Sun SPARC Hardware and Solaris OS Tips

A: First and foremost, you should read this tutorial on understanding Sun part number nomenclature. Once you understand what Sun part#s generally look like, the following tutorial will be easier to understand.

Summary:

1) Does it have a Sun part# on the bottom left hand corner of the label on top of the the drive? If so, it’s a Sun Original drive. If not, then it is a Third Party drive.

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A: The answer is “yes and no.” 🙂 Seriously, though, while it is sometimes possible to physically use non-Sun disks in Sun machines, there are a lot of “if/then/and/or” type questions you need to consider first.One of the most important things to realize is that there is a difference between what is technologically possible and what is considered “supported” from Sun’s viewpoint. In most, if not all cases, while you may be able to plug a non-Sun drive into a Sun array or a server and it may work, Sun will frown upon it. Continue reading for more details.

Summary:

1) First and foremost: are your machines supported under a Sun maintenance contract?
2) Are the drives Fibre or SCSI disks?
3) Closing thoughts.

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Ok, so strictly speaking, this is not a computer joke. . . but being that today is Valentine’s Day, and this was sent to me by one of my Sun consulting friends, I figured it was ok to post it:

 When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That’s amore.

When a Japanese knight used a sword in a fight
That’s Sa…mur…ai.

Cute, eh?  If you’re lucky enough to have one, sing it out loud it to your geek girl today!

A: SUMMARY:

1) From wherever you are, bring the machine to the OK prompt.

2) At the OK prompt, type banner.

3) Reading and understanding banner information.

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A customer of mine recently sent me a link to “The First Poem Written for Computers” — for the benefit of those who click through and don’t understand it, I’ll explain:

To sysadmin / programmer types, each symbol on the keyboard has a “slang name”, for example # is known as “hash”, ! is known as bang and * is known as splat.

That said, click through and learn what all the other symbols are called.

PS>  Be sure to come back often and check for new Solaris tips. New Sun tutorials are being posted all the time.

So today I got to thinking — what if I wasn’t the one writing this blog. What if I were a reader? Wouldn’t I think that the author was just a bit biased in favor of AnySystem, particularly because his paycheck comes from there?

Well, that got me to thinking . . . and I realized that the best way to toot AnySystem’s horn is to just let customers past and present toot it – by substantiating my past commentary with unbiased and completely unsolicited reviews and testimonials found all across the internet: Read the rest of this entry »

Reading Sun part numbers might seem like a black art to some, but after reading this quick primer, you too will be an expert.

The first thing to know is that Sun is not a manufacturer. Strictly speaking, they do not actually manufacture many, if any, of their parts. For example, they use Seagate and Fujitsu hard drives, or Samsung memory onto which they put bar code stickers with Sun part numbers to magically turn them into what are commonly called “Sun original parts.” Because of this, you will frequently find more than one part number on any given part, making it very important to learn how to first identify the Sun part#, then how to read and decipher it.

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Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you that following the tips in this tutorial is probably a bad idea. For the love of everything that is sacred, read the disclaimer page.

It’s important to note that raising the clock speed of any machine (not just Sun machines) generally raises it’s heat output, so you should only try this on a properly cooled machine stored in an air-conditioned room.

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A: There are several situations you might find yourself in which might require you to bypass or temporarily disable the root password on a Solaris machine. For example, you have an old Sun machine that you pulled out of the closet, or someone might have asked you to fix their Sun machine. In any case, for some reason you do not know the root password to your Solaris box, this solution will show you how to both bypass and temporarily disable the root password. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a sales rep at AnySystem.com. We are independent resellers of Sun hardware – meaning that we are not Sun authorized resellers.

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