Checking Options With chkconfig

Checking Options With chkconfig

You can quickly check the configuration of a workstation or server with chkconfig(1). The /sbin/chkconfig command reports the state of various process daemons (that is, whether or not they are supposed to be active).

For example, enter the chkconfig command:

chkconfig

You see a display similar to this:

Flag                 State
====                 =====
acct                 off
audit                off
automount            on
fmlicserv            off
gated                off
lockd                on
mrouted              off
named                off
network              on
nfs                  on
noiconlogin          off
nsr                  on
quotacheck           off
quotas               off
routed               on
rtnetd               off
rwhod                off
sar                  on
snmpd                on
timed                on
timeslave            off
verbose              off
visuallogin          on
windowsystem         off
yp                   on
ypmaster             off
ypserv               off

This example is typical for a networked workstation with the Network File System (NFS) option installed. The left column of the output describes a system feature, and the right column indicates whether it is on or off. The following list provides more specific information about each system feature:

acct: Detailed system accounting is turned on or off.
audit: The System Audit Trail is turned on or off.
automount: The NFS automount(1M) daemon is turned on or off. This configuration option is available only if you have NFS installed on the workstation.
gated: The gated(1M) daemon, which manages multiple routing protocols is turned on or off.
glb: This option is used by the NetLS license server for the global location broker daemon.
llb: This option is used by the NetLS license server for the local location broker daemon.
lockd: The Network File System (NFS) lock daemon is turned on or off. This configuration option is available only if you have NFS installed on the workstation.
mrouted: The Stanford IP multicast routing daemon is turned on or off.
named: named(1M), the Internet domain name server, is turned on or off.
network: The network is turned on or off.
nfs: NFS is turned on or off. This configuration option is available only if you have NFS installed on the workstation.
noiconlogin: The visual login program, pandora(1), displays icons that represent users on the system. This feature does not enable or disable pandora; it only affects whether or not pandora displays icons. It is turned on or off. To enable or disable pandora, use the visuallogin feature.
nsr: IRIS Networker backup utility. This configuration option is available only if you have Networker installed on the workstation.
quotacheck: The disk space quota checker is enabled or disabled.
quotas: Disk quotas are enabled or disabled.
routed: routed(1M), which manages the network routing tables, is turned on or off.
rtnetd: rtnetd(1M), which allows higher priority real-time processes to preempt processing of incoming network packets, is turned on or off.
rwhod: rwhod(1M) is turned on or off.
sar: sar(1), the system activity reporter, is turned on or off.
snmpd: The Simple Network Management Protocol Daemon is turned on or off.
timed: timed(1M), the 4.3 BSD time server daemon, is turned on or off.
timeslave: The Silicon Graphics time server daemon is turned on or off. Like timed, this attaches a workstation's clock to a different clock, usually some kind of master time server for a group of workstations or for the entire site.
verbose: If this feature is enabled, as the system boots or is shut down, daemons print information about their functions. If this feature is disabled, less information is printed when the system is started and shut down.
visuallogin: The visual login program, pandora(1), is turned on or off.
windowsystem: The window manager is turned on or off.
yp: The network information service (NIS) is enabled on or off. This is called "yp" for historical reasons. NIS is available with the NFS software. This configuration option is available only if you have NFS installed on the workstation.
ypmaster: NIS master services are turned on or off. This configuration option is available only if you have NFS installed on the workstation.
ypserv: NIS server and bind processes are turned on or off. This configuration option is available only if you have NFS installed on the workstation.

Note that if a daemon is enabled using chkconfig, it does not necessarily mean that the daemon starts up immediately, or that it is running successfully. To verify that a daemon is running, use the ps(1) command to identify what processes are running on the system. For example, the command:

ps -ef

produces output similar to this:

ps -ef Output
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME COMMAND
root 0 0 0 Aug 3 ? 0:00 sched
root 1 0 0 Aug 3 ? 0:45 /etc/init
root 2 0 0 Aug 3 ? 0:08 vhand
root 3 0 0 Aug 3 ? 0:09 bdflush

*ps -ef* Output
UID	PID	STIME	TTY	TIME	COMMAND
root	0	Aug 3	?	0:00	sched
root	1	Aug 3	?	0:45	/etc/init
root	2	Aug 3	?	0:08	vhand
root	3	Aug 3	?	0:09	bdflush

This example is edited for simplicity. An actual, full ps listing shows many more active processes.

To view information about specific processes, and avoid searching through a large ps listing, you can filter the listing with the grep(1) or egrep(1) commands. For example, to look at process information for only the NFS daemons, use this command:

ps -ef | egrep 'nfsd|biod'

The output of this command is similar to this (assuming you have NFS installed and running):

root  120 1  0    09:40:05 ?     0:02 /usr/etc/nfsd 4 
root  122 12 0 0  09:40:05 ?     0:02 /usr/etc/nfsd 4 
root  123 12 0 0  09:40:05 ?     0:02 /usr/etc/nfsd 4 
root  124 12 0 0  09:40:05 ?     0:02 /usr/etc/nfsd 4 
root  126 1  0    09:40:05 ?     0:00 /usr/etc/biod 4 
root  127 1  0    09:40:05 ?     0:00 /usr/etc/biod 4 
root  128 1  0    09:40:05 ?     0:00 /usr/etc/biod 4 
root  129 1  0    09:40:05 ?     0:00 /usr/etc/biod 4 
root  131 1  0    09:40:11 ?     0:00 /etc/mount -at nfs 
ralph 589 55 0 11 15:25:30 ttyq1 0:00 egrep nfsd|biod

Note that the final entry in the ps listing is the process that produced the listing and that it is the only non-root process to have nfsd or biod in its name.