Console Services
The Sun Cluster cluster control panel (ccp) graphical user interface (GUI) is available from the SUNWccon package extracted from the Sun Cluster 3.0 client software. This GUI enables your system administrator to execute commands concurrently on all cluster nodes but does not provide a management interface. The ccp works with a terminal concentrator to provide a seamless connection to serial port consoles.
JumpStart
You can run JumpStart on the management server to automate the installation of all software modules and patches required by all cluster members of a Sun Cluster 3.0 environment. Using JumpStart and Web Start Flash technologies to load the required software and patches on the cluster nodes is a best practice, because it automates and expedites the software installation while reducing operator errors during a catastrophic failure recovery. In addition, the JumpStart technology provides a manageable environment in which you can collect the latest versions of the required software packages and associated patches in a single repository.
When you first turn on the management server, it customizes its JumpStart environment by requesting information specific to the customer locality (cluster name, cluster node names, Ethernet and IP addresses, time zone, name services, and so forth). After the management server customization and JumpStart software installation completes, all cluster members automatically boot as Sun Cluster 3.0 nodes.
After each cluster member reboots, the integrated hardware and software stack provides a basic Sun Cluster 3.0 environment. This basic Sun Cluster 3.0 environment still requires a service representative (or service-qualified customer) to perform the following tasks before you deploy the cluster into production:
Configure the Sun Cluster 3.0 quorum disk. Quorum devices are resources the cluster infrastructure uses to establish a majority vote when determining cluster membership.
Install a specific Sun Cluster 3.0 data service based on application needs. You can install any supported Sun Cluster 3.0 data services. A data service includes application and cluster routines (start, stop, monitoring, and so forth) required to integrate the application into the cluster environment.
Configure the disk data. You can use the Veritas Volume Manager or Solstice DiskSuite™ software to configure the data.
Consolidated Cluster Node Messages
The management server is a central repository for logs and informational, warning, and error messages for each cluster node (similar to Starfire™ domain logging by the System Service Processor). The /etc/syslog.conf files are modified on each cluster node to route system messages to the management server /var/adm/messages file.
The /var/adm/messages file aligns cluster node events over time to improve failure analysis. In addition, your system administrator can review cluster node events on the management server when a cluster node is down.
The Sun Management Center has a log file filter. This filter enables your system administrator to define patterns of messages that should be highlighted or ignored, and to quickly identify key messages in the midst of more routine informational messages.
AnswerBook2 Documentation Server
Sun distributes documentation for many products in AnswerBook format. The AnswerBook2 documentation server provides a facility to view Sun documentation with a web browser. This server renders documentation in HTML 3.2, sending it to a web browser for display, thus offering an integrated Webtop solution for Sun online documentation and providing navigation, search, and printing capabilities.
The server also supports the previous AnswerBook documentation format. The AnswerBook2 documentation server comes with the Solaris operating environment, and supports all Solaris locales. Thus, one server can handle multiple language requests from remote sites simultaneously.
This product is necessary for anyone who wants to access the Sun online documentation in a web environment.
AnswerBook2 organizes product documentation as collections of documents based on specific topics or products. Because of the size and number of the documents, including localized versions, the AnswerBook library may consume a significant amount of disk space.
Internet access to the AnswerBook documentation is available from http://docs.sun.com. Putting the documentation pertinent to a local site or system on the management server allows documentation access without requiring an Internet gateway.
Sun Management Center Server
The Sun Management Center application on the management server enables you to manage and monitor the hardware and Solaris operating environment on all cluster nodes. This software includes a restricted license that allows you to manage and monitor only the cluster nodes and management server.
The Sun Management Center environment uses a three-tier, agent-based, scalable architecture that provides a single point of management for system administrators. This software offers the following features:
A Java GUI that you can access from the network, and a common look and feel for all Sun Management Center agents
A web-based interface that makes management information available for access from web browsers anytime and anywhere
Direct management of Sun Cluster 3.0 systems
Object grouping, which provides an easy way to define and invoke complex tasks on a set of managed objects. For example, you can set up properties or change thresholds and alarm actions and then apply this complex assignment to a set of servers in the data center.
Proactive event/alarm management and predictive failure analysis, which help increase system availability. This feature includes a new interactive knowledge base of events and alarm resolution that grows with customer experience.
