logical Volume Manager (March
2002)
-by John S. Howard
Part two of a three-part series by John S. Howard, this article addresses
best practices for upgrading systems, specifically using Live Upgrade
2.0 (LU 2.0) with a logical volume manager. As system administrators
know, system upgrades can be time-consuming and error-prone processes.
Further, mission-critical systems or datacenter systems typically cannot
afford to be taken down for much time to test patches and execute software
upgrades. While the examples in this article use VERITAS Volume Manager
(VxVM), the concepts and high-level procedural steps are the same whether
you use LU 2.0 with Solstice DiskSuite software.
-
Managing Solaris Operating Environment Upgrades with Live Upgrade
2.0 (February 2002)
-by John S. Howard
Performing an upgrade of an operating system and the associated system
software is one of the most time-consuming and error prone tasks facing
system administrators. Compounding the upgrade process is the reality
that most mission-critical or datacenter systems cannot afford to be
taken down for any length of time to test patches and execute software
upgrades. This article, part one of a three-part series, focuses on
how Live Upgrade (LU) provides a mechanism to manage and upgrade multiple
on-disk Solaris Operating Environments without taking the systems down.
LU provides a framework to upgrade and work within multiple on-disk
environments and reboots into the new Solaris Operating Environment
after completion of changes to the on-disk software images.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part III: NTP
Monitoring and Troubleshooting (September 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This article is the third in a series of three articles that discuss
using Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize system clocks. The
goal of this article is to provide an effective understanding of NTP
troubleshooting and monitoring.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part II: Basic
NTP Administration and Architecture (August 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This is Part 2 of a three-article series that discusses how to use Network
Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize system clocks. This article explains
the basics of client and server administration, covering various client/server
configurations, as well as authentication and access control mechanisms.
This article also provides a number of suggestions for an effective
NTP architecture.
-
Using NTP to Control and Synchronize System Clocks - Part I: Introduction
to NTP (July 2001)
-by David Deeths and Glenn Brunette
This article is the first of a series on the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
NTP allows synchronizing clocks on different network nodes, which is
critical in today's networked world. This first article provides an
overview of why time synchronization is important and introduces basic
NTP concepts.
-
Building a Bootable JumpStart Installation CD-ROM (March
2001)
-by John S. Howard
This article presents an examination of the structure of a bootable
Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) CD-ROM and procedures for
how to create a bootable JumpStart installation CD-ROM. This CD can
be used to complete a standardized, hands-free Solaris OE installation
in environments where the disk space or networking constraints do not
allow for a JumpStart server.
-
Exploring the iPlanet Directory Server NIS Extensions (August
2000)
-by Tom Bialaski
Tom discusses how to implement a phased deployment using the Solaris
Extensions for Netscape Directory Server 4.11.
-
Upgrading to the Solaris 8 Operating Environment (April 2000)
-by Computer Systems, Solaris Productization and Marketing
This article displays how administrators can upgrade quickly to the
Solaris 8 Operating Environment by proactively testing applications
and using Solaris JumpStart.
-
Building Longevity into Solaris Operating Environment Applications
(April 2000)
-by Computer Systems, Solaris Productization and Marketing
This article discusses specific steps that developers can take to improve
the longevity of their applications. It also introduces evolutionary
new features and interfaces that Sun offers in the Solaris 8 Operating
Environment release.
-
Operating Environment: Solaris 8 Installation and Boot Disk Layout
(March 2000)
-by Richard Elling
Discusses Solaris WebStart. a new Java-based procedure that simplifies
installation of the Solaris 8 Operating Environment. Richard also recommends
a boot disk layout for desktop and small workgroup servers.
-
NIS to LDAP Transition: Exploring (February 2000)
-by Tom Bialaski
Examines technologies that help increase availability during the transition
from legacy Solaris Operating Environment directory services to LDAP
based ones.
-
Solaris Directory Services: Past, Present and Future (October
1999)
-by Tom Bialaski
The high availability features of currently supported Solaris Operating
Environment directory services (NIS, NIS+, DNS) and contrasts them with
LDAP's high availability features.
-
DR Requirements for I/O Device Drivers (June 1999)
-by Enrique Vargas
Covers the device driver functions that are required to fully support
the DR framework.
