Are you looking for the one management tool that will manage your local and network resources from a single Solaris workstation? If so, SunSoft's new product might be just what you're looking for. The Solstice System Management package is a suite of tools and supporting technologies that make it possible for system administrators to effectively manage system information in a network environment.
The Solstice System Management package enables administrators to
To help administrators accomplish these tasks, the Solstice System Management package includes the Solstice System Management Base 2.1, a collection of Motif graphical-user interface tools. These tools include the OpenWindows interfaces for the Database, Host, Serial Port, User, and Group Managers, as shown in Figure A.
One of the interesting features of the Solstice System Manager is the requirement that you create users in a special administration group (sysadmin, GID 14) to use the Solstice system managers. This means that non-root users in the sysadmin group can modify system data.
When you install the Solstice System Management package from CD-ROM, you're required to log in as a member of the sysadmin user group other than root. If you try to run the install script admin_install from the CD-ROM as the root user, the script will abort with the error message
ERROR: Program should not be run by root.
User must be in group 14 (sysadmin) for machines you wish to install
Once you've created a user for the purpose of using Solstice, log in as that user and run the install script admin_install from the CD-ROM. You'll see several choices for configuring the Solstice System Manager as a server or client. If you configure Solstice for sharing across your network, both SPARC and x86 executables install for your Solstice server.
Although the Solstice System Manager 1.0 is intended for use with Solaris 2.5, you can use it with Solaris 2.3 and 2.4. To install it on earlier versions of Solaris, see Table A for the patches you'll need when you install Solstice on Solaris 2.3 or 2.4.
Patches
T102524-01 Solaris 2.3 swmtool patch for SPARC
T102525-01 Solaris 2.4 swmtool patch for SPARC
T102526-01 Solaris 2.4 swmtool patch for x86
In addition to these installation steps, you'll need to install the Solstice License server for your copy of the Solstice System Management package. The install script lic_install, unlike the Solstice software install script, should be run by the root user. This will configure a license daemon that will run each time you boot your system. When you've completed installing the license and the Solstice package, reboot your system and log in as your new system administration user to launch the Solstice System Manager.
After launching the Solstice System Manager in OpenWindows, you can select one of the five system managers from the Solstice Launcher window. Let's take a look at each manager's features.
Database Manager, shown in Figure B, launches when you select the appropriate icon in the Solstice Launcher Window. When using each manager, you'll be prompted to select the naming service you're currently using. For NIS and NIS+ systems, this feature enables you to manage your network resource databases from one centralized administration workstation.
The system databases you can modify with Database Manager include both local and networked copies of the following:
When dealing with large systems, host information can be critical for troubleshooting network problems. For this reason, Host Manager, shown in Figure C, enables you to manage your hosts' databases with additional information, such as your hosts' Ethernet addresses, not tracked with Database Manager. For systems using DNS as their naming service, Host Manager can enable you to manage your Domain server information from a single workstation.
Although many of today's systems are moving toward other means of communication, serial ports are still used extensively for data entry terminals using a variety of protocols. If your network uses a large number of serial ports for data access, you can handle the port configuration with the Solstice Serial Port Manager. Additionally, Serial Port Manager, shown in Figure D, can handle all aspects of configuration for serial communications using SLIP and PPP.
When modifying a serial port, you can select the amount of detail you want for your configuration. In Figure E , you can see the configuration for serial port ttya when using Serial Port Manager to modify a port entry in Expert mode.
Do you have a large turnover with user accounts on your network? The Solstice User Account Manager, shown in Figure F , lets you manage all of your user accounts for both local and NIS or NIS+ systems. With User Account Manager, you can add, display, and remove account information as well as copy user account information to facilitate the creation of accounts with similar characteristics.
Group Manager, like User Account Manager, is especially advantageous for those who administer large networks. Group Manager, shown in Figure G, enables system administrators to manage their network group information from a central workstation. With Group Manager, you can examine, modify, delete, or add group information for local and remote systems. For those systems using the NIS or NIS+ naming service, Group Manager lets you modify and add NIS or NIS+ groups.
Large networks can be difficult to manage without the right tools. If you're looking for one tool to manage your large network, the Solstice System Manager for Solaris can help. In this article, we've discussed the Solstice System Manager and its network management components. v
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