13 System Administration

13.1 Overview

Digital UNIX Version 4.0 supports all the customary UNIX system administration utilities from OSF/1 Version 2.0, including tar, dump/restore, and dd for performing backups and restores; df, du, scu, radisk, and disklabel for managing disks and disk usage; tunefs, newfs, and fsck for managing file systems; dbx for performing kernel debugging; and adduser for creating user accounts. For more information on these utilities, see the System Administration guide and the appropriate reference page for each utility.

In addition to providing system administration utilities from the OSF, Digital UNIX adds a number of other useful Digital-specific utilities, such as the following:

SysMan Tools
Software Subset Management Utility setld
Event Management Utility (DECevent)
Analysis Tools with Object Modification
Enhanced Kernel Debugging
Dynamically Loadable Subsystems
Dynamic System Configuration
Dynamic Device Recognition
Dataless Management Services
Monitoring Performance History
Bootable Tape

The following sections describe the Digital-specific utilities.

13.2 SysMan Tools

With the release of Digital UNIX Version 4.0, the SysMan Tools become the preferred system administration utilities for the operating system.

SysMan makes your job as a system administrator easier by providing you with a graphical user interface for each of your adminstration tasks, such as installation, configuration, daily administration, monitoring, kernel/process tuning, storage management, and more. These utilities can be accessed through the System_Admin folder in the CDE Application Manager.

While the SysMan Tools were designed to take advantage of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), most of the utilities will work outside of CDE with other window or display managers. Users who are not running CDE can access the utilities individually by invoking them from the command line, provided the DISPLAY environment variable is properly set on their systems. For instance:

# netconfig

It should be noted that many of the SysMan Tools are also available in text-based interfaces that can be displayed on systems that only have character-cell displays. See Section 13.2.2 for more information.

13.2.1 SysMan Utilities

SysMan offers the following system administration utilities:

Note
The contents of each folder in SysMan can vary depending on which subsets you have installed.

Configuration Checklist
You can use these applications to set up your system for general use after Digital UNIX has been installed. See Section 12.3 for more information.
Configuration Applications
You can use these applications to perform:
- Network Configuration with netconfig
- BIND Configuration with bindconfig
- NFS Configuration with nfsconfig
- Mail Configuration with mailconfig
- Print Configuration with printconfig
- Disk Configuration with diskconfig
- LAT Configuration with latsetup
- NIS Configuration with nissetup
Daily Administration Applications
After a system has been configured, you can use these applications to perform routine administrative tasks:
- Account Manager with dxaccounts
- Archiver with dxarchiver
- File Sharing with dxfileshare
- Host Manager with dxhosts
- License Manager with dxlicenses
- Shutdown Manager with dxshutdown
- System Information with dxsysinfo
- Audit Manager with dxaudit
- Power Management with dxpower
- DHCP Configuration with dhcpconf
- Display Window with dxdw
Monitoring and Tuning Applications
While a system is running, you can use these applications to monitor and tune its resources:
- Kernel Tuner with dxkerneltuner
- Process Tuner with dxproctuner
Storage Management Applications
While a system is running, you can use these applications to configure its file systems:
- Bootable Tape with btcreate
- Prestoserve with dxpresto
- Logical Storage Manager with dxlsm
Tools
Use these applications to check the status of the system:
- Network Statistics with netstat
- Virtual Memory Statistics with vmstat
- I/O Statistics with iostat
- Who? with who

For more information on the SysMan Tools, please click on the Welcome to SysMan icon in the System_Admin folder.

13.2.2 Text-Based Interfaces

Text-based interfaces are provided for those users who prefer to use a non-graphical interface or cannot display a graphical interface because they do not have the necessary hardware.

For instance, a set of text-based, menu-driven interfaces can be accessed through the setup utility:

# /usr/sbin/setup


 

Use this menu to set up your system and network.  When you
select an item, you will be asked a series of questions.

 

For more information about the items on the menu and the
questions you must answer, see the System Administration
and Network Administration guides.

 


 

         1) Network Configuration Application
         2) BIND Configuration Application
         3) NIS - Network Information Service
         4) NFS Configuration Application
         5) License Manager
         6) Mail Configuration Application
         7) LAT - Local Area Transport
         8) UUCP - UNIX-to-UNIX Copy System
         9) NTP - Network Time Protocol
        10) Printer Configuration Application
        11) Security (BSD/C2)
        12) Security Auditing
        13) Prestoserve I/O Acceleration
        14) Update Administration Utility
        15) Graphical UI Selection Facility
        16) Exit
Enter the menu item number that you want:

The same menu-driven utilities can be accessed individually by invoking the necessary application from the command line with a -ui menu switch. For example:

# netconfig -ui menu


 

                        Main Menu

 

                1  Network Interfaces

 

                2  Daemons

 

                3  Configuration Files

 

                4  Static Routes

 

                5  IP Router

 

                0  Exit

 


 

Enter the number of your choice:

The text-based command line interfaces for each command can be accessed by invoking the necessary application from the command line with a -ui cli switch. The ns in the following example would be numbers indicating the hosts' IP addresses:

# netconfig -ui cli -host list


 

host1:
name                localhost
address             nnn.n.n.n

 

host2:
name                elmo
address             nn.nnn.nn.nnn

 

host3:
alias               presto
comment             Bind Nameserver
name                presto.federation.com
address             nn.nnn.nnn.n

 

host4:
alias               voyager
comment             System name
name                voyager.federation.com
address             nn.nnn.nnn.nnn

 

#

More information about these interfaces can be found in the reference pages for each utility that supports them.