-
Metropolitan Area Sun Ray Services (May 2002)
-by Lars Persson
Expand into new lines of business and drastically reduce the actual
and hidden costs of ownership of the desktop PC device by implementing
these preferred practice recommendations for deploying Sun Rays over
a Metropolitan Area Network.
-
Planning for Large Configurations of Netra t1 Servers (January
2001)
-by Stan Stringfellow - Special to the Sun BluePrints OnLine
This article examines a wide range of management and serviceability
issues that should be considered when planning a large (and possibly
geographically disbursed) server farm consisting of Netra t1 servers.
The use of the Netra alarms and lights-out management (LOM) module is
discussed in some detail. Consideration is also given to several other
topics, including the power and cooling issues that arise when up to
32 Netra t1 servers are mounted within a single rack or cabinet.
-
Sun Cluster 3.0 Series: Guide to Installation--Part 2 (May
2003)
-by >Chris Dotson
This Sun Cluster implementation guide reviews the Sun Cluster concepts
and components important to the specific installation procedures. This
guide also describes the methods of constructing a Sun Cluster, and
provides procedures for installing the cluster software onto each node
and configuring the disks. This article is teh second part in a two-part
series.
"Sun Cluster 3.0 Series: Guide to Installation--Part 1" was
a Sun BluePrints article in April 2003.
-
Sun Cluster 3.0 Series: Guide to Installation--Part 1 (April
2003)
-by Chris Dotson
Part one of a two-part series, this article guides the reader through
preparation and setup, prior to deployment of a Sun Cluster system.
Sun's preferred methodology for installing Sun Cluster software, Sun's
Enterprise Install Services (EIS) processes, are presented.
- Cluster Column:
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE:
Guide to Installation--Part II: Sun Cluster 3.0 Software Management
Services (May 2002)
-by Chris Dotson and Steve Lopez
The second in a two-part series, this module details the tasks that
must be performed to install the Solaris Operating Environment on each
cluster node during a Sun Cluster 3.0 software installation.
- Cluster Column:
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE:
Guide to Installation--Part I: Sun Cluster Management Services
(April 2002)
-by Chris Dotson and Steve Lopez
This module contains the tasks that must be performed for installation
of Sun Cluster 3.0 software. These tasks include setting up the administrative
workstation, configuring the Sun Cluster 3.0 software cluster, implementing
best practices, performing design verifications, and administering a
two-node Sun Cluster 3.0 hardware cluster.
-
Introduction to SunTone Clustered Database Platforms (March
2002)
-by Ted Persky and Richard Elling
While there appears to be unanimous consent in the industry that integrated
hardware and software platforms are needed, there is not a similar agreement
of what, exactly, constitutes an integrated stack, particularly in the
area of clusters and high availability. Further, people want to know
what best practices they should embrace and which services they should
provide. This article details the benefits that can be derived from
a clustered Oracle database software stack that has been integrated
to best practices and is ready to deploy. The examples in this article
highlight Sun's soon-to-be-released Clustered Database Platform 280/3.
-
Automating Sun Cluster 3.0 Data Service Setup (February 2002)
-by Tom Bialaski
After installing Sun Cluster 3.0 software and performing basic cluster
configuration, the next task is to set up the applications or data services
for the application to run on the cluster. This procedure involves a
number of steps, many of which need to be performed from the command
line. Others such as creating a resource group, can be performed through
the SunPlex GUI. Because these steps require executing complicated commands
or traversing through several GUI screens, it is advantageous to write
scripts that can simplify and automate the data service and configuration
process. Scripts are also a valuable tool to capture work completed
in a test environment to ensure consistent deployment on the production
network. In addition, scripts are useful to enable less-experienced
system administrators to perform complex configuration tasks, or to
rebuild systems for multiple testing purposes. To highlight how to architect
such scripts, this article illustrates best practices in deploying the
HA-NFS data service, for which the agent is contained on the Sun Cluster
3.0 Data Services CD-ROM.
-
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE:
Guide to Installation - Hardware Setup (January 2002)
-by Chris Dotson and Steve Lopez
This article provides hardware configuration and installation procedures
for each component of a Sun Cluster 3.0, two-node cluster. Procedures
include commands required to configure the cluster hardware and best
practices for achieving higher availability and/or performance for the
two-node cluster. Sun's Cluster Platform 220/1000, featuring redundant
Sun Enterprise 220R servers and Sun StorEdge D1000 disk arrays, Terminal
Concentrator, and the Sun Cluster 3.0 Administration Workstation is
examined. Note: This article is available in PDF format only.
