DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to teach you how to administer a standalone
Sun workstation running Solaris 8. It covers all the topics that are covered on the first Sun Certification Exam. The course covers the exam objectives in enough detail for the inexperienced administrator to learn the objectives and apply the
knowledge to real-life scenarios. Experienced administrators will
find the material in this course to be complete and concise, making
it a valuable reference guide. The course addresses the Certification Exam objectives in detail,
from start to finish. If you are unsure about the objectives on
the exam, this course will teach you what you need to know. After
each chapter, there are extensive review questions and exercises. Included with the course is an ExamGear CD-ROM, which can be used to
assess your knowledge of the objectives covered on the exam. This
CD-ROM contains sample questions that you are likely to see on the
real exam.

PREREQUISITES

* at least 6 months of hands-on UNIX experience OR
* Microsoft or other system administration experience
would be beneficial.

TOPICS COVERED:
================

The Solaris Directory Structure

Subdirectories of /
File Types
Conventions

User Account Administration

User Account Information
The /etc/passwd File
The /etc/shadow File
The /etc/group File
Managing Users With Admintool
Admintool - Adding a User Account
Admintool - Modifying a User Account
Admintool - Deleting a User Account
USERADD
USERMOD
USERDEL
Admintool - Adding a Group
Admintool - Modifying a Group
Admintool - Deleting a Group
GROUPADD
GROUPMOD
GROUPDEL
VIPW
Shell Initialization Files
The /etc/skel Directory

Device Management

Device Names
The Kernel
Physical Device Name
Logical Device Name
Instance Name
Configuring Devices
Reconfiguration Boot
DEVFSADM

Disk Management

The Physical Geometry of a Disk
Picture of a Disk
Disk Slices (Partitions)
FORMAT
Using "Modify" to Create a New Partition Table
PRTVTOC
Where to From Here?

Filesystem Management

Raw Disk Slice
NEWFS
FSTYP
UFS Filesystem Structure
UFS - Boot Block
UFS - Superblock
UFS - Cylinder Groups
UFS - Inode Table
Inodes
Hard Links (LN)
UFS - Data Blocks
FSCK

Mounting and Unmounting of Filesystems

Mounting a Filesystem
MOUNT
The /etc/vfstab File
The /etc/mnttab File
DF
UMOUNT
FUSER
MOUNTALL and UMOUNTALL
VOLD
Management of CD-ROM Devices
VOLCHECK
Management of CDs and Floppies Without Filesystems
DU

Software Package Administration

What is a Software Package?
PKGINFO
The /var/sadm/pkg Directory
The /var/sadm/install/contents File
PKGADD
PKGRM
PKGCHK
Using Admintool to Adminster Packages

Patching Software

What is a Patch?
Patch Report
Listing Installed Patches
PATCHADD
Patch Installation
PATCHRM

The Boot PROM

The PROM
Testing Hardware
The NVRAM
BANNER and HELP
The EEPROM
PRINTENV and SETENV
EEPROM
RESET and SET-DEFAULTS
PROBE-SCSI and PROBE-IDE
Initiating Booting
Device Aliases
NVALIAS and SHOW-DISKS
BOOT
Command Summary

System Shutdown Commands

Run Levels
Shutting Down the System
SHUTDOWN
HALT
INIT
REBOOT
POWEROFF
Command Summary
STOP-a (The Vulcan Death Grip)

The Booting Process

The Booting Process
Booting - Boot PROM Phase
Booting - Boot Programs Phase
Booting - Kernel Phase
The /etc/system File
Booting - Init Phase
The /etc/inittab File
Startup Scripts - The Big Picture
/etc/init.d Scripts
Run Control Scripts (/etc/rc?.d)
Run Control Scripts (/sbin)
Sample /sbin/rc2 Script

System Security

Overview
SU
Monitoring the SU Command
LAST
CHOWN
Special Permission Bits
The SETUID Bit
The SETGID Bit on a Directory
The Sticky Bit
Setting Special Permissions
Setting the SETGID Bit on a Directory
CHGRP
Access Control Lists
SETFACL
GETFACL

System Security - Part 2

The "R" Commands
Trusted Hosts
The /etc/hosts.equiv File
The $HOME/.rhosts File
Remotely Logging in to "root" Account
The /etc/default/login File
XHOST and the DISPLAY Variable

The Solaris Print System

Types of Printers
Administering Printers
PRINTMGR
Configuring a Local Printer with printmgr
Configuring a Remote Printer with printmgr
Configuring a Network Printer with printmgr
LPADMIN
REJECT and DISABLE
ACCEPT and ENABLE
Stopping and Starting Print Services

Administering System Processes

Monitoring Processes
PS
PRSTAT
CDE Process Manager
PGREP
KILL
PKILL
Scheduling a Process to Run at a Future Time
AT
CRONTAB
Controlling AT and CRONTAB Usage
The /etc/default/cron File

System Backups

The Importance of System Backups
Overview of System Backups
Backup Considerations
UFSDUMP
Dump Levels
The /etc/dumpdates File
Dump Schedules
UFSRESTORE
CPIO
TAR
DD
MT

Performing a UFS Snapshot Backup

What is a UFS snapshot?
FSSNAP

Appendix

Exercise Solutions