C H A P T E R 1

Introduction

This chapter introduces Sun trademark Management Center software platform and domain administration on Sun SPARC® Enterprise M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 servers.

About This Sun Management Center Add-On Software

Sun Management Center software is an open, extensible system-monitoring and
-management application that uses Java trademark software protocol and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to provide an integrated and comprehensive enterprise-wide management of Sun products and their subsystems, components, and peripheral devices.

The Sun Management Center User's Guide includes definitions, explanations, and diagrams that clarify the Sun Management Center architecture. Review that document whenever you have questions about how consoles, servers, agents, domains, and modules interact.

The add-on software for Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers adapts the core Sun Management Center software to function with Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers.

Sun Management Center 3.6.1 Version 2 add-on software introduces support for the following systems:

Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000/M5000 servers (midrange servers)

Sun SPARC Enterprise M8000/M9000 servers (high-end servers)

This add-on software for Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers provides the following features:

Hardware monitoring

Power management

Domain management

Dynamic reconfiguration

FRU replacement (system board)

Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers are divided into hardware domains, with each domain running a separate instance of the operating system. Depending on the capability and the number of hardware resources, Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers can support up to 24 domains. (The minimum is one domain.) Because domains are used, the add-on software for Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers has two modes of operation (FIGURE 1-1):

Domain administrators can access Solaris Operating System domain views in one of these two ways:

Through the platform agent running on a Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 server Service Processor

Through the agent running on a Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 server domain

Platform administrators can access platform views from the Service Processor console through the Sun Management Center platform agent.

FIGURE 1-1 Platform and Domain Administration Views

Graphic depicting platform and domain administration views described in this section.

After the add-on software has been installed on a host machine (workstation or server), you can run Sun Management Center software on that host machine to access the Service Processors in Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers, as shown in FIGURE 1-2.

FIGURE 1-2 Platform Agents Provide Access to SPARC Enterprise Server Service Processors

Graphic depicting Sun Management Center server accessing Service Processors through platform agents.

To Identify Platforms and Hardware Domains

The platform and hardware domain Details windows are very similar when they are first displayed. By default, both windows open to the Module Browser tab.

To Identify a Platform Details Window

To identify a platform Details window, look for a platform icon and five tabs:

Info

Module Browser

Alarms

Module Manager

Hardware

To Identify a Hardware Domain Details Window

To identify a hardware domain Details window, look for a hardware domain icon and six tabs.

The additional tab is the Applications tab:

Info

Module Browser

Alarms

Module Manager

Applications

Hardware

Reference: Terms Used in This Document

Note - In this document, administrative domain refers to a Sun Management Center administrative domain, and should not be confused with other uses of the term "domain" related to other Sun products or documentation.

Administrative domain - An administrative domain consists of one or more host systems.

Dynamic reconfiguration - The add-on software for Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers provides a graphical user interface to facilitate dynamic reconfiguration operations. On the Solaris Operating System, the dynamic reconfiguration feature provides the ability to safely remove compact PCI I/O cards into a system while the operating system is running. On the Service Processor, dynamic reconfiguration provides the ability to reconfigure system resources and safely replace system boards.

Platform - An alternative term for a complete server system. A Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000 server is an example of a platform, as described in this book.

Domain or hardware domain - Within a Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 server platform, a domain can consist of a logically independent aggregation of system resources within a partition, with each domain running a separate copy of the operating system. This type of domain consists of system boards and other devices, as opposed to an administrative domain, which can consist of multiple hardware domains and entire platforms. For clarity, this type of domain is referred to as a hardware domain in this book.

Reference: Modules

Hardware configuration information, process monitoring, and management operations for the Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers are provided by the modules listed in TABLE 1-1:

TABLE 1-1 Sun SPARC Enterprise M x 000 Server Modules
Agent Modules	Description
Plat Admin Module SPARC Enterprise Mx000	Platform administration module. Provides monitoring and active management capability for the Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 server. Resides on the Service Processor.
Domain Config Reader SPARC Enterprise Mx000	Domain administration module. Provides monitoring for domains on Sun SPARC Enterprise Mx000 servers.
Domain DR SPARC Enterprise Mx000	Domain Dynamic Reconfiguration (DR) module. Enables an administrator to perform dynamic reconfiguration of boards on one domain at a time.