Sun Management Center 3.5 Version 6 Supplement for Sun Fire Midrange Systems

This chapter introduces Sun Management Center software platform and domain administration on Sun Fire midrange systems.

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Sun Fire Midrange Systems Add-On Software

Sun Management Center software allows you to monitor Sun systems from a platform such as a workstation or server. You can also use Sun Management Center software to manage various remote operations and applications through the network. The Sun Fire midrange systems add-on software adapts the basic Sun Management Center software to function with Sun Fire midrange systems. The following Sun Fire midrange systems models are supported with this release of the software:

• Sun Fire E6900
• Sun Fire E4900
• Sun Fire 6800
• Sun Fire 4810
• Sun Fire 4800
• Sun Fire 3800

Systems containing UltraSPARC-IV and UltraSPARC-IV+ CPU/Memory boards are supported.

To use the dynamic reconfiguration features described in Chapter 5, you need a thorough understanding of dynamic reconfiguration operations. This supplement describes using Sun Management Center software to perform dynamic reconfiguration operations. For an overall description of dynamic reconfiguration operations that apply to the Sun Fire midrange systems, refer to the Sun Fire High-End and Midrange Systems Dynamic Reconfiguration User Guide.

Sun Fire midrange systems are divided into hardware domains, with each domain running a separate copy of the Solaris Operating System. Depending on the capability and the number of hardware resources, Sun Fire midrange systems can support up to four domains. (The minimum is one domain.) Because domains are used, the Sun Fire midrange systems add-on software has two modes of operation (FIGURE 1-1):

• Domain administrators can access Solaris Operating System domain views only through the Sun Management Center agent running on a Sun Fire midrange systems domain, or through the Sun Management Center platform agent that is doing proxy management for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent running on the Sun Fire Midrange system controller.
• Platform administrators can access platform views from the system controller console through the Sun Management Center platform agent.

FIGURE 1-1 Platform and Domain Administration Views

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 system controller in Sun Fire midrange systems.

The initial software supplement setup creates one platform agent, which provides access to one system controller. To access additional system controllers on other Sun Fire midrange systems, install an agent instance for each system controller (FIGURE 1-2).

FIGURE 1-2 Platform Agents Provide Access to Sun Fire Midrange System Controllers

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Terms Used in This Book

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

Dynamic reconfiguration -- The Sun Fire midrange systems add-on software provides a graphical user interface to facilitate dynamic reconfiguration operations. Dynamic reconfiguration software is a part of the Solaris Operating System and provides the ability to safely remove or install system boards or compact PCI I/O cards into a system while the Solaris Operating System is running. Dynamic reconfiguration software also provides the ability to transfer system boards or compact PCI I/O cards from one domain to another, while the Solaris Operating System is running.

Platform -- An alternative term for a complete system. A Sun Fire E6900 system is an example of a platform, as described in this book.

Domain or hardware domain -- Within a Sun Fire Midrange platform, a domain can consist of logically independent multiple sections within a partition, with each domain running a separate copy of the operating environment. 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.

FIGURE 1-3 shows an example of an administrative domain. Note that the administrative domain includes complete systems and hardware domains.

FIGURE 1-3 Main Console Window Showing an Administrative Domain Containing Multiple Hosts

For contrast, FIGURE 1-4 shows hardware domains in a host.

FIGURE 1-4 Details View of a Sun Fire Midrange Platform With Multiple Hardware Domains

TABLE 1-1 shows typical icons for Sun Fire midrange systems. Icons for other types of Sun Fire systems display corresponding model numbers.

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Identifying 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. FIGURE 1-5 compares the Details windows for a typical platform and a typical hardware domain.

• Platform: To identify a platform Details window, look for a platform icon (FIGURE 1-5) and five tabs (Info, Module Browser, Alarms, Module Manager, and Hardware).
• Hardware domain: To identify a hardware domain Details window, look for a hardware domain icon (FIGURE 1-5) and six tabs (Info, Module Browser, Alarms, Module Manager, Applications, and Hardware).

FIGURE 1-5 Details Windows for Platform (Upper) and Hardware Domain (Lower)

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About the Examples Used in This Book

Many steps or operations shown in this book can be accomplished in more than one way. For the sake of brevity, only one way is shown in an operation, usually the easiest or quickest way.

For example, in the main console window (FIGURE 1-3), you can choose from four possible ways to open a Details view of Sun Fire midrange systems:

• Single-click the Sun Fire midrange icon in the hierarchy view (left side of the window), then click the Tools menu in the top bar, and choose Details.
• Do the same as above in the topology view (right side of the window).
• Double-click the Sun Fire midrange icon in the hierarchy view.
• Double-click the Sun Fire midrange icon in the topology view.

Similarly, there are multiple ways to expand (or uncompress) an icon. As shown in FIGURE 1-6, you can:

• Click the Expand All button (not available in some windows).
• Click the Uncompress symbol next to the icon.
• Double-click the icon in the hierarchy or topology views.

FIGURE 1-6 Choices for Expanding or Uncompressing Icons

Sun Management Center 3.5 Version 6 Supplement for Sun Fire Midrange Systems

819-0418-10

Copyright © 2005, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.