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.