Part I Network Services Topics

This section provides an overview of the book, as well as overview, task, and reference information for the NCA and NTP services.

Chapter 1 Network Service (Overview)

This chapter provides a list of the major topics covered in this book. In addition it includes a description of the PERL service that is included in this release.

• Topics for the Solaris 10 Release

• Perl 5

Topics for the Solaris 10 Release

The following services or utilities are covered in this book:

Perl 5

The Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl) is a tool that can be used to generate scripts to assist with system administration tasks.

Chapter 2, Managing Web Cache Servers

NCA provides improved web server performance by caching web pages.

Chapter 3, Time-Related Services

NTP and time-related utilities can be used to synchronize time for many systems.

Chapter 4, Managing Network File Systems (Overview)

NFS is a protocol that provides the ability to access file systems from a remote host.

Chapter 7, SLP (Overview)

SLP is a dynamic service discovery protocol.

Chapter 12, Mail Services (Overview)

Mail services allow for a message to be sent to one or more people while routing the message over whatever networks are necessary.

Chapter 15, Solaris PPP 4.0 (Overview)

PPP is a protocol that provides point-to-point links between remote hosts.

Chapter 24, UUCP (Overview)

UUCP enables hosts to exchange files.

Chapter 27, Working With Remote Systems (Overview)

These commands are used to access files on remote systems. The commands include ftp, rlogin and rcp.

Perl 5

This Solaris release includes Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl) 5.8.4, a powerful general-purpose programming language that is generally available as free software. Perl has emerged as the standard development tool for complex system administration task because of its excellent process, file, and text manipulation features.

Perl 5 includes a dynamically loadable module framework, which allows the addition of new capabilities for specific tasks. Many modules are freely available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) at http://www.cpan.org. If you wish to build and install add-on modules from CPAN using gcc, you can do so using the /usr/perl5/5.8.4/bin/perlgcc script. See the perlgcc(1) man page for details.

Accessing Perl Documentation

Several sources of information about Perl are included in this Solaris release. The same information is available by using these two mechanisms.

You can access the man pages by adding /usr/perl5/man to your MANPATH environment variable. This example displays the Perl overview.

% setenv MANPATH ${MANPATH}:/usr/perl5/man
% man perl

You can access additional documentation by using the perldoc utility. This example displays the same overview information.

% /usr/perl5/bin/perldoc perl

The perl overview page lists of all the documentation that is included with the release.

Perl Compatibility Issues

In general, the 5.8.4 version of Perl is compatible with the previous version. Scripts do not have to be rebuilt or recompiled to function. However, any XSUB-based (.xs) modules require recompilation and reinstallation.

Changes to the Solaris Version of Perl

The Solaris version of Perl was compiled to include system malloc, 64-bit integer and large file support. In addition, appropriate patches have been applied. For a full list of all configuration information, review the results from this command.

% /usr/perl5/bin/perlbug -dv
---
Flags:
    category=
    severity=
---
Site configuration information for perl v5.8.4:
 .
 .

You can generate a shorter list by using perl -V.

Chapter 2 Managing Web Cache Servers

This chapter provides an overview of the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA). Procedures for using NCA and reference material about NCA are included. Also for the Solaris 10 6/06 release, an introduction to using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and procedures for using the SSL kernel proxy to improve the performance of the SSL packet processing are added.

• Network Cache and Accelerator (Overview)

• Managing Web Cache Servers (Task Map)

• Administering the Caching of Web Pages (Tasks)

• Caching Web Pages (Reference)

Network Cache and Accelerator (Overview)

The Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA) increases web server performance by maintaining an in-kernel cache of web pages that are accessed during HTTP requests. This in-kernel cache uses system memory to significantly increase performance for HTTP requests that are normally handled by web servers. Using system memory to hold web pages for HTTP requests increases web server performance by reducing the overhead between the kernel and the web server. NCA provides a sockets interface through which any web server can communicate with NCA with minimal modifications.