-
Building Sun based Beowulf Cluster (December 2001)
-by Börje Lindh
This article explains how you can build compute clusters from Sun Microsystems
components that competes with Beowulf clusters and above.
-
Cluster and Complex Design Issues (November 2001)
-by Richard Elling and Tim Read
This is the entire first chapter from the Sun BluePrints Book Designing
Solutions with Sun Cluster 3.0. In it, the authors examine how failures
occur in complex systems and show methods that contain, isolate, report,
and repair failures. Special considerations for clustered systems are
discussed, including the impact of caches, timeouts, and the various
failure modes, such as split brain, amnesia, and multiple instances.
-
Writing Scalable Services With Sun Cluster 3.0 Software (October
2001)
-by Peter Lees
This article provides an introduction to the supporting features in
the Sun Cluster 3.0 product release. It also describes both the technical
requirements that must be considered when designing and programming
an application to the most effective use of the cluster framework. This
article also details some of the tools available for creating scalable
resources.
-
Robust Clustering: A Comparison of Sun Cluster 3.0 versus Sun Cluster
2.2 Software (September 2001)
-by Tim Read and Don Vance
This article provides a technical comparision between Sun's most recent
version of its clustering software and the previous version. The newest
version includes numerous new features, which are examined in depth.
-
Cluster Platform 220/1000 Architecture-A Product from the SunTone
Platforms Portfolio (August 2001)
-by Enrique Vargas
This article will provide customers a better understanding of this product
capabilities by presenting its hardware and software architecture as
well as best practices used in integrating the design.
-
Securing Web Applications through a Secure Reverse Proxy
(November 2003)
-by Anh-Duy Nguyen
This article describes recommended practices for setting up the Sun
ONE Proxy Server software to represent a secure content server to outside
clients, preventing direct, unmonitored access to your server's data
from outside your company. This article uses recommended practices to
secure your web applications behind a firewall and leverage access and
authentication using the Sun ONE platform products.
This article assumes an intermediate reader who is familiar with installing
and configuring the Sun ONE Proxy Server. It also assumes that the reader
can configure the firewall router to allow a specific server on a specific
port access through the firewall without allowing any other machines
in or out.
-
Sun ONE Portal Server 6 Best Practices (October 2003)
-by Christian Candia
Christian Candia - This article presents the best practices for high
availability, security, and scalability that commonly have significant
success on a Sun ONE Portal Server software solution. In addition, the
article includes guidelines for creating a Sun ONE Portal Server software
solution that can be easily supported. This article is ideal for the
advanced reader.
-
Using the LDAP to NIS+ Gateway (September 2003)
-by Tom Bialaski and Michael Haines
There are two approaches that you can take when transitioning from NIS+
to LDAP-based services. One approach is to replace your naming service
clients with the Secured LDAP Client. The second approach is to keep
your current NIS+ clients, and deploy a transition tool to gain access
to LDAP naming service data. The first approach is covered in chapter
four of the soon-to-be released Sun BluePrints book, "LDAP in the
Solaris Operating Environment -- Deploying Secure Directory Services",
by Michael Haines and Tom Bialaski. The second approach, using the NIS+
to LDAP Gateway, is discussed in this article. This article is intended
for IT architects and administrators who have deployed an earlier version
of the directory server software, and who are interested in upgrading
to the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 software version.
This Sun BluePrints book is scheduled for publication in the Fall of
2003 and will be available at
Sun
BluePrints Publication page, the amazon.com website, and Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
-
Sun ONE Messaging Server Practices and Techniques for Enterprise
Customers (September 2003)
-by Dave Pickens
Often times a messaging server implementation isn't properly monitored
for "soft" faults or warnings until it's too late. This article, a chapter
from the new Sun BluePrints book, "Sun ONE Messaging Server, Practices
and Techniques for Enterprise Customers", provides insight and guidance
into methods for monitoring the Sun ONE Messaging Server. This article
is ideal for a beginning to intermediate audience.
This new book will be available at
Sun
BluePrints Publication page, the amazon.com website, and Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstores in September 2003.
