Category Archives: HP-UX system administration

Creating ISO image from CD/DVD

28/03/2011 – 11:10

This one is particularly helpful for installing HP VM guests, as you don’t need to change the disks physically. Creating ISO images from CD/DVD media on HP-UX is so easy on Unix: you can create the image simply with dd. # dd if=/dev/rdsk/c2t0d0 of=/INSTALL_MEDIA/disk1.iso bs=1024k This is because the ISO format is practically a verbatim [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Backup & Restore, Filesystems, Virtualization | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Setting system initial parameters

21/03/2011 – 12:44

This is a quick reminder on how to set system initial parameters like hostname, root password and networking. This routine runs directly at install time, right after the first boot and gives the newly created system all the required settings. It can come handy if you have just installed a VM (HP IVM) and have [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Networking, Virtualization | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Getting the version of sendmail

07/03/2011 – 14:54

Here are two methods to get the sendmail version on HP-UX: # what /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail: Copyright (c) 1998 HEWLETT PACKARD COMPANY and its licensors, including Sendmail, Inc., and the Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved. version.c       8.9.3 (Berkeley) 10 May 2007  (PHNE_35950) #

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Messaging | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Creating a restricted user in SAM

18/02/2011 – 10:10

Sometimes it’s not necessary to install sudo just get some simpler tasks done by operators. There is a so called restricted user in SAM to which you can delegate simpler tasks. Here is how to start creating it: # sam -r This invokes the restricted SAM builder. Now select the user to which you want [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in HP-UX Security | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Converting a VXFS filesystem to largefiles enabled

08/02/2011 – 10:08

This is how to find out if the largefiles flag is set on a VXFS filesystem: # fsadm /home fsadm: /etc/default/fs is used for determining the file system type nolargefiles # At this point, you should check if you have the OnlineJFS license to alter the filesystem flag online: # swlist -l product OnlineJFS # [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Filesystems | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

VXFS maximum subdirectory limit

02/02/2011 – 14:46

It is not commonly known that VXFS has a “maximum subdirectory limit”, but you may come across this if e.g. you are administering a large archive server. The limit is at 32766, and the only thing you can do about that is to double it: # kctune -s vx_maxlink=65534 Having a VXFS filesystem with millions [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Filesystems, HP-UX | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Rescanning the OnlineJFS license

28/01/2011 – 15:53

In some cases the newly installed OnlineJFS license hasn’t been recognized. Normally, it should be rescanned and identified by the system that we have a valid license for extending vxfs online. # swlist -l product OnlineJFS # Initializing… # Contacting target “hpigni1″… # # Target:  hpigni1:/ # OnlineJFS             B.11.11.03.03  Online features of the VxFS File [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in LVM and VxVM | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

UNIX95 variable influences to the ps command

20/01/2011 – 15:32

Setting UNIX95 to some value (it doesn’t matter what it is) changes the behavior of the ps command to use the XPG4 environment instead of the HPUX environment. You can see all the different command line options and the XPG4 behaviors by looking at the man pages (e.g. man ps). Several options like ps -o [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Languages and Scripting, Monitoring, Resource management | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (5)

Offline migration – minimizing downtime with rsync

12/01/2011 – 12:12

As we all know, downtime is an unavoidable must in some cases. There may be cases when the application need to be migrated to a new system, and it can only be done offline. Even if the downtime can’t be eliminated, you can do some things to minimize it. First, create the new filesystem layout [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Backup & Restore, Storage | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Some thoughts about mediainit – low level formatting and why it mustn’t be done

02/01/2011 – 14:40

mediainit is neither required nor recommended for most modern disks. In fact, mediainit might damage some (semi-)modern disks. Even the most basic SCSI disks today have a built-in defect management system in the disk firmware/hardware level,  so the OS normally sees the disk as having zero defects. The primary purpose of mediainit was to detect [...]

By Viktor Balogh | Also posted in Servers, Storage, System Internals | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)