In situations where the requested page is retrieved from the in-kernel cache (cache hit), performance improves dramatically. In situations where the requested page is not in the cache (cache miss) and must be retrieved from the web server, performance is also significantly improved.

This product is intended to be run on a dedicated web server. If you run other large processes on a server that runs NCA, problems can result.

NCA provides logging support in that NCA logs all cache hits. This log is stored in binary format to increase performance. The ncab2clf command can be used to convert the log from binary format to common log format (CLF).

The Solaris release includes the following enhancements:

• Sockets interface.

• Support for vectored sendfile, which provides support for AF_NCA. See the sendfilev(3EXT) man page for more information.

• New options for the ncab2clf command that support the ability to skip records before a selected date (-s) and to process a specified number of records (-n).

• logd_path_name in ncalogd.conf can specify either a raw device, a file, or a combination of the two.

• Support for a web server to open multiple AF_NCA sockets. With multiple sockets, you can have different web servers that run on one server.

• A new configuration file that is called /etc/nca/ncaport.conf. The file can be used to manage the IP addresses and ports that NCA uses. Your web server might not provide native support of the AF_NCA socket. If your server lacks this support, use this file and the NCA socket utility library to convert an AF_INET socket to an AF_NCA socket.

Web Servers Using the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol

In the Solaris 10 6/06 release, an Apache 2.0 and a Sun Java System Web Server may be configured to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Protocol. The protocol provides confidentiality, message integrity and end point authentication between two applications. The Solaris kernel has been changed to accelerate the SSL traffic.

The SSL kernel proxy implements the server side of the SSL protocol. The proxy offers better SSL performance for server applications, like web servers, over applications using user-level SSL libraries. The performance improvement may be as high as +35% depending on the workload of the application.

The SSL kernel proxy supports the SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 protocols, as well as most common cipher suites. See the ksslcfg(1M) man page for the complete list. The proxy can be configured to fallback to the user-level SSL server for any unsupported cipher suites.

The following procedures show how to configure servers to use the SSL kernel proxy:

• How to Configure an Apache 2.0 Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

• How to Configure a Sun Java System Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

• Using the SSL Kernel Proxy in Zones

Managing Web Cache Servers (Task Map)

The following table describes the procedures that are needed to use NCA or SSL.

Planning for NCA

The following sections cover the issues that need to be resolved before starting the NCA service.

System Requirements for NCA

To support NCA, the system must meet these requirements:

• 256 Mbytes RAM must be installed.

• The Solaris 10, or 9 release, or one of the Solaris 8 upgrade releases must be installed.

• Support for a web server which has native support for NCA or a web server whose startup script has been modified to use the Socket Utility Library for NCA:

  • Apache web server, ships with Solaris 8 upgrade, Solaris 9, and Solaris 10 releases

  • Sun^TM Java System Web Server

  • Zeus web server available from Zeus Technology, http://www.zeus.com

This product is intended to be run on a dedicated web server. The running of other large processes on a server that runs NCA can cause problems.

NCA Logging

The NCA service can be configured to log web activity. Generally, NCA logging should be enabled if the web server logging is enabled.

Interpositioning Library for Daemon Support of the Door Server

Many web servers use AF_INET sockets. By default, NCA uses AF_NCA sockets. To correct this situation, an interpositioning library is provided. The new library is loaded in front of the standard socket library, libsocket.so. The library call bind() is interposed by the new library, ncad_addr.so. Suppose that the status is enabled in /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf. The version of Apache that is included with the Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 release is already set up to call this library. If you are using IWS or Netscape servers, see How to Load the Socket Utility Library for NCA to use the new library.

Multiple Instance Support

Systems that have NCA installed often need to run multiple instances of a web server. For instance, a single server might need to support a web server for outside access as well as a web administration server. To separate these servers, you would configure each server to use a separate port.

Administering the Caching of Web Pages (Tasks)

The following sections cover the procedures to enable or disable parts of the service.

How to Enable Caching of Web Pages

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Register the interfaces.

