N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide

Preface

This section of the System Administration Guide briefly introduces the product, lists the contents of this guide, and how to use this guide. The following topics are covered in this section:

About the Product

N1 Provisioning Server software provides a comprehensive infrastructure automation solution that enhances the management, visibility, and control of computing environments. N1 Provisioning Server software is part of an I-Fabric, which may contain multiple farms serving multiple organizations and users within those organizations. The software enables the complete design configuration, deployment, and management of multiple independent, secure, logical server farms.

Who Should Use This Book?

This guide is intended for system administrators who are responsible for managing an overall Infrastructure Fabric (I-Fabric) computing environment. Administrators should have knowledge of or be familiar with the following:

Text editors and software that employs command-line interfaces
UNIX^TM operating environments, file management commands and operations
Server blades
Computer networking
Database administration
Client/server software and related management issues
Traditional server farm management
Running scripts
Markup languages

How This Book Is Organized

This guide contains procedures for the system administrator to perform various tasks for running and managing an I-Fabric. This guide is divided into the following chapters.

Chapter 1, N1 Provisioning Server Introduction provides a general overview of an I-Fabric, its components, and the N1 Provisioning Server software that controls how I-Fabric components interoperate.
Chapter 2, I-Fabric Operation describes day-to-day I-Fabric operation activities, how to add, delete, and replace I-Fabric components, and how to set up passwords. This chapter also discusses the tspr.properties configuration file, which modifies the behaviors of all N1 Provisionable Server software.
Chapter 3, Managing Software Images describes how the N1 Provisioning Server software enables the management of various software images in an I-Fabric. Managing software images includes creating images and updating, deleting, and listing existing images.
Chapter 4, Monitoring and Messaging describes the monitoring and messaging system and the events being monitored.
Chapter 5, Backing Up and Restoring Components describes how to back up and restore various I-Fabric components.
Chapter 6, Error Messages describes error messages, their meanings, and actions required to solve a problem. It also describes how to gather additional information before reporting a problem.
Chapter 7, Troubleshooting describes how to handle device failure and how to troubleshoot and diagnose symptoms. It explains problem-reporting mechanisms and troubleshooting concepts.
Appendix A, Chargeable Events describes events generated by the Farm Manager that can be used to bill customers.
Appendix B, Command-Line Tools provides a list and brief description of all command-line tools described in detail in the manual pages.

Related Publications

You might consider the following the related publications helpful:

N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Installation Guide
N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Control Center Management Guide
N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Release Notes

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Using UNIX Commands

This document does not contain information about basic UNIX commands and procedures such as shutting down the system, booting the system, and configuring devices.

For more information about UNIX command and procedures, see the following documents:

Solaris Handbook for Sun Peripherals
Online documentation for the Solaris operating environment
Other software documentation that you received with your system

Typographic Conventions

A number of typographic conventions are used throughout this document to help you recognize special terms and instructions. These conventions are summarized in the following table:

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions


Convention	Description
Aa123	This typeface is used for buttons on a screen that can be clicked. Examples: Click the Deployed tab to display a list of active farms. Click Submit to submit a completed farm design for approval.
Aa123	This typeface is used for the following: Key words, such as terms that are defined in the text, names of books, and URLs Examples: For more information, refer to the System Administration Guide. Go to the vendor's web site, XXX.com, to download the information.
`Aa123`	This typeface is used for the following: Code or command-line output examples Directory paths File names Command syntax and usage Examples: `1 free disks found on device 000184500535 (device id: 22001)` `/opt/terraspring/sbin/disk` `const char* getName() const`
`Aa123`	This typeface is used for commands, file names, and other text strings that you must type exactly as shown. Examples: `/opt/terraspring/sbin/disk -a` `/opt/terraspring/sbin/device -LFt cpu -M hp -O lpr -r pes`
Aa123	This typeface, is used for placeholders that you must replace with an actual value. Actual values might be commands, file names, parameters, or other values required to run a command, change file directories, or run a script. Examples: `/opt/terraspring/sbin/device -sU` `device ID` `disk -l` `disk ID`

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