New filtering capabilities that help you pinpoint problems quickly, even in systems with a large number of objects or nodes
Data view capability that enables you to create your own display configurations, using a convenient format
Sun Management Center Developer Environment, a GUI tool that enables you to develop new Sun Management Center agents
The Sun Management Center application has several optional add-on features. A System Reliability Manager enables you to perform:
Patch management
File watch
Operating system crash dump analysis
Script launching
A Hardware Diagnostic Suite (HWDS) enables:
Online testing to detect hardware faults
Test scheduling to enable latent fault detection
Integration with Sun Management Center for unified system management
The Sun Management Center integration modules include partnerships with ISV applications such as:
Computer Associates Unicenter TNG
Enlighten DSM
Halcyon
Hewlett–Packard OpenView VantagePoint Operations
Tivoli Enterprise Software
Solaris Management Console
Using the Solaris Management Console™ 2.0 application, your system administrator can manage the Solaris operating environment remotely, no matter what the scale of the environment. Solaris Management Console 2.0 is a Java technology-based, client/server application from which your system administrator can manage one or more Solaris domains. All GUI-based administrative tools are integrated into the Solaris Management Console 2.0 software, providing a single, consistent interface to each tool.
The Solaris Management Console 2.0 application enables users and administrators to register servers running its software on the network. This software dynamically configures tree views of registered hosts and services, making it easier to manage each Solaris server. Solaris Management Console 2.0 software benefits IT departments, system administrators, and network administrators by reducing labor and support costs, increasing productivity, and improving the administration experience.
The Solaris Management Console 2.0 software enables your system administrator to launch applications on a remote server while monitoring the application through a light front-end GUI on the client. This capability eliminates the need for downloading large applications over the network and installing and running them on the client. The remote capability also enables your administrator to manage administrative and network services from home or any other location when a trouble call comes in.
One of the challenges facing system administrators is to keep their systems secure. Accordingly, the use of “root” types of user IDs must be restricted. This can have a negative impact on users or IT staff members who must perform tasks in a timely manner but lack root authorization. Role-based access control (RBAC) support enables a system administrator to delegate specific rights to users, distributing system administration responsibilities to where they are most efficiently performed while still maintaining control over the system. This ability to grant specific rights eliminates the “all or nothing” problem inherent with superuser or root user IDs. RBAC roles and rights can be assigned through the user manager.
Key features of the Solaris Management Console 2.0 application are:
Role-based access control
Easier Solaris administration by simplifying the task of administering both local and remote Solaris software servers
Intuitive console
Centralized systems administration
Administration of multiple Solaris systems by a single console login
Open and extensible environment that integrates Java applications, X.11 legacy applications, wizards, and HTML through the Solaris Management Console 2.0
Software development kit (SDK)
Access to all GUI-based tools—user manager, process manager, log viewer, job scheduler, mounts and shares manager, disk and partition manager, and serial port manager
Complete integration with the Solaris 8 1/01 operating environment
Context-sensitive help
Single interface to administer the entire Solaris operating environment
Decreased administrative time
Web-based enterprise management (WBEM) initiative support
The primary difference between the Solaris Management Console and the Sun Management Center is that the latter is designed to manage Sun systems and the former is designed to simplify common system administration tasks.
NTP Server
Every aspect of managing, securing, planning, and debugging a network involves determining when events happen. Time is the critical element that allows an event on one network node to be mapped to a corresponding event on another. In many cases, these challenges can be overcome by the enterprise deployment of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) service.
The management server includes the xntpd(1M) daemon, which is bundled with the Solaris operating environment software to provide time synchronization services to all cluster nodes. Sun modifies the /etc/inet/ntp.conf and /etc/inet/ntp.client files on each cluster node to acknowledge the management server as the NTP server and also modifies the /etc/inet/ntp.conf and /etc/inet/ntp.server files on the management server to activate the NTP services.
For Sun Cluster nodes that have system service processors (SSPs) or system controllers (SCs) to provide NTP services, you can configure the management server as a higher level server than the SSP or SC. The domains act as clients. Thus, the SSPs and SCs operate as clients to the management server and servers to the domains. You can configure the management server, in turn, as a client to an external NTP server. Alternatively, you can connect the management server directly to a reference clock.
You can configure the relationship between NTP servers and clients to operate in the following modes—NTP server, NTP client, and NTP peer.
An NTP server provides time data to clients. Clients send a request to the server and the server sends back a timestamped response, along with information such as its accuracy and stratum (defined as the position of a member within the client, server, and peer hierarchy). An NTP server can broadcast multicast packets to improve efficiency when serving a large number of clients
An NTP client receives time responses from an NTP server or servers and uses the information to calibrate its clock. The client determines how far its clock is off and adjusts its time to match that of the server. The round-trip time for packet receipt determines the maximum error. To improve efficiency when a large number of clients is served, an NTP client can accept multicast packets from a server.
An NTP peer is a member of a group of NTP servers that are tightly coupled. In a group of two peers, equal at any given time, the most accurate peer acts as a server and the other peers act as clients. As a result, peer groups have closely synchronized times without specifying a single server.