Solaris administration commands

This is a list of non-trivial Solaris commands and can be used as a cheat sheet or link collection. If you find errors or want to add something please post a comment below!

Debugging

• mdb - Analysing core files:

  $ mdb core.xxxx        # Open core file
  > ::status             # Print core summary
  
  > ::stacks             # Backtrace
  > ::stacks -v          # Backtrace verbose
  
  > ::quit
  

• Changing Solaris Kernel Parameters:

  # mdb -kw
  > maxusers/W 500
  > $q
  

• Library Dependencies of a running process:

  pldd <pid>

• Details of Memory Usage - pmap:

  # pmap 19463
  19463:  -sh
  08047000       4K rw---    [ stack ]
  08050000      76K r-x--  /sbin/sh
  08073000       4K rw---  /sbin/sh
  08074000      16K rw---    [ heap ]
  FEE60000      24K r-x--  /lib/libgen.so.1
  FEE76000       4K rw---  /lib/libgen.so.1
  FEE80000    1072K r-x--  /lib/libc.so.1
  FEF90000      24K rwx--    [ anon ]
  FEF9C000      32K rw---  /lib/libc.so.1
  FEFA4000       8K rw---  /lib/libc.so.1
  FEFC4000     156K r-x--  /lib/ld.so.1
  FEFF0000       4K rwx--    [ anon ]
  FEFF7000       4K rwxs-    [ anon ]
  FEFFB000       8K rwx--  /lib/ld.so.1
  FEFFD000       4K rwx--  /lib/ld.so.1
   total      1440K
  

• kstat API: Accessing Solaris kernel statistics using C-API
• infocmp - Compare terminal settings: This is not Solaris specific, but you need it quite often.

  infocmp -L

• DTraceToolkit: Useful dtrace scripts for all types of debugging tasks.
• How to kill a Solaris machine

Network

• snoop vs. tcpdump: How to use snoop:

  snoop -v -d qfe0 -x0 host 192.168.1.87
  snoop -v -d qfe0 -x0 port 22
  

• Show installed NIcs:

  dladm show-dev 
  dladm show-link

• iSCSI on Solaris
• Find unknown NIC: When you do not know the network interface name and don't want to guess: simple plumb all unplumbed NICs with

  ifconfig plumb -a

Legacy

• Extend 256 file descriptor limit for 32bit binaries: This requires preloading a helper library

  % ulimit -n 256
  
  % echo 'rlim_fd_max/D' | mdb -k | awk '{ print $2 }'  # determine allowed maximum
  65536
  
  % ulimit -n 65536
  
  % export LD_PRELOAD_32=/usr/lib/extendedFILE.so.1

• Determine if Solaris is 32 or 64 bit:

  isainfo -b

Monitoring

• SEtoolkit: Performance data gathering script collection based on orcallator.
• Orcallator: Provides a variety of Solaris specific probes.
• NICstat: Source (C) for a monitoring NICs in Solaris. vmstat/iostat like command line client.
• Munin on Solaris

Package Installation

• Resolve File to Package:

  pkgchk -l -p /usr/bin/ls

Service Management

• svcs - List Service Infos

  svcs -a              # List all installed services and their current state
  svcs -d <service>    # List all dependencies of a service
  svcs -D <service>    # List who is depending on a service
  svcs -xv             # List why something is failed
  

• svcadm - Control Services

  svcadm enable <service>
  svcadm disable <service>
  svcadm refresh <service>    # like init reload
  svcadm restart <service>
  
  svcadm clear <service>      # Clear errors: try starting again...
  

General

• Jumpstart HowTo
• SUNWdhcs DHCPd Setup
• Sun Packaging Guide
• Solaris Event Notification API
• Suns OpenBoot PROM reference manual
• Solaris IPv6 Administration Guide
• ALOM/iLOM - Get OS Console:

  start /SP/console

  If the console is already in use you can kill it with

  stop /SP/console

• ALOM - Set/Get Infos from CLI: When you want to fetch infos or change settings from a running system (e.g. from scripts) you can use the scadm (or rscadm) command. Examples:

  # Show log
  scadm loghistory
  
  # Send a normal or critical console message
  scadm send_event "Important"
  scadm send_event -c "Critical!"
  
  # Dump all or single settings
  scadm show 
  scadm show sc_customerinfo
  

• Dump HW Infos:

  prtconf -v

• ZFS Cheat Sheet:

  # Analysis
  zpool list             # List pools
  zpool status -v        # Tree like summary of all disks
  zpool iostat 1         # iostat for all ZFS pools
  zpool history          # Show recent commands
  
  # Handling properties
  zfs get all z0
  zfs get all z0/data
  zfs set sharenfs=on z0/data
  zfs set sharesmb=on z0/data
  zfs set compression=on z0/data
  
  # Mounting 
  zfs mount               # List all ZFS mount points
  zfs set mountpoint=/export/data z0/data
  zfs mount /export/data
  zfs unmount /export/data
  
  # NFS Shares
  zfs set sharenfs=on z1/backup/mydata         # Enable as NFS share
  zfs get sharenfs z1/backup/mydata            # List share options
  zfs sharenfs="<options>" z1/backup/mydata    # Overwrite share options
  
  # Create and load snapshots
  zfs snapshot z0/data@backup-20120601
  zfs rollback z0/data@backup-20120601