Understanding Oracle Solaris Software Tools

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Oracle Virtual Networking supports a host software stack to be installed on supported Oracle Solaris servers running on the x86 and SPARC platforms. The software is a collection of custom kernel modules, services and host drivers. The combination of these elements is bundled into a single package executable by the root user on the Oracle Solaris server. The package contains the InfiniBand stack, the host drivers, kernel modules, and so on.

These topics provide an overview of the host software package:

When the package is installed, it contains additional tools which are installed automatically. You do not need to manually install these tools. The following table describes these additional tools.

Tools	Description
`xsadmd`	Processes internal messages, user land inputs, and calls appropriate Oracle Solaris utilities as needed.
`xstl`	Processes internal messages, user land inputs, and calls appropriate Oracle Solaris utilities as needed.
`xstn`	The transport-layer driver. Binds to each physical IB port available in the server by being a virtual-port service driver (IB-VPPA) in the Oracle Solaris IB framework.
`xsvnic`	The vNIC module. Provides virtual NIC services.
`xsvhba`	The vHBA module. Provides virtual HBA services.

Related Information

Installing Host Drivers

IPS Package

The Oracle Solaris host drivers are distributed in the IPS format. This format provides a single package for each architecture (either SPARC or x86) that contains all the required files. Installing the IPS format is similar to using an RPM, but there are some syntax differences in the commands used with IPS packages. IPS packages have the following naming conventions.

Because the Oracle Solaris host drivers support both SPARC and x86 servers, two packages exist (one for each CPU type):

ORCLovn-5.0.0-SL-sparc.tgz is for SPARC-based servers
ORCLovn-5.0.0-SL-i386.tgz is for x86-based servers

You need to get the correct type for your servers. After unzipping the .tgz file, the IPS package is visible. You need to install the IPS package.

Caution - If you attempt to install the wrong host drivers for the server's CPU type, there is no validation checking to warn you of the mismatch between the host driver type and the CPU type. However, when you start to install the host drivers and they are incompatible with the CPU type, the host drivers will not actually install. This error is a silent failure, so there is no way to determine that you've hit this issue. Make sure that you install the correct driver type for your server's architecture.

IPS Package Commands

IPS packages are conceptually similar to packages, but IPS packages use a different command syntax for installation and management. You can get a full list of IPS package commands by issuing the ips --help command. The following list shows some common IPS package commands.

pkg set-publisher -p IPS-name
pkgrepo -s IPS-name -list
pkg contents path-to-IPS
pkg install path-to-IPS
pkg update path-to-IPS
pkg remove path-to-IPS
pkg unset-publisher IPS-name

For information about installing IPS packages, see Install Host Drivers for Oracle Solaris 11.1 or Oracle Solaris 11.2.