-
Sun ONE Portal Server and Lotus iNotes Integration Recipe
(August 2003)
-by Rob Baker
This article describes a best-practices approach to integrating the
latest version of Lotus iNotes with the Sun ONE Portal Server 6.0 software.
This article covers Lotus iNotes configuration, advanced portal configuration,
and how to coordinate both products so that they complement each other
in a successful, secure-portal deployment. This article is intended
for integrators, administrators, and Sun Professional Services personnel.
You should have familiarity with portal administration before performing
the procedure in this article.
-
Transition Guide--Upgrading From the iPlanet Directory Server 5.1
Software to the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 Software (August
2003)
-by Tom Bialaski and Michael Haines
The information in this article is derived from an upcoming Sun BluePrints
book, "LDAP in the Solaris Operating Environment -- Deploying Secure
Directory Services," by Michael Haines and Tom Bialaski. This book is
scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2003.
That book and this article cover the recently released Sun ONE Directory
Server 5.2 software, which introduces several significant features,
including support for the Secured LDAP Client. This article discusses
important differences in the packaging, installation, and configuration
of the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.2 software as compared with the previous
version. This article also discusses how to configure the software to
support Secured LDAP Clients. This article is intended for IT architects
and administrators who have deployed an earlier version of the directory
server software, and who are interested in upgrading to the Sun ONE
Directory Server 5.2 software version.
-
Using the Sun ONE Application Server 7 to Enable Collaborative B2B
Transactions (June 2003)
-by Michael Wheaton
This Sun BluePrints OnLine article describes a design for a comprehensive
Web services application architecture that enables businesses to publish,
find, and execute collaborative B2B workflows with trading partners.
It describes how businesses should capture their offerings in a declarative
Web services format and decouple them from the tightly bound code that
exists in point-to-point solutions.
This article is written for system architects and professional service
engineers who have a solid understanding of Web services technologies,
including WS-I Basic Profile and electronic business eXtended Markup
Language (ebXML) specifications. This article is targeted to the introductory
level of expertise.
-
Sun ONE Portal Server and Microsoft Exchange Integration Cookbook
(May 2003)
-by Rob Baker
This article, written in the form of a cookbook, as well as related
scripts, provide you with information and tools necessary to integrate
Microsoft Exchange 2000 SP3, with the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun
ONE) Portal Server software. This article can help portal administrators
solve portal server integration problems caused by new underlying technologies
introduced by Microsoft in Exchange 2000 SP3, specifically for integration
with the portal server Netlet and rewriter components.
You need knowledge of both products prior to attempting this integration.
Extensive familiarity with HTML 4.x, JavaScript, CSS, XML, and XSL is
also important to fully understand the implications of changes suggested
by this article. To download the scripts for this article, see the
Sun BluePrints
Scripts and Tools page and click on Exchange Integration Cookbook
Scripts.
-
Writing an Authentication Plug-in for a Sun ONE Directory Server
(March 2003)
-by Nicola Venditti
The Sun ONE Directory Server has an advanced application program interface
(API) for writing plug-ins that extend the directory server's functionality.
In this article, information is provided for a better understanding
of the tasks involved in writing a plug-in. The impact and benefit plug-ins
can provide to the directory server is explained. In addition, a sample
preoperation
plug-in is provided.
-
Sun ONE Portal Server 3.0 Rewriter Configuration and Management Guide
(July 2002)
-by Rob Baker
This article provides comprehensive best practices and deployment guidelines
for the Sun ONE Portal Server 3.0 product, with a specific emphasis
on the rewriter component of the Secure Remote Access Gateway (SRAP).
The SRAP is a portal server add-on that enables end users to access
enterprise web content securely, using only a standard web browser with
a Java virtual machine. The article highlights best practices for the
SRAP and presents methods for configuring it to leverage existing corporate
intranet content while enabling flexibility for future growth. These
practices allow users to fully utilize this unique feature of the Sun
ONE Portal Server product. Detailed knowledge needed for complex Sun
ONE Portal Server product deployments involving a vast array of aggregated
content and content types are also provided.
-
Sun's Quality, Engineering, and Deployment (QED) Test Train Model
(August 2002)
-by George Wood
The why and how of Sun's integration and interoperability testing process,
known internally as the Solaris OE Train, are explained in this article.