13.3 The setld Utility

The setld utility allows system administrators to install, inventory, and delete software subsets that are formatted according to the guidelines set forth in the Guide to Preparing Product Kits. For example, a system administrator might use the setld utility to install optional subsets that were not installed during the full or update installation of the operating system.

Digital requires application programmers to use the Digital kitting process when packaging software subsets designed to be installed on Digital UNIX systems and explains, in the Guide to Preparing Product Kits how to create kits that are compatible with the setld utility.

For more information on the setld utility, see the Guide to Preparing Product Kits the Installation Guide and the setld(8) reference page.

13.4 DECevent Event Management Utility

DECevent is an event-management utility for Digital UNIX that translates system event log files into formatted ASCII reports. DECevent supports both a command-line and a graphical user interface (GUI). Event report information can be filtered by event types, date, time, and event entry numbers. Event report formats can be selected from full disclosure to very brief information messages. The -i (include) and the -x (exclude) options provide a wide range of selection criteria to narrow down the focus of event searches.

The DECevent utility also offers an interactive command shell interface, accessible with the command --int, that recognizes the same commands used at the command line. From the interactive command shell users can customize, change, or save system settings.

DECevent uses the system event log file /usr/adm/binary.errlog as the default input file for event reporting, unless another file is specified

Unless the event log file privileges have been changed to allow all users to read the event log file, which is a rare practice, Digital UNIX users need superuser privileges to use DECevent.

For more information on DECevent, see the DECevent Translation and Reporting Utility.

13.5 Analysis Tools with Object Modification

The Analysis Tools with Object Modification (ATOM) Advanced Developer's Kit, an optional subset that ships with Digital UNIX, enables programmers to perform standard program and performance analysis (procedure tracing, instruction profiling, data address tracing). For more information on ATOM, see the PostScript documentation that ships in the /usr/lib/atom/doc directory and the atom(1) and atomtools(5) reference pages.

13.6 Enhanced Kernel Debugging

The dbx debugger, as it comes from the OSF, supports a read-only examination of a locally running kernel, as well as the debugging of kernel core files through the use of the -k switch.

Digital added the following two features to dbx:

A -remote switch to enable the remote, breakpoint debugging of a running kernel across a serial line
The protocol is multibyte, and cashing as well as a multithread extension are supported.
A front-end to dbx, called kdbx, which supports not only the entire suite of dbx commands, but a C library API that allows programmers to write C programs to extract and format kernel data more easily than they can with just dbx -k or dbx -remote.
The kdbx front-end ships with several ready-made extensions in the file /usr/var/kdbx.

For more information on kernel debugging, see the guide Kernel Debugging.

13.7 Dynamically Loadable Subsystems

Digital UNIX Version 4.0 introduces the ability to package, load, and manage kernel subsystems on Digital UNIX systems.

Instructions on how to write and package loadable device drivers so that they will install and execute on Digital UNIX Version 4.0 systems are discussed in the guide Writing Device Drivers: Tutorial. The Programmer's Guide explains how to write and package loadable kernel subsystems so that they too will install and execute on Digital UNIX Version 4.0 systems. The Programmer's Guide also discusses in some detail the framework that supports the dynamic configuration and tuning of kernel attributes.

You should refer to those guides for more specific information on how to write and package loadable drivers and kernel subsystems, as well as how to construct an attribute table.

13.8 Dynamic System Configuration

In an effort to simplify system tuning, Digital UNIX Version 4.0 allows you to change certain kernel attributes without having to edit the the system configuration file or the file param.c, and without having to rebuild and reboot a target kernel for the changes to take affect. Through the use of attribute tables, each kernel subsystem--whether a Digital UNIX kernel subsystem or one developed by a third-party vendor--can define kernel attributes that can be changed at run-time by using the /sbin/sysconfig command with the -r option (if the kernel attribute supports run-time reconfiguration), or at boot-time by adding or modifying entries in the kernel attribute database, /etc/sysconfigtab and rebooting.

For more information, see the System Administration guide and the System Tuning and Performance Management guide .

13.9 Dynamic Device Recognition

Dynamic Device Recognition is a framework for describing the operating parameters and characteristics of SCSI devices to the SCSI CAM I/O subsystem. You can use DDR to include new and changed SCSI devices into your environment without having to reboot the operating system.

Beginning with Digital UNIX Version 4.0, DDR is preferred over the current static method for recognizing SCSI devices, because DDR will not disrupt user services and processes as happens with static methods of device recognition.

13.10 Dataless Management Services

Digital UNIX Version 4.0 supports dataless management services (DMS) which allows the root, /usr, and /var partitions of a system to live on a DMS server and be served over the network to a DMS client. The root and /var partitions are unique to each DMS client, while /usr is shared. The DMS client swaps and dumps locally, and can mount staff areas locally using NFS.

DMS reduces disk needs and simplifies system administration, since administrators can administer and backup their DMS clients on the DMS server. The code was developed by Digital.

13.11 Monitoring Performance History

The Monitoring Performance History (MPH) utility gathers timely and accurate inofrmation on the reliability and availability of the Digital UNIX operating system and associated platforms.

The MPH utility was previously included on the Complementary Products CD-ROM. This utility is now included on the Digital UNIX Operating System CD-ROM.

For more information, see the Installation Guide.

13.12 Bootable Tape

Digital UNIX Version 4.0 introduces the ability to create a standalone bootable tape of the operating system. You can boot from the bootable tape as easily as you can boot from a CD-ROM or a RIS area, but without the overhead of selecting or installing subsets. When you restore your system from the bootable tape, you must reconfigure your system using the System Management applications.

See the btcreate(8) and btextract(8) reference pages for more information.