   Type the names of each of the physical interfaces in the /etc/nca/nca.if file. See the nca.if(4) man page for more information.

   # cat /etc/nca/nca.if hme0 hme1

   Each interface must have an accompanying hostname.interface-name file and an entry in /etc/hosts file for the contents of hostname.interface-name. To start the NCA feature on all interfaces, place an asterisk, *, in the nca.if file.

3. Enable the ncakmod kernel module.

   Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf to enabled.

   # cat /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf # # NCA Kernel Module Configuration File # status=enabled httpd_door_path=/var/run/nca_httpd_1.door nca_active=disabled

   See the ncakmod.conf(4) man page for more information.

4. (Optional) Enable NCA logging.

   Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf to enabled.

   # cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf # # NCA Logging Configuration File # status=enabled logd_path_name="/var/nca/log" logd_file_size=1000000

   You can change the location of the log file by changing the path that is indicated by the logd_path_name entry. The log file can be a raw device or a file. See the following examples for samples of NCA log file paths. See the ncalogd.conf(4) man page for more information about the configuration file.

5. (Optional) Define ports for multiple instance support.

   Add the port numbers in the /etc/nca/ncaport.conf file. This entry causes NCA to monitor port 80 on all configured IP addresses.

   # cat /etc/nca/ncaport.conf # # NCA Kernel Module Port Configuration File # . . ncaport=*/80

6. For x86 only: Increase the virtual memory size.

   Use the eeprom command to set the kernelbase of the system.

   # eeprom kernelbase=0x90000000 # eeprom kernelbase kernelbase=0x90000000

   The second command verifies that the parameter has been set.

   ---

   Note –

   By setting the kernelbase, you reduce the amount of virtual memory that user processes can use to less than 3 Gbytes. This restriction means that the system is not ABI compliant. When the system boots, the console displays a message that warns you about noncompliance. Most programs do not actually need the full 3–Gbyte virtual address space. If you have a program that needs more than 3 Gbytes, you need to run the program on a system that does not have NCA enabled.

   ---

7. Reboot the server.

Example 2–1 Using a Raw Device as the NCA Log File

The logd_path_name string in ncalogd.conf can define a raw device as the place to store the NCA log file. The advantage to using a raw device is that the service can run faster because the overhead in accessing a raw device is less.

The NCA service tests any raw device that is listed in the file to ensure that no file system is in place. This test ensures that no active file systems are accidentally written over.

To prevent this test from finding a file system, run the following command. This command destroys part of the file system on any disk partition that had been configured as a file system. In this example, /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 is the raw device that has an old file system in place.

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 bs=1024 count=1

After running dd, you can then add the raw device to the ncalogd.conf file.

# cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf
#
# NCA Logging Configuration File
#
status=enabled
logd_path_name="/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7"
logd_file_size=1000000

Example 2–2 Using Multiple Files for NCA Logging

The logd_path_name string in ncalogd.conf can define multiple targets as the place to store the NCA log file. The second file is used when the first file is full. The following example shows how to select to write to the /var/nca/log file first and then use a raw partition.

# cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf
#
# NCA Logging Configuration File
#
status=enabled
logd_path_name="/var/nca/log /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7"
logd_file_size=1000000

How to Disable Caching of Web Pages

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Disable the ncakmod kernel module.

   Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf to disabled.

   # cat /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf # NCA Kernel Module Configuration File # status=disabled httpd_door_path=/var/run/nca_httpd_1.door nca_active=disabled

   See the ncakmod.conf(4) man page for more information.

3. Disable NCA logging.

   Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf to disabled.

   # cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf # # NCA Logging Configuration File # status=disabled logd_path_name="/var/nca/log" logd_file_size=1000000

   See the ncalogd.conf(4) man page for more information.

4. Reboot the server.

How to Enable or Disable NCA Logging

NCA logging can be turned on or turned off, as needed, after NCA has been enabled. See How to Enable Caching of Web Pages for more information.

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Change NCA logging.

   To permanently disable logging, you need to change the status in /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf to disabled and reboot the system. See the ncalogd.conf(4) man page for more information.

   1. Stop logging.

      # /etc/init.d/ncalogd stop

   2. Start logging.

      # /etc/init.d/ncalogd start

How to Load the Socket Utility Library for NCA

Follow this process only if your web server does not provide native support of the AF_NCA socket.

In the startup script for the web server, add a line that causes the library to be preloaded. The line should resemble the following:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/ncad_addr.so /usr/bin/httpd

How to Add a New Port to the NCA Service

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Add a new port.

   Add a new port entry to /etc/nca/ncaport.conf. This example adds port 8888 on IP address 192.168.84.71. See ncaport.conf(4) for more information.

   # cat /etc/nca/ncaport.conf # # NCA Kernel Module Port Configuration File # . . ncaport=*/80 ncaport=192.168.84.71/8888

3. Start a new web instance.

   An address needs to be in the file that contains the NCA port configurations before a web server can use the address for NCA. If the web server is running, it must be restarted after the new address is defined.

How to Configure an Apache 2.0 Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

This procedure should be used to improve the performance of SSL packet process on an Apache 2.0 web server.

Before You Begin

The following procedure requires that an Apache 2.0 web server has been installed and configured. The Apache 2.0 web server is included in the Solaris 10 release.

To use the SSL kernel proxy, the server private key and the server certificate need to exist in a single file. If only the SSLCertificateFile parameter is specified in the ssl.conf file, then the specified file can be used directly for kernel SSL. If the SSLCertificateKeyFile parameter is also specified, then the certificate file and the private key file need to be combined. One way to combine the certificate and the key file is to run the following command:

# cat cert.pem key.pem >cert-and-key.pem

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services. The ksslcfg command is included in the Network Security profile.

2. Stop the web server.

   This command will stop the web server on a system in which the server is configured to run using SMF.

   # svcadm disable svc:/network/http:apache2

   If the service has not be converted yet, stop the service with this command syntax: /usr/apache2/bin/apachectl stop

3. Determine what parameters to use with the ksslcfg command.

   All of the options are listed in the ksslcfg(1M) man page. The parameters that you must have information for are:

   • key-format – Used with the -f option to define the certificate and key format. For the SSL kernel proxy the value should be either pem or pkcs12.

   • key-and-certificate-file – Used with the -i option to set the location of the file that stores to server key and the certificate.

   • password-file – Used with the -p option to select the location of the file that includes the password used to encrypt the private key. This password is used to allow unattended reboots. The permissions on the file should be 0400.

   • proxy-port – Used with the -x option to set the SSL proxy port. Select a different port than the standard port 80. The web server listens on the SSL proxy port.

   • ssl-port – Selects the port for the SSL Kernel Proxy to listen on. Normally this is set to 443.

   ---

   Note –

   The ssl-port and the proxy-port values can not be configured for NCA since these ports are used exclusively by the SSL kernel proxy. Usually, port 80 is used for NCA, port 8443 for the proxy-port and 443 for the ssl-port.

   ---

4. Create the service instance.

   The ksslcfg command to specify the SSL proxy port and associated parameters.

   ksslcfg create -f key-format -i key-and-certificate-file -p password-file -x proxy-port ssl-port

5. Verify that the instance was created properly.

   The service state reported by the following command should be “online”.

   # svcs svc:/network/ssl/proxy

6. Configure the web server to listen on the SSL proxy port.

   Edit the /etc/apache2/http.conf file and add a line to define the SSL proxy port. If you use the servers IP address, then the web server will only listen on that interface. The line should look like:

   Listen 0.0.0.0:proxy-port

7. Set an SMF dependency for the web server.

   The web server should only be started after the SSL kernel proxy instance. The following commands establish that dependency.

   # svccfg -s svc:/network/http:apache2 svc:/network/http:apache2> addpg kssl dependency svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/entities = fmri:svc:/network/ssl/proxy:kssl-INADDR_ANY-443 svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/grouping = astring: require_all svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/restart_on = astring: refresh svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/type = astring: service svc:/network/http:apache2> end

8. Enable the web server.

   # svcadm enable svc:/network/http:apache2

   If the service is not started using SMF, use the following command: /usr/apache2/bin/apachectl startssl

Example 2–3 Configuring an Apache 2.0 Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

The following command creates an instance using the pem key format.

# ksslcfg create -f pem -i cert-and-key.pem -p file -x 8443 443

How to Configure a Sun Java System Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

This procedure should be used to improve the performance of SSL packet process on a Sun Java System Web Server. See the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP4 Administrator’s Guide for information about this web server.

Before You Begin

The following procedure requires that a Sun Java System Web Server has been installed and configured.

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services. The ksslcfg command is included in the Network Security profile.

2. Stop the web server.

   Use the administrator web interface to stop the server. See Starting and Stopping the Server in the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP4 Administrator’s Guidefor more information.

3. Disable the cryptographic framework's metaslot.

   This step is needed to make sure that the metaslot is disabled when the kernel SSL service instance is created.

   # cryptoadm disable metaslot

4. Determine what parameters to use with the ksslcfg command.

   All of the options are listed in the ksslcfg(1M) man page. The parameters that you must have information for are:

   • key-format – Used with the -f option to define the certificate and key format.

   • token-label – Used with the -T option to specify the PKCS#11 token.

   • certificate-label – Used with the -C option to select the label in the certificate object in the PKCS#11 token.

   • password-file – Used with the -p option to select the location of the file that includes the password used to login the user to the PKCS#11 token used by the web server. This password is used to allow unattended reboots. The permissions on the file should be 0400.

   • proxy-port– Used with the -x option to set the SSL proxy port. Select a different port than the standard port 80. The web server listens on the SSL proxy port.

   • ssl-port – Defines the port for the SSL Kernel Proxy to listen on. Normally this value is set to 443.

   ---

   Note –

   The ssl-port and the proxy-port values can not be configured for NCA since these ports are used exclusively by the SSL kernel proxy. Usually, port 80 is used for NCA, port 8443 for the proxy-port and 443 for the ssl-port.

   ---

5. Create the service instance.

   The ksslcfg command to specify the SSL proxy port and associated parameters.

   ksslcfg create -f key-format -T PKCS#11-token -C certificate-label -p password-file -x proxy-port ssl-port

6. Enable the cryptographic framework's metaslot.

   # cryptoadm enable metaslot

7. Verify that the instance was created properly.

   The service state reported by the following command should be “online”.

   # svcs svc:/network/ssl/proxy

8. Configure the web server to listen on the SSL proxy port.

   See Adding and Editing Listen Sockets in the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP4 Administrator’s Guide for more information.

9. Start the web server.

Example 2–4 Configuring a Sun Java System Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

The following command creates an instance using the pkcs11 key format.

# ksslcfg create -f pkcs11 -T "Sun Software PKCS#11 softtoken" -C "Server-Cert" -p file -x 8443 443

Using the SSL Kernel Proxy in Zones

The SSL Kernel Proxy works in zones with the following limitations:

• All of the kernel SSL administration must be done from the global zone. The global zone administrator needs access to the local zone certificate and key files. The local zone web server can be started once the service instance is configured using the ksslcfg command in the global zone.

• A specific host name or IP address must be specified when running the ksslcfg command to configure the instance. In particular, the instance can not use INADDR_ANY.

Example 2–5 Configuring an Apache Web Server in a Local Zone to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy

In the local zone, first stop the web server. In the global zone do all of the steps to configure the service. To create a instance for a local zone called apache-zone, use the following command:

# ksslcfg create -f pem -i /zone/apache-zone/root/keypair.pem -p /zone/apache-zone/root/pass \
    -x 8443 apache-zone 443

In the local zone, run the following command to enable the service instance:

# svcadm enable svc:/network/http:apache2

Caching Web Pages (Reference)

The following sections cover the files and the components that are needed to use NCA. Also, specifics about how NCA interacts with the web server are included.