This long conducted software testing program supports each Solaris Operating
Environment (Solaris OE) release and have recently been expanded to
include rigorous integration and interoperability testing of key third
party software from VERITAS Software and Oracle Corporation, as well
as Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) software.
Resource Management
-
Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition-Configuration Use Cases and Guidelines
(July 2003)
-by Charu Chaubal
This article describes a set of use cases for configuration of Sun Grid
Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 (Sun ONE GEEE) software. It is meant
to be a starting point from which intermediate to advanced Sun One GEEE
software administrators can create a customized configuration for their
particular environment. It is important to realize that each environment
has unique requirements, and that the greatest benefits of the Sun ONE
GEEE software policy module are obtained by fine-tuning a configuration
once the results of the initial configuration have been assessed. Moreover,
as the environment evolves and the needs of the enterprise change, additional
tuning on an ongoing basis will probably be appropriate. This article
assumes the reader has some familiarity with the features and parameters
of Sun ONE GEEE.
-
Building a Global Compute Grid - Two Examples Using the Sun ONE Grid
Engine and the Globus Toolkit (April 2003)
-by Charu Chaubal & Radoslaw Rafinski
Currently, much research activity is based around the implementation
of advanced resource sharing networks, which are geographically distributed.
Much of this research has taken advantage of the Globus Toolkit, an
open source toolkit provided by the Globus organization. In this Sun
BluePrints article, the problem of building a compute grid using the
Globus Toolkit and how it can best be integrated with Sun ONE Grid Engine
are discussed. Two case studies in the academic arena are presented.
-
A New Open Resource Management Architecture in the Sun HPC ClusterTools
Environment (November 2002)
-by Steve Sistare
This article presents a new architecture for the integration of the
Sun HPC ClusterTools parallel computing environment with distributed
resource management systems such as the Sun Grid Engine system. The
architecture enables a tight integration to be achieved with multiple
distributed resource management systems in a uniform and extensible
framework, which means that any of the popular management systems may
be used to launch and monitor Sun MPI parallel jobs. Unlike previously
available loose integrations, tight integrations allow a resource manager
to accurately measure resources used by the parallel processes, to terminate
jobs that exceed resource limits, and to generate accurate accounting
information for multi-process jobs Tight integrations are implemented
with Sun Grid Engine software, PBS, and LSF. Correct resource accounting
with this tight integration is demonstrated and launching and debugging
Sun MPI jobs using each system is detailed.
-
Resource Management in the Solaris 9 Operating Environment
(September 2002)
-Stuart J. Lawson
The
Solaris Resource Manager (Solaris RM) enables the resources of a
single instance of the operating environment to be shared in an arbitrarily
fine-grained manner, among consolidated or partitioned applications
or system users. The Solaris RM can be used such that a guaranteed level
of service can be given, where appropriate. In this article, Stuart
Lawson describes the three core resource management approaches in the
Solaris 9 Operating Environment and offers best practices for setting
up a resource management framework.
-
Introduction to the Cluster Grid - Part 2 (September 2002)
-James Coomer and Charu Chaubal
Grid computing is a rapidly emerging technology that can be implemented
through the use of the
Sun Cluster
Grid software stack. In the second part of a two-part series, this
article takes the next step in describing the Sun Cluster Grid design
phase which includes information gathering, design decisions, installation
and management considerations, and example implementations.
-
Introduction to the Cluster Grid - Part 1 (August 2002)
-by James Coomer and Charu Chaubal
Grid computing is a rapidly emerging technology which can be implemented
today through the use of the Sun Cluster Grid software stack. Part one
of this two part series provides an introduction to grid architecture,
and discusses how the architecture can be applied to existing compute
environments using the Sun Cluster Grid software stack. Full treatment
of the cluster grid design and implementation will be provided in the
September BluePrints Online article, "Introduction to the Cluster Grid
- Part 2".
-
Enterprise Management Systems Part II: Enterprise Quality of Service
(QoS) Provisioning and Integration (May 2002)
-by Deepak Kakadia with Dr. Tony G. Thomas, Dr. Sridhar Vembu, and
Jay Ramasamy of AdventNet, Inc.
Building on the concepts of how to best manage services in Service Driven
Networks, this second article of the two-part series describes how to
integrate Sun Management Center 3.0 software and AdventNet WebNMS 2.3
software to provision end-to-end services and provide a complete solution
that can effectively manage a multivendor environment.
