Installing Perl Module on Solaris

I’m having trouble install Perl Module in my Solaris 10 server. I did it the usual way
– perl Makefile.pl
– make
– make test
– make install
Sometimes it fail.

After googling around, I found many people have the same problem. It turns out Perl-on-Solaris have its workaround for this kind of problem. You guys can do this next time you install Perl Module on Solari
– /usr/perl5/bin/perlgcc Makefile.PL
– /usr/sfw/bin/gmake
– /usr/sfw/bin/gmake test
– /usr/sfw/bin/gmake install

Here is my Solaris version:
-bash-3.00$ more /etc/release
Solaris 10 11/06 s10s_u3wos_10 SPARC
  

And the Perl version:
-bash-3.00$ perl -v
This is perl, v5.8.4 built for sun4-solaris-64int
(with 28 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

Have fun you guys!

 

Tips on handling large number of server: RSH come to rescue

How many server you have right now? If it below 10 then maybe you memorize all the user/root password in your head. If you don’t like remembering things, maybe you have some note written on your wallet or in your Laptop’s Desktop.

What if you have 20 server or more? Than you must have some note 🙂 . Some friend of mine set the root password with some pattern. For example “sysadmin_<hostname>”. We’ll it does help.

But sometime you have so many server and there is an internal policy in company (CISA guy usually define this) to change your password in some interval of time. Than you have to use RSH in your entire server.

Your network maybe looks like this:

 

To set up RSH effectively, get one of server or workstation to be “sysadminhut”. This server will be the starting point to RSH to other server.

In the sysadminhut set up SSH enable. Just to make sure the security is enough. Well you know what they say, the most risk not come from outside. You can get the instruction on installing OpenSSH at www.sunfreeware.com.

At sysadminhut, set up the /etc/hosts with the list of server you want to maintain. For example:
#
# Internet host table
#
127.0.0.1       localhost
1.2.3.1    sysadminhut       loghost
1.2.3.11    solaris10

At the other server (solaris10), setup /etc/hosts like this
#
# Internet host table
#
127.0.0.1       localhost
1.2.3.11    solaris10 loghost
1.2.3.1    sysadminhut

And setup /.rhosts like this
sysadminhut root

Then try RSH from your sysadminhut to your server.
root@sysadminhut#rsh solaris10

Hooray, now you don’t have to remember password anymore ^_^

Another advantage is:
1. If you have a bunch of System Administrator that manage same machine, one of them maybe change the root password while you were on holiday or sick. With this, you can easily connect to server without needed to know the password.
2. Increase security. Because you don’t have to type password in insecure telnet. Yeah I know we can use SSH instead but if you have so many server, you might get lazy:). Or as an operator, sometime you don’t know what will happen to the application if you installed another package.
3. If your Server Farm is behind DMZ (Demilitarized zone), you only have to add ACL (access list) between your Workstation and your sysadminhut.

 

The good-old Sendmail configuration

Sometime you want to automate health-checking of your server. You have created some script that check here and there, and send it to your email. Every morning when you come to office, you just sit there with a cup of coffee while reading email about the status of your server.

Solaris usually already have mail server, the good old sendmail. Sendmail start/stop script available at /etc/init.d/

To start sendmail
/etc/init.d/sendmail start

To stop sendmail
/etc/init.d/sendmail stop

Before you start sendmail, you have to change some configuration first. Uncomment DSmailhost$?m.$m$. at /etc/mail/sendmail.cf. The line should be look like this
# “Smart” relay host (may be null)
DSmailhost$?m.$m$.

Then change your /etc/hosts, add mailhost entry and point it to your office mail relay (MTA).

bash-3.00# more /etc/hosts
#
# Internet host table
#
10.1.1.1 mailhost

Where 10.1.1.1 is your mail relay.

To test you newly configured sendmail, type this:
/usr/lib/sendmail -v < /dev/null adiguna@gmail.com

You should see something like this if everything went right

#/usr/lib/sendmail -v < /dev/null adiguna@gmail.com
adiguna@gmail.com… Connecting to mailhost.net via relay…
220 JKTGRHXMAV01.x.x.x.x Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 6.0.3790.1830 ready at  Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:21:34 +0700
>>> EHLO m2000svr.net
250-JKTGRHXMAV01.x.x.x.x Hello [10.x.x.x]
250-TURN
250-SIZE
250-ETRN
250-PIPELINING
250-DSN
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8bitmime
250-BINARYMIME
250-CHUNKING
250-VRFY
250-X-EXPS GSSAPI NTLM
250-AUTH GSSAPI NTLM
250-X-LINK2STATE
250-XEXCH50
250 OK
>>> MAIL From:<adiguna@m2000svr.net>
250 2.1.0 adiguna@m2000svr.net….Sender OK
>>> RCPT To:<adiguna@gmail.com>
250 2.1.5 adiguna@gmail.com
>>> DATA
354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
>>> .
250 2.6.0  <200701181421.l0IELYn09943@m2000svr.net> Queued mail for delivery
adiguna@gmail.com… Sent ( <200701181421.l0IELYn09943@m2000svr.net> Queued mail for delivery)
Closing connection to mailhost.net
>>> QUIT
221 2.0.0 JKTGRHXMAV01.x.x.x.x Service closing transmission channel

Now you can check your email 🙂

 

Running GUI (X-based) without dtlogin/citrix installed

Well sometime you didn’t have XWindows server (dtlogin or citrix) installed in your server. Maybe is a performance things. Because that application suck your server cpu and memory. Hard.

There is workaround to cheat this. You have to export display from your server to your desktop.

1. Use your favorit telnet/ssh session (putty, mstelnet, secure crt) to connect to the server.
2. Open Xserver/Reflection/Xmanager (or other X-Windows Emulator)
3. Export display
tcsh => setenv DISPLAY 10.1.1.1:0.0
ksh/bash => DISPLAY=10.1.1.1:0.0;export DISPLAY
note: 10.1.1.1 is your desktop IP
4. Execute gui command. For example:
Veritas Enterprise Administrator (vea) -> /opt/VRTS/bin/vea
OSS-RC (ONE) -> /opt/ericsson/bin/nms_one

 

The “here” document

Sometimes, when you do shell scripting, you have to call another command that need manual input.
For example, you want to send email from the shell

# mail adiguna@domain.com
To: adiguna@domain.com
From: you@domain.com
Hello!
.
#

You need to type manually the three last lines to send email.

You might ask how to handle this without interaction.
That’s when “here” document comes handy.

You can re-write the script like this
# mail adiguna@domain.com << END
To: adiguna@domain.com
From: you@adiguna@domain.com
Hello!
.
END

The syntax for here-document is like this:

command << KEYWORD
input1
input2
input3
KEYWORD

I usually use this for mail and Sybase query (isql). For example:

isql -Usa -SSYB -Ppassword -w2000<<-! | egrep -v affected > cgi3.txt
use omcdb
go
select convert(char(10),c.imap_name) as BSC,
convert(char(25),b.imap_name) as SiteName,
convert(char(25),a.imap_name) as CellName,
convert(char(20),a.imap_CGI) as CGI
from BSCCell a,
BSCBTSSiteManager b,
BSCNE c where a.fdn like b.fdn+’.%’ and a.fdn like c.fdn+’.%’  and b.fdn like c.fdn+’.%’
order by c.imap_name
go
quit
!

Or you can also automate your ftp like this :
ftp -in noc4web << end
user anonymous email
prompt off
ascii
mput *.*
bye
end

 

Sun Fire RSC (Remote System Control)

Have you ever reboot your server from remote (telnet/ssh/cde) and it won’t go up?
And then you must came to freezing server room and connect to server serial port or console (if it have one) to see what went wrong?
If you happen to have this situation and don’t want to get through it again and RSC is a must for you.

RSC can connect to SUN Fire Firmware below OS level (the famous OK Prompt). That not the only RSC capability, RSC can do this:
– Show server environmental status.
– Access a console that includes all UNIX console functions.
– Send a break to put the server into debug mode.
– Control the diagnostics level for a server reboot.
– Reset the server on demand. When the system is not responding, you can issue a cold reset to bring the server back online.

RSC is usually use for Sun Fire Low End Series (V480, V490, V880 & V890), because the Mid-End/High-End already have System Controller for doing such things.

To install RSC, get your Solaris Software Supplement CD and install from RSC_2.2.2 directory. You must install minimum these three packages:
bash-2.03$ pkginfo |grep rsc
system      SUNWrsc        Remote System Control
system      SUNWrscd       Remote System Control User Guide
system      SUNWrscj       Remote System Control GUI

Just do the usual ‘pkgadd -d . <package name>’ at RSC_2.2.2 source directory.

