Solaris Training Overview

This course will teach the commands and methods needed to setup and manage a Solaris version 8, 9, or 10 system. The course will also use a problem solving approach in the lab exercises to teach system administrators advanced topics, for long-term mangement of the system.

Systems: Solaris version 8,9, or 10, running on Sparc or x86/x64 configurations

Solaris Training Prerequisites

It is assumed that the participant has successfully completed the Fundamentals of Solaris course, or has equivalent system time as a user.

Solaris Training Course duration

This course normally requires five (5) days, approximately 60% lecture, and 40% lab time.

Solaris Training Course Objectives

On completion of this course, a system administrator should be able to install, update, and boot the Solaris operating system; set up user accounts and directories; prepare queues for use; perform backups for integrity and performance reasons; monitor the system for performance and do basic setup of network software and capabilities.

Solaris Training Course outline

Advanced System Concepts for System Administrators

Process concepts

        Shell command usage and review
        Optimizing system help information
        System administrator functions
        Using the root account
        Using the admintool/smc graphical interfaces
        Manipulating system default environment files

System Installation and Updating

        Installation types and methods
        Installing the Solaris operating system
        Upgrading to a newer version of Solaris
        Maintaining the system via patches
        Adding additional products to the system (packages)
        Reconfiguring the Solaris kernel via parameters

Startup and Shutdown

        Manipulating EEPROM commands and parameters
        Using the OpenBoot PROM commands
        Default bootstrap
        Boot to single-user mode
        Startup methods and procedures
        Adding procedures to the startup mechanism
        Shutdown methods and control

Managing of System Users

        UID and GID concepts
        Creation of a user account
        Security through password aging
        Controlling access by groups
        Login sequence
        Setting up user environment files
        Using and maintaining user login files
        Viewing and controlling running processes
        Basic setup of the Common Desktop Environment
                dtlogin (login manager)
                dtsession (session manager)
                dtwm (workspace manager)
                (dtwm.fp) front panel layout
                (.fp and .dt files) controls and actions

Managing Printer Queues

        Creation of an execution print queue
        Commands to manipulate queues
        Commands to manipulate jobs in queues

Managing Disk and Tape Volumes

        Commands to manipulate disks/filesystems
        partitioning disk surfaces with format
        creating ufs file systems (newfs)
        manipulating file system structures
        verifying file system structures with fsck
        making file systems available to software (mount)
        Commands to manipulate tape volumes:
                tar utility
                ufsdump and ufsrestore utilities
                mt control program
        Using the zfs filesystem capabilities (Solaris 10)

Monitoring System Activity

        Informational Utilities
        The vmstat utility
        The iostat utility
        The sar utility
        The netstat utility
        Maintaining swap and paging space(s)
        Building and using the top facility

Maintaining System Integrity

        Login and user accounting
        Command/process level accounting
        Using cron tables
        Creating and Using zones

Network Setup and Configuration

        TCP/IP address selection
        Host names and related files
        Configuring network devices
        Network testing with ping
        Network utilities: telnet, rlogin, rcp, rsh