Device Management Enhancements

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

Tape Self-Identification

The tape self-identification feature configures the tape automatically, with the parameters provided by the tape drive. Previously, the configuration data for a tape drive was statically supplied through user-editable configuration files, built-in configuration tables, or default values. The tape-self identification feature uses a few SCSI commands to directly query the required parameters from the tape drive. When the st driver gets the parameters, the tape drive uses them on the Solaris OS.

The advantages of tape-self identification over the traditional file-based configuration are:

• Simple and no user intervention is needed

• Faster support for new tape drives

• Easy to use, standard-based interface

x86: Enhanced Speedstep CPU Power Management

Starting with this release, Intel's Enhanced Speedstep^TM technology is supported on the Solaris OS. Enhanced Speedstep support enables Solaris platform users to manage the power consumption of their Intel processors by lowering the processor frequency during idle periods.

For more information about how to enable Solaris CPU power management, see the power.conf(4) man page.

x86: PowerNow! CPU Performance Management

Starting with this release, AMD's PowerNow! technology is supported on the Solaris OS. PowerNow! support enables Solaris platform users to manage the power consumption of their Opteron 10h family of processors by adjusting the processor operating frequency and voltage according to the task being performed.

For more information about how to enable Solaris CPU power management, see the power.conf(4) man page.

iSNS Support in the Solaris iSCSI Target

This Solaris release provides support for the Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) protocol in the Solaris iSCSI target software. The iSNS protocol enables automated discovery, management, and configuration of iSCSI devices on a TCP/IP network.

The Solaris iSCSI target software does not include native iSNS server support. However, in this Solaris 10 release, you can add access to an existing iSNS server to automatically discover the iSCSI devices in your network.

The iscsitadm command is used to configure the Solaris iSCSI target to discover the iSNS server and enable or disable the iSNS discovery. Use the hostname or the IP address to specify the iSNS server.

For more information, see the iscsitadm(1M) man page and Chapter 14, Configuring Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.