After that, you must configure the RSC. You can use ‘/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-880/rsc/rsc-config’. Setup your RSC according to your need. You can activate the Ethernet, Modem or Serial. Usually people activate Ethernet and Serial. This action also setup user for accessing RSC. Then configuration will update to flash and resetting the RSC.

IF you something like this below it means you finally configured RSC on your server.
*******************************
RSC has been successfully setup
*******************************

To configure RSC after the setup, for example: add user or change IP, you can use ‘rscadm’ command. Please see my previous post about where you can find ‘rscadm’.

USAGE: rscadm <command> [options]
  For a list of commands, type “rscadm help”

rscadm – COMMANDS SUPPORTED
  help, date, set, show, resetrsc, download, send_event, modem_setup,
  useradd, userdel, usershow, userpassword, userperm, shownetwork,
  loghistory, version

rscadm – COMMAND DETAILS
  rscadm help => this message
  rscadm date [-s] | [[mmdd]HHMM | mmddHHMM[cc]yy][.SS] => print or set date
  rscadm set <variable> <value> => set variable to value
  rscadm show [variable] => show variable(s)
  rscadm resetrsc [-s] => reset RSC (-s soft reset)
  rscadm download [boot] <file> => program firmware or [boot] monitor
  rscadm send_event [-c] “message” => send message as event (-c CRITICAL)
  rscadm modem_setup => connect to modem port
  rscadm useradd <username> => add RSC user account
  rscadm userdel <username> => delete RSC user account
  rscadm usershow [username] => show user details
  rscadm userpassword <username> => set user password
  rscadm userperm <username> [cuar] => set user permissions
  rscadm shownetwork => show network configuration
  rscadm loghistory => show RSC event log
  rscadm version => show RSC version

Now, get connect the RSC Ethernet port to your LAN/WAN switch, and you won’t have to go to server room anymore.

 

Can’t find executable files after installed a package

Sometimes you can’t find where the executable files after you’ve install a package. For example, I’ve just installed rsc (Remote System Controller) for accessing console my Sun Fire server using Serial or IP connection. According to the manual, System Administration command for rsc is rscadm. But when I type rscadm, it failed.

root@m2000svr3G # rscadm
rscadm: not found

And then I check whether the package already installed:

bash-2.03$ pkginfo SUNWrsc
system      SUNWrsc        Remote System Control

I know we can do ‘find’ to find the executable:

root@m2000svr3G # find / -name rscadm
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/rsc/rscadm
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-480R/rsc/rscadm
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-880/rsc/rscadm
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V490/rsc/rscadm
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V890/rsc/rscadm
/usr/platform/SUNW,Ultra-250/rsc/rscadm

And we can you use the rscadm which suited your system.

But the elegant way is to find at /var/sadm/install/contents file.  For your information, this file is appended every time you install package.

bash-2.03$ grep rscadm /var/sadm/install/contents
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/rsc/rscadm f none 0755 root bin 114028 8640 1071255312 SUNWrsc
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-480R/rsc/rscadm=../../SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/rsc/rscadm s none SUNWrsc
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-880/rsc/rscadm=../../SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/rsc/rscadm s none SUNWrsc
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V490/rsc/rscadm=../../SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/rsc/rscadm s none SUNWrsc
/usr/platform/SUNW,Sun-Fire-V890/rsc/rscadm=../../SUNW,Sun-Fire-280R/rsc/rscadm s none SUNWrsc
/usr/platform/SUNW,Ultra-250/rsc/rscadm f none 0755 root bin 185388 22971 1071254889 SUNWrsc
/usr/share/man/sman1m/rscadm.sgml f none 0444 root bin 10246 58715 1071255255 SUNWrsc

Bingo! There are your executable files.

 

New Year, new blog

Well, after a very long hiatus, I’ve decided to blogging again.Lack of internet access and lack of creativity is one of the reasons why my hiatus took almost two years.

And now, I’m blogging again (with English)

This blog will be focused in everything I’ve interesting to share with you guys. Mainly about my works (System administration of OSS System) and my personal opinion about anything in this world.

See you guys around ^_^ …

 

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