NCA Files

You need several files to support the NCA feature. Many of these files are ASCII, but some of the files are binary. The following table lists all of the files.

NCA Architecture

The NCA feature includes the following components.

• Kernel module, ncakmod

• Web server, httpd

The kernel module ncakmod maintains the cache of web pages in system memory. The module communicates with a web server, httpd, through a sockets interface. The family type is PF_NCA.

The kernel module also provides a logging facility that logs all HTTP cache hits. NCA logging writes HTTP data to the disk in binary format. NCA provides a conversion utility for converting binary log files to common log format (CLF).

The following figure shows the flow of data for the conventional path and the path that is used when NCA is enabled.

Figure 2–1 Data Flow With the NCA Service

NCA to Httpd Request Flow

The following list shows the request flow between the client and the web server.

1. An HTTP request is made from the client to the web server.

2. If the page is in cache, the in-kernel cache web page is returned.

3. If the page is not in cache, the request goes to the web server to retrieve or update the page.

4. Depending on the HTTP protocol semantics that are used in the response, the page is cached or not. Then the page is returned to the client. If the Pragma: No-cache header is included in the HTTP request, the page is not cached.

Chapter 3 Time-Related Services

Keeping system clocks synchronized within a network is required for many databases and authentication services. The following topics are covered in this chapter.

• Clock Synchronization (Overview)

• Managing Network Time Protocol (Tasks)

• Using Other Time-Related Commands (Tasks)

• Network Time Protocol (Reference)

Clock Synchronization (Overview)

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) public domain software from the University of Delaware is included in the Solaris software from Solaris 2.6 release forward. The xntpd daemon sets and maintains the system time-of-day. The xntpd daemon is a complete implementation of the version 3 standard, as defined by RFC 1305.

The xntpd daemon reads the /etc/inet/ntp.conf file at system startup. See xntpd(1M) for information about configuration options.

Remember the following when using NTP in your network:

• The xntpd daemon uses minimal system resources.

• An NTP client synchronizes automatically with an NTP server when it boots. If the client becomes unsynchronized, the client resynchronizes again when the client contacts a time server.

Another way to synchronize clocks is to run rdate while using cron.

Managing Network Time Protocol (Tasks)

The following procedures show how to set up and use the NTP service.

How to Set Up an NTP Server

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Create the ntp.conf file.

   To ensure proper execution of the xntpd daemon, the ntp.conf file must first be created. The ntp.server file can be used as a template.

   # cd /etc/inet # cp ntp.server ntp.conf

3. Start the xntpd daemon.

   # svcadm enable network/ntp

How to Set Up an NTP Client

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Create the ntp.conf file.

   To activate the xntpd daemon, the ntp.conf file must first be created.

   # cd /etc/inet # cp ntp.client ntp.conf

3. Start the xntpd daemon.

   # svcadm enable network/ntp

Using Other Time-Related Commands (Tasks)

The following procedure can be used to update the current time when ever needed, without having to setup NTP.

How to Synchronize Date and Time From Another System

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Reset the date and time to synchronize with another system, by using the rdate command.

   # rdate another-system

   another-system

   Name of the another system

3. Verify that you have reset your system's date correctly by using the date command.

   The output should show a date and time that matches that of the other system.

Example 3–1 Synchronizing Date and Time From Another System

The following example shows how to use rdate to synchronize the date and time of one system with another. In this example, the system earth, running several hours behind, is reset to match the date and time of the server starbug.

earth# date
Tue Jun  5 11:08:27 MDT 2001
earth# rdate starbug
Tue Jun  5 14:06:37 2001
earth# date
Tue Jun  5 14:06:40 MDT 2001

Network Time Protocol (Reference)

The following files are needed for the NTP service to run.