-
Enterprise Management Systems Part I: Architectures and Standards
(April 2002)
-by Deepak Kakadia, Dr. Tony Thomas, Dr. Sridhar Vembu and Jay Ramasamy
The first in a two-part series focused on managing services in Service
Driven Networks (SDNs), this article presents a summary of typical architectures
and a clarification of the standards to help the reader better understand
the implementations of various third-party vendor EMSystems solutions.
-
Enterprise Quality of Service (QoS) Part II: Enterprise Solution
using Solaris Bandwidth Manager 1.6 Software (March 2002)
-by Deepak Kakadia
Deepak's article is the second in a two-part series that focuses on
Quality of Service (QoS) issues. This article explores possible approaches
to deploying an Enterprise Quality of Service solution using Solaris
Bandwidth Manager 1.6 software. It also presents an integrated close-loop
solution using Sun Management Center 3.0 software, which exploits API's
offered by both products and creates a policy-based QoS solution for
the enterprise.
-
Enterprise Quality of Service (QoS): Part I - Internals (February
2002)
-by Deepak Kakadia
In a two-article series, distinguished Sun BluePrints author works to
clear the confusion surrounding QoS by explaining what it is, how it
is implemented, and how to use it in an enterprise. This month's part
one article details the basics surrounding the "what" and "how" of implementation,
as well as the internals of QoS. Be sure to return to Sun BluePrints
OnLine next month for his second article which will focus on how to
deploy QoS in an enterprise.
-
Managing Systems and Resources in HPC Environments (February
2002)
-by Omar Hassaine
Written for the compute-intensive site administrator and user, this
article highlights the benefits, presents preferred practices, and provides
useful recommendations for using enterprise server tools and features
available in commercial environments.
-
Issues in Selecting a Job Management System (January 2002)
-by Omar Hassaine
This article addresses the problems usually faced when selecting the
most appropriate job management system (JMS) to deploy at HPC sites.
The article describes the three most popular offerings available on
the Sun platform and provides a classification of the most important
features to use as a basis in selecting a JMS. A JMS comparison and
useful set of recommendations are included.
-
Using Solaris Resource Manager with Solaris PC NetLink Software -
Part 2 (June 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Don presents part 2 of this article in which he includes an experiment
that is performed to determine a useful range of shares that can be
allocated to the Solaris PC NetLink software by the Solaris Resource
Manager software.
-
Using Solaris Resource Manager with Solaris PC NetLink Software -
Part 1 (May 2000)
-by Don DeVitt
Don discusses the use of Solaris PC NetLink with Solaris Resource Manager.
-
Tracing Resource Consumption of Solaris PC NetLink Software Users
(December 1999)
-by Don DeVitt
Shows the Solaris Operating Environment commands and the Solaris PC
NetLink software commands for determining which PC clients are consuming
resources via Solaris PC NetLink software.
-
Policy-Based Networks (October 1999)
-by Jean-Christophe Martin
Talks about the network policy concept in greater depth, and see how
it is implemented in the Solaris Bandwidth Manager software.
-
Modelling the Behavior of Solaris Resource Manager Software
(August 1999)
-by Enterprise Engineering
How Solaris Resource Manager software achieves dynamic resource consumption
by using a fair share CPU scheduling algorithm.
-
Solaris Resource Manager: Resource Assignment (August 1999)
-by Richard McDougall
This article explains how users are assigned resource lnodes and under
what circum-stances they change to ensure that resource limits are allocated
correctly.
-
Solaris Bandwidth Manager (June 1999)
-by Evert Hoogendoorn
Evert explains the benefits of Solaris Bandwidth Manager.
-
Load Sharing Facility (June 1999)
-by Tom Bialaski
How LSF can be used as a resource management tool for running technical
batch applications such as simulations.
-
Solaris Resource Manager - Decay Factors and Parameters (April
1999)
-by Richard McDougall
More on Solaris Resource Manager with the Decay Factors and Parameters.
-
Solaris Resource Manager - Decay and Scheduler Parameters
(April 1999)
-by Richard McDougall
Continues with the topic of Solaris Resource Manager Decay.
