Vol. 7 No. 1, January-February 2008 View Archive  |   Update Your Profile  |   Subscribe to the BigAdmin Newsletter BIGNEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS The BigAdmin Newsletter is a monthly email informing system administrators and developers of the latest events, news, resources, and information available on BigAdmin and the Solaris Developer Center. » BigAdmin Rewards: USB Stick Upgraded to 2-Gig When you send us your scripts, tech tips, and articles, you can earn BigAdmin Bucks to use for our new 2-Gig USB memory stick or other gifts. » Virtualization Resources for Sys Admins Virtualization can be your reality in 2008. The BigAdmin info center shows you what's new in server, OS, storage, desktop, application, and network virtualization technologies. » My Experience Installing Solaris Express Developer Edition (SXDE) An SDN writer and Java programmer describes how he tried out Solaris Express Developer Edition 09/07 using a Sun Ultra 20 system, VMWare and the Mac OS X, and a dual-boot with another operating system. » New Resource Collection: Translated Documents This collection gathers all the BigAdmin links and resources that have been translated into a non-English language. Click on the article to see icons of the languages it's available in. » Managing the Power Used by Idle Disks in Servers Running the Solaris 8 OS or Above This article offers guidelines and instructions for disk power management on servers running the Solaris OS. » Developing and Deploying Java SE Based Applications on the Solaris OS Check out the Ask the Experts session transcript with Sun experts' answers to questions from the community. » Configuring the Sun Fire X4500 Server as Network Attached Archival Storage Use the Solaris 10 OS, Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager, and ZFS to construct an archival storage system with Symantec Enterprise Vault. » Using IBM DB2 UDB V9 HA in a Sun Cluster 3.2 Environment You can set up DB2 UDB V9 in a two-node cluster environment using ZFS as a failover file system and DB2 failover across Solaris Containers. » What We're Watching -- More Videos From the Storage Group: Hyon Kim on a New Multipath Management API for SCSI Devices Updated: Mark Carlson on the Management Framework Reference John Forte on a New iSCSI Management API Sumit Gupta on the New Common Multi-Protocol SCSI Target (COMSTAR) for Solaris OS TECHIE TOOLBOX The Techie Toolbox often features scripts and content submitted by members of the BigAdmin community and may not be appropriate for all organizations. » Human Readable Swap Usage Summary Sums the blocks over swaps, calculates the total bytes, prints summary in human readable form (GB). Handy for reports. » Sun Cluster 3.1 DID Device Report Outputs the union of the commands scdidadm and luxadm to determine the right size of the single DID device. » Metadevice Use by Soft Partitions Shows how much space has been used on a metadevice by soft partitions. » Saving Output Using tee Script to use as a wrapper to capture other script output. » Save Output Using nohup You can save output from scripts in the background using this script as a wrapper. COMMUNITY, BLOGS & WIKIS » Thanks to Our Readers for These New Tech Tips: Setting Up JumpStart With Solaris 10 OS for SPARC Platforms and ZFS Using the pkgman Utility to Manage Packages Expanding File Systems for Solaris 9 OS on EMC CLARiiON metaLUNs Installing Printers With CUPS and the Solaris 10 8/07 OS for x86 Platforms Adding Disk Space to an Existing Diskset Scripts for Automating System Checks How to Stop Monitoring a Heavily Used Resource in a Sun Cluster 3.x Environment » How to Get BigAdmin Bucks From the BigAdmin Wiki Some of you have been checking out the BigAdmin wiki and posting your own content. This blog shows how to make sure you can get your BigAdmin goodies after you post content to the wiki. » Great Stuff From the Community on the BigAdmin Wiki: Using rdist and rsync With sudo for Remote Updating Installing a Sparse Zone Writing sysidcfg Writing zones.cfg Writing site.xml Configuration Files Best Practices » Solaris Dynamic Tracing Guide in Wiki Format Contributions are welcome. Send suggestions to: dtrace-discuss@opensolaris.org. » Gerry