System Administration Enhancements

The following system administration features and enhancements have been added to the Solaris 10 5/08 release.

Solaris Trusted Extensions Administrator Procedures

Starting with this release, the Solaris^TM Trusted Extensions packages are installed when the Solaris OS is installed. The ExtraValue directory is no longer present. This directory previously included the Solaris Trusted Extensions packages. The Solaris Trusted Extensions functionality is managed by the service management facility (SMF) as the svc:/system/labeld:default service. This service must be enabled. After the service is in the online state, reboot the system to activate Solaris Trusted Extensions. Additional configuration is required after the reboot. For more information, see Solaris Trusted Extensions Configuration Guide.

The Solaris 10 5/08 release also includes the following features:

• The domain of interpretation (DOI) is configurable. For more information, see Network Security Attributes in Trusted Extensions in Solaris Trusted Extensions Administrator’s Procedures.

• The NFSv3 protocol supports multilevel mounts. For more information, see Trusted Extensions Software and NFS Protocol Versions in Solaris Trusted Extensions Administrator’s Procedures.

• The name service cache daemon, nscd, can be separately configured per labeled zone. This configuration supports environments where each zone is connected to a subnetwork that runs at the label of the zone, and the subnetwork has its own name server for that label.

For more information about Solaris Trusted Extensions, see Solaris Trusted Extensions Administrator’s Procedures.

Flash Update Tool

fwflash(1M) is a new Solaris command for the manipulation of firmware for PCI-X, and PCI-Express HBA and HCA cards. Currently, the command enables listing, reading, and writing the firmware for the InfiniBand HCA cards.

For more information about this command, see the fwflash(1M) man page.

PPD File Management Utility

The PostScript^TM Printer Description (PPD) file management utility, /usr/sbin/ppdmgr, manages PPD files that are used with the Solaris print subsystem.

By using the ppdmgr utility, you can perform the following tasks:

• Add a PPD file to a PPD file repository on a system

• Supply a label to group PPD files within a PPD file repository

• Update the cache of the PPD file information that is used by the Solaris Print Manager (printmgr) GUI to display supported printer information

You can add a new PPD file by using the ppdmgr utility or by using the lpadmin -n command. When you add a new PPD file, you automatically update the cache of the PPD file information that the printmgr GUI uses to display supported printer information.

The delivery location of PPD files in the Solaris OS has changed. During a software upgrade, any print servers with print queues that were defined by using PPD files from the previous PPD file delivery location are automatically updated to reflect the new PPD file delivery location.

In addition, a new SMF service, print/ppd-cache-update, has been introduced. The print/ppd-cache-update service is enabled by default. This service runs one time during system reboot to update the printer cache information with changes from all the PPD file repositories on the system. The service might take longer to transition to an online state during a system reboot after a software installation or upgrade. Also, if any changes were made to the PPD file repositories since the last PPD cache update, during system reboot, the service might take longer to come online. Changes made to the PPD file repositories on a system are not reflected in the PPD cache used by Solaris Print Manager until the print/ppd-cache-update service is online.

For more information, see the following:

• ppdmgr(1M) man page

• Chapter 9, Administering Printers by Using the PPD File Management Utility (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing

Internet Printing Protocol Client-Side Support

Client-side support for the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) enables Solaris client systems to communicate with IPP-based print services, such as those on the Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, as well as other platforms.

Small improvements are also featured in the server-side support for the IPP listening service. These improvements promote better interoperability, including some minor changes that result in a more standard representation of printer and job attribute data.

The IPP server and client implementation in the Solaris OS is one of several OpenSolaris^TM printing projects that are currently under development. OpenSolaris printing provides a set of specifications and implementations of software that enables you to create standardized, scalable printing components for the Solaris and Linux software, or any operating system that contains a set of POSIX interfaces.

For more information, see the System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing.

For more information about OpenSolaris Printing, see http://opensolaris.org/os/community/printing/.

Selectable Use of localhost for Solaris Print Server Database Hostname

This printing feature enables the Solaris print system to recognize and use localhost as the local host in the print system databases. In prior releases, /bin/hostname was used solely to generate the print hostname. The print system depended on this name remaining constant. The ability to use localhost as the name of the current system enables print servers to maintain the same print hostname, independent of the system's host name.

The modification applies to the setup of local print queues exclusively.

To support this feature, the following modifications are effective for the lpadmin command and the Solaris Print Manager graphical user interface (GUI):

• The lpadmin command uses the -s option when creating a local print queue.

  To use localhost as the host name that is specified within the print server, set the print hostname to localhost, as shown:

  # lpadmin -p <new-print-queue> -s localhost -v <device>

  For example:

  # lpadmin -p foo -s localhost -v /dev/term/a

  ---

  Note –

  The default behavior of the lpadmin command has not changed.

  ---

• Solaris Print Manager now includes an added tool attribute check box, Use localhost for Printer Server. The localhost attribute is selected by default. To deselect the localhost attribute, uncheck the box. Unchecking the box selects the previously chosen behavior for this attribute.

For more information, see the following:

• printmgr(1M) man page

• lpadmin(1M) man page

• System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing

Fault Management for T5140/T5240 Platforms

The Solaris predictive self-healing technology is available on Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 platforms. Predictive self-healing features include the following:

• Automated error handling

• Automated diagnosis

• Automated recovery for CPU, memory and I/O subsystems

• Clear and concise error messages

For more information, see http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/ds/self_healing.jsp and http://opensolaris.org/os/community/fm.

SunVTS 7.0

SunVTS^TM is a comprehensive system validation and test suite designed to support Sun hardware platforms and peripherals. SunVTS 7.0 is the next generation of SunVTS 6.0 and its compatible versions.

SunVTS 7.0 includes the following features:

• Introduction of the concept of purpose-based testing

• Improved diagnostics effectiveness

• Web-based user interface

• Simplified usage

• New architecture framework

• Enterprise View

SunVTS 7.0 follows a conventional three-tier architecture model. This model is composed of a browser-based user interface, a Java based middle server, and a diagnostic agent.