-
An Overview of Methodology (April 1999)
-by Adrian Cockcroft
An in-depth overview on Service Level Definitions and Interactions and
Resource Management Control Loop.
-
Dynamic Reconfiguration (April 1999)
-by Enrique Vargas
The fundamentals of Dynamic Reconfiguration.
-
Managing NFS Workloads (April 1999)
-by Richard McDougall, Adrian Cockcroft and Evert Hoogendoorn
Demonstration of the usage and management of NFS.
-
Solaris Resource Manager (April 1999)
-by Richard McDougall
Overview and examples of Solaris Resource Manager functions.
-
Migrating to the Solaris Operating System: Migrating From Tru64 UNIX
(November 2003)
-by Ken Pepple, Brian Down, and David Levy
This article presents a fictional case study that illustrates the methodology,
tools, and best practices used to migrate a Tru64 environment to a Solaris
environment.
BR> This article is the complete tenth chapter of the Sun BluePrints
book, "Migrating to the Solaris Operating System", by Ken Pepple,
Brian Down, and David Levy, which is available at our
Sun BluePrints publication page, amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble
bookstores. This article targets an intermediate audience.
-
Migrating to the Solaris Operating System: Migration Strategies
(September 2003)
-by Ken Pepple, Brian Down, and David Levy
This article defines the most important terms in migration, and differentiates
between these terms. In addition, it presents migration strategies,
the benefits and risks of each strategy, and the appropriateness of
each strategy for various situations. This article is ideal for a beginning
to intermediate audience.
This article is the complete third chapter of the Sun BluePrints book,
"Migrating to the Solaris Operating System", which will be available
at
Sun
BluePrints Publication page, the amazon.com website, and Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstores at the end of October, 2003.
Society
Groupthink :
Two Party System
as Polyarchy :
Corruption of Regulators :
Bureaucracies :
Understanding Micromanagers
and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :
Harvard Mafia :
Diplomatic Communication
: Surviving a Bad Performance
Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as
Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience :
Who Rules America :
Neoliberalism
: The Iron
Law of Oligarchy :
Libertarian Philosophy
Quotes
War and Peace
: Skeptical
Finance : John
Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand :
Oscar Wilde :
Otto Von Bismarck :
Keynes :
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Skeptics :
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quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes :
Random IT-related quotes :
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Bulletin:
Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient
markets hypothesis :
Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 :
Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :
Vol 23, No.10
(October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments :
Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 :
Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 :
Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan
(Win32/Crilock.A) :
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as intelligence collection hubs :
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Copyleft Problems
Bulletin, 2004 :
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No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult :
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of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05
(May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method :
Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law
History:
Fifty glorious years (1950-2000):
the triumph of the US computer engineering :
Donald Knuth : TAoCP
and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman
: Linus Torvalds :
Larry Wall :
John K. Ousterhout :
CTSS : Multix OS Unix
History : Unix shell history :
VI editor :
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Solaris : MS DOS
: Programming Languages History :
PL/1 : Simula 67 :
C :
History of GCC development :
Scripting Languages :
Perl history :
OS History : Mail :
DNS : SSH
: CPU Instruction Sets :
SPARC systems 1987-2006 :
Norton Commander :
Norton Utilities :
Norton Ghost :
Frontpage history :
Malware Defense History :
GNU Screen :
OSS early history
Classic books:
The Peter
Principle : Parkinson
Law : 1984 :
The Mythical Man-Month :
How to Solve It by George Polya :
The Art of Computer Programming :
The Elements of Programming Style :
The Unix Hater’s Handbook :
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Most popular humor pages:
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: ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? :
The Perl Purity Test :
Object oriented programmers of all nations
: Financial Humor :
Financial Humor Bulletin,
2008 : Financial
Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related
Humor : Programming Language Humor :
Goldman Sachs related humor :
Greenspan humor : C Humor :
Scripting Humor :
Real Programmers Humor :
Web Humor : GPL-related Humor
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IDS Humor :
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Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church
: Richard Stallman Related Humor :
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humor : PseudoScience Related Humor :
Networking Humor :
Shell Humor :
Financial Humor Bulletin,
2011 : Financial
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Financial Humor Bulletin,
2013 : Java Humor : Software
Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor :
Education Humor : IBM
Humor : Assembler-related Humor :
VIM Humor : Computer
Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled
to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer
Humor
The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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