Haskins's Blog: Patch Corner Gerry Haskins, senior engineering manager in charge of Sun's Software Release Engineering and Patch System Test groups, has started a blog about your favorite topic, patches. » Blog on the Top Five Solaris 10 Security Features Glenn Brunette highlights five security features of the Solaris 10 OS that can give you the most immediate value: auditing, privileges, role-based access control, zones, and secure by default. DEVELOPER CORNER Update to OpenSolaris Developer Preview This operating system is based on the OpenSolaris OS. Preview 2 is scheduled to boot and install from a single CD, with a network-based package management system. Finding C2 Compiled Method Names in a Java Core File Without the Serviceability Agent Find out how to identify a C2 compiled module's name in a core file without relying on information from the Serviceability Agent. Debugging a Core File Without the Serviceability Agent, Using JVM and the Solaris OS You can use the dbx debugger to get information from a core file that cannot be opened with the Serviceability Agent. Achieving Near-Linear Scalability Using Solaris OS on NUMA Architectures Here's a discussion of increasing application performance on machines using Non-Uniform Memory Architecture (NUMA). User Authentication on the Solaris OS Part 4: PAM Service Modules Learn to write PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) service modules for authentication and security services, and see an example module. Java EE 5 SDK Update 4 Released This production-ready SDK includes Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Update 1 (GlassFish v2 UR1), featuring clustering support and intuitive administration. FAQ on Liberty Alliance and Security Assertion Markup Language Here is a new section in the FAQ on Sun Java System Access Manager and Sun Java System Federation Manager. Developing Secure Applications With Sun Java System Access Manager, Part 2: Advanced Authorization Find out how to extend the authorization of Sun Java System Access Manager with a hierarchy-based resource model and interoperable Web services for .NET applications. PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT » EOL of Sun Fire V125, V215, V245, and V445 Servers Last order date: April 11, 2008. Last ship date: July 11, 2008. Upgrade and you could save up to 25%. Check out the BigAdmin blog for more info. Entry-Level Server Trade-in Offerings » Deploying Sun Java System Messaging Server's Mail Transfer Agent These are our preferred practices for deploying MTA with respect to anti-spam/anti-virus services. » Solaris OS Wins InfoWorld Award The Solaris OS won InfoWorld's 2008 Technology of the Year Award for Platforms: Most Innovative Server OS. They liked ZFS (which won technology of the year), DTrace, Solaris Containers, built-in virtualization, and the ability to run Linux Red Hat binaries. » Sun Service Tags Expanded Sun Inventory (formerly Sun Connection Inventory Channel) has a new release featuring a more dynamic user interface and more service tag-enabled products available for registration. Sun Service Tag FAQ Register Your Sun Gear » Sun Modular Datacenter (Also Known as Project Blackbox) Sun Modular Datacenter (Sun MD) was announced in January 2008 as a generally available product. You can take either a live tour or a virtual tour. » Sun Introduces Emulex HBAs for Netra Family of Carrier-Grade Blade Servers The new Sun StorageTek 4Gb/s Fibre Channel ATCA HBAs, based on the Emulex LightPulse LPe11000 family, offer a highly integrated connectivity solution for telecommunications companies deploying the Sun Netra platform in a SAN environment. More Sun Product Info MOTD ROUNDUP Get more information about these and other MOTD items... » The Sun Configuration Diagrams provide the ability to quickly document a Sun system configuration. Check out the latest additions. » New tech tip from the community: Creating a Script for Scheduled MySQL Backups. Backups are a chore no more with this script, which automates regular backups of a MySQL database using mysqldump, scp, and cron. » Whip up a recipe for deploying a secure desktop environment. This cookbook outlines a self-contained demo using Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Software and Sun Virtual Desktop Connector 1.0 (Beta). » Solaris Trusted Extensions Technical FAQ answers technical questions about NFS protocols, remote login to a labeled zone, DNS server information for a labeled zone, and a lot more. » Be sure to check out our updated Patches page, which has a lot more detailed information about dealing with Solaris patches. HIGHLIGHTS » Techie Toolbox Scripts » Community Tech Tips OFFERS AND EVENTS » DTrace (Un)Conference March 14 in San Francisco dtrace.conf(08) is an "un-conference" where you can share your work on the dynamic tracing framework. » CommunityOne 2008 It's "a Big Tent for the Free and Open Source Community" and it's happening May 5, 2008 in San Francisco. Registration is free, but space is limited. » 2007 Sun Tech Days Include Sys Admin Content And don't miss OpenSolaris Day and NetBeans Day. Upcoming events in 2008: Hyderabad, India (February 27-29); Sydney, Australia (March 4-6); Johannesburg, South Africa (March 11-13); St. Petersburg, Russia (April 2-4); Mexico City, Mexico (May 21-23); Manila, Philippines (June 17-19) » 2008 JavaOne Conference Join us for the 13th JavaOne conference, May 6-9, in San Francisco. Register by April 7 and save US$200.00. » Engineering Webcast: UltraSPARC T2 Technology » Engineering Webcast: High Performance Java Virtual Machine Technology » Net Talk: Sorting Out Solaris Releases » Net Talk: Enterprise IT Workload Automation » Save 30% on Solaris Application Programming Darryl Gove has a comprehensive new book on optimizing the performance of applications for the Solaris OS. » Try Sun Systems for Free, Then Buy at 25-45% Off Test drive Sun products in your IT environment free for 60 days. Save up to 45% off when you purchase your trial system (through June 30, 2008). » Savings on Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 Servers Get 25% off when you trade in your UltraSPARC III or IIIi server for a new eco-efficient Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 or T5220 server based on the UltraSPARC T2 processor. (Through March 31, 2008.) » Discounted Server/Storage Hardware Purchase either a Sun Fire 4100 M2 or a Sun Fire 4200 M2 server bundled with a Sun StorageTek 2530 SAS array and take 15% off the list price. » Trade in Your Old Tape Libraries and Save Trade in qualified Sun and non-Sun tape libraries to expand Sun StorageTek SL8500 Tape Library capacity, and save 40% on expansion slots at selected capacity levels. » Process More Data Faster Save up to 10% on Sun StorageTek Linear Tape Open (LTO) Ultrium data cartridges when you purchase a Sun StorageTek LTO 3 or LTO 4 tape drive. » Sun Certification Milestone: Will You Be Number 500,000? Earn your certification in February or March 2008, and you can get a free Sun certified T-Shirt. » eLearning Certification Success Package Offer Order your package online by March 31, 2008, and you could qualify for a Swiss Army Field Watch or a Solio Universal Hybrid Charger. » Flexible Solaris Developer Support Options Sun Developer Expert Assistance and Solaris Subscriptions are available for the latest release of Solaris Express Developer Edition. Get quick technical help from the source -- engineer to engineer. » Try GlassFish for a Chance to Win an iPhone Just download GlassFish v2 UR1 or Java EE 5 SDK Update 4, and then install and register GlassFish. (In the U.S. and Canada, through March 23, 2008.) LINKS » What's New and Recently Updated on BigAdmin » Visit the BigAdmin Site » BigAdmin Newsletter Archives » Check out the Solaris Developer Center RESOURCES FOR » System Admins » Developers » Partners » Press SUN.COM » My Sun Portal » Products » Services & Solutions » Training » Downloads » Documentation » Sun Store If you have questions or comments about this newsletter, please write to us at: bigadmin.news@sun.com © 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. For information on Sun's trademarks see: http://www.sun.com/suntrademarks To manage your Sun subscriptions, visit the Subscription Center Sun Microsystems, Inc., 18 Network Circle, M/S: UMPK18-124, Attn: Global eMarketing, Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA