About This Guide

This manual describes the tasks you perform in order to administer the Compaq Tru64 UNIX (formerly DIGITAL UNIX) operating system running on a workstation or server.

Audience

This guide is intended for system administrators. Administrators should have knowledge of the operating system concepts and commands, and the hardware and software configuration. Experienced administrators are expected to be very familiar with UNIX commands and utilities

New and Changed Features

This revision of the manual documents the following new features, changed features, and retiring interfaces.

The Common Desktop Environment GUI

The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) is the preferred operating system interface and the SysMan graphical user interface, which runs under the CDE, becomes the preferred method of system administration. The SysMan Checklist is the preferred interface for system configuration and customization. See Chapter 2 for more information about the interfaces. The graphical interfaces will run under any X-compliant windowing environment. Graphical user interfaces have on-line help volumes describing how the interfaces are used.

New Information In this Book

This manual includes the following new topics:

The following chapters were revised in the V4.0 and V4.0B releases to document new features and to correct documentation errors:

New and Changed Information Provided Outside this Book

The following new and changed information can be found in detail in the reference pages and supplementary sources this information is not provided in this book in detail:

Changed Information

The chapter on using the setld utility to install and manage software has been moved from this manual to the Installation Guide.

The information about adding third party SCSI devices has been replaced with Dynamic Device Recognition (DDR), which performs the same functions. DDR is described in Chapter 6.

The chapter on AdvFS has been removed. Refer to the reference pages and to the AdvFS Administration guide.

The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) appendix has been removed from the manual because the LVM functionality has been retired from the operating system. Most support for the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) was retired in a previous release of the operating system. Volume management functions are now provided by the Logical Storage Manager (LSM) as described in Chapter 8 and the Logical Storage Manager guide. All LVM functionality has been disabled with the exception of the support necessary to encapsulate LVM volumes under LSM.

Warning

In a future release of the operating system, remaining support for LVM encapsulation will be dropped and any data remaining under control of LVM software will be lost.

A new appendix has been created for the information on system exercisers. See Appendix F.

Unchanged Information

With the exception of minor documentation problem fixes, the information in the following chapters and appendixes have not changed since the last version of the manual:

Organizational Changes

Chapter 1 has been expanded and several chapters have been renamed.

Organization

This guide consists of 13 chapters and six appendixes:

Chapter 1 Defines the tasks that make up the job of a Digital UNIX system administrator and points to sources of information about these tasks in this manual and other places.
Chapter 2 Describes methods and tools for system administration tasks.
Chapter 3 Explains how to start up and shut down the operating system. Additionally, explains how to recover from an unexpected shutdown.
Chapter 4 Describes how to customize certain operating system files and diverse operating system components in order to tailor the operating system environment.
Chapter 5 Describes how to dynamically and statically configure an operating system kernel.
Chapter 6 Describes how to administer the SCSI Dynamic Device Recognition capabilities of the operating system. Additionally, it explains how to administer the terminals and other mass storage devices that are configured into the operating system.
Chapter 7 Explains how to administer the UNIX file system (UFS).
Chapter 8 Explains how to administer the Logical Storage Manager (LSM).
Chapter 9 Explains how to administer accounts for operating system users and groups of users.
Chapter 10 Explains how to administer the print services of the operating system.
Chapter 11 Explains how to administer the archiving services of the operating system in order to backup and restore mass storage devices.
Chapter 12 Explains how to administer the resource accounting services of the operating system.
Chapter 13 Explains how to administer the error logging services of the operating system.
Appendix A Contains information about device mnemonics.
Appendix B Contains information about the SCSI/CAM Utility Program.
Appendix C Contains information about the CI bus and the Hierarchical Storage Controller (HSC) configuration.
Appendix D Contains information about the uerf event logger, a component that will be retired in a future version of the operating system.
Appendix E Contains information about platform-specific hardware devices and features that are supported in this release, such as hardware partitions on the on the Alphaserver GS140 (8400). Instructions for installing and configuring features is also provided
Appendix F Contains information on testing system components using exercisers.

Related Documents

The Installation Guide guide describes how to install Tru64 UNIX. The Network Administration guide describes how to set up, configure, and troubleshoot your network. The System Configuration and Tuning guide provides information on tuning the kernel. The Logical Storage Manager and AdvFS Administration guides provide information on file system configuration and maintenance

The printed version of the Tru64 UNIX documentation set is color coded to help specific audiences quickly find the books that meet their needs. (You can order the printed documentation from Compaq.) This color coding is reinforced with the use of an icon on the spines of books. The following list describes this convention:

Audience Icon Color Code
General users G Blue
System and network administrators S Red
Programmers P Purple
Device driver writers D Orange
Reference page users R Green

Some books in the documentation set help meet the needs of several audiences. For example, the information in some system books is also used by programmers. Keep this in mind when searching for information on specific topics.

The Documentation Overview provides information on all of the books in the Tru64 UNIX documentation set.

Reader's Comments

Compaq welcomes any comments and suggestions you have on this and other Tru64 UNIX manuals.

You can send your comments in the following ways:

Please include the following information along with your comments:

The Tru64 UNIX Publications group cannot respond to system problems or technical support inquiries. Please address technical questions to your local system vendor or to the appropriate Compaq technical support office. Information provided with the software media explains how to send problem reports to Compaq.

Conventions

This guide uses the following conventions:

%
$

A percent sign represents the C shell system prompt. A dollar sign represents the system prompt for the Bourne, Korn, and POSIX shells.

#

A number sign represents the superuser prompt.

file

Italic (slanted) type indicates variable values, placeholders, and function argument names.

[ | ]
{ | }

In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional and braces indicate items that are required. Vertical bars separating items inside brackets or braces indicate that you choose one item from among those listed.

colored text

In syntax definitions, literal elements are colored green. Variable values, placeholders, and function argument names are colored red. No special colored text is used outside of syntax descriptions.

. . .

In syntax definitions, a horizontal ellipsis indicates that the preceding item can be repeated one or more times.


.
.
.

A vertical ellipsis indicates that a portion of an example that would normally be present is not shown.

cat(1)

A cross-reference to a reference page includes the appropriate section number in parentheses. For example, cat(1) indicates that you can find information on the cat command in Section 1 of the reference pages.

[Ctrl/x]

This symbol indicates that you hold down the first named key while pressing the key or mouse button that follows the slash. In examples, this key combination is enclosed in a box (for example, [Ctrl/C] ).

[Return]

In an example, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press that key.