network setup
Hi,
I'm a total newbie to Solaris, but have moved to a job where (amongst other things) i have a few Blade workstations to look after.
Thing is, half of them have a hostname related to the room they're in - and the other half just show 'unknown' on the login screen. I want to have them all with a meaningful name (i.e. linked to the room name).
How do i change the hostname?
From a quick look around the forums i see people mentioning use of 'sys-unconfig' - should i use this? I'm afraid to as i read the man page and it seems to wipe all network settings, right?
Also, the workstations with the 'correct' names have a fixed IP address, but i thing the others are picking up a dynamic IP from DHCP. What do i need to do to change it from dynamic to fixed?
I believe all the machines are running Solaris 10.
Many thanks,
mark.
[891 byte] By [
mark-w] at [2007-11-26 8:39:43]
# 1
> 'unknown' on the login screen.
For future reference that's a hint that they are dhcp clients.
> From a quick look around the forums i see people
> mentioning use of 'sys-unconfig' - should i use this?
Since you're new, yes.
> I'm afraid to as i read the man page and it seems to
> wipe all network settings, right?
Yes, upon reboot, and finding a nic, it will prompt you for tat information, you just enter the new/old data depending if you want it to change/stay the same.
>What do i need to
> do to change it from dynamic to fixed?
sys-unconfig
alan
# 2
Thanks for your reply alan.
I used sys-unconfig and everything seemed to go well (once i'd re-entered all the details, i was able to login and the web browser worked, pings were ok, etc) - however, a few minutes later (on an unrelated matter) i was wanting to use SMC... only it didn't load properly. The SMC window appeared but then it just stayed on the 'loading' screen.
There were two error messages given. They were both identical:
Open Toolbox: http://unknown:898/toolboxes/smc.tbx failed
Open Toolbox: http://unknown:898/toolboxes/smc.tbx failed
I assume the 'unknown' bit is referring to the machine's hostname before i just changed it with sys-unconfig?
Any ideas on how i can get SMC working again?
Many, many thanks,
mark.
PS: When i issued the sys-unconfig command the system said it would 'halt' which i assumed meant it'd turn off. However, it went through some routine (stopping services, i think) then just waited at a blank white screen with just "OK" as a prompt. I left it for a few minutes but nothing else happened, so i turned it off by holding the power button. Is the the correct thing to do? I guess i've just asked a very stupid question... but hey-ho, you've gotta learn somehow...
markw at 2007-7-6 22:15:23 >
# 3
Refer to docs.sun.com (unlike most other OSes, Sun actually documents their stuff rather well). Search for OBP (the ok prompt you saw was the Open Boot Prom prompt) -- it's kinda like a PC's BIOS (but an "incredible Hulk" version of it).
Unless you want to turn the blade off, you don't necessarily have to power-cycle it. The "OK" (OBP) is the natural course of the initialization process of a solaris (SPARC-based) system. To resume from the OBP, you can type "boot" at the prompt and it will reset and restart your OS.
# 4
> Open Toolbox: http://unknown:898/toolboxes/smc.tbx
> failed
> Open Toolbox: http://unknown:898/toolboxes/smc.tbx
> failed
> I assume the 'unknown' bit is referring to the
> machine's hostname before i just changed it with
> sys-unconfig?
That's what I would assume as well. You might try just opening a browser and trying http://New_Machine_name:898/toolboxes/smc.tbx
>
> PS: When i issued the sys-unconfig command the system
> said it would 'halt' which i assumed meant it'd turn
> off. However, it went through some routine (stopping
> services, i think)
Yup
> then just waited at a blank white
> screen with just "OK" as a prompt. I left it for a
> few minutes but nothing else happened, so i turned it
> off by holding the power button. Is the the correct
> thing to do?
That, or just type, boot
> I guess i've just asked a very stupid
> question... but hey-ho, you've gotta learn somehow...
As was already mentioned, goto docs.sun.com and look for the books on openboot and SMC.
I don't use SMC, so I'm not much of a help there.
alan
# 5
alan & implicate_order,
thanks for your responses - much appreciated.
i will try to figure out this problem with SMC... i guess it is just a case of reconfiguring it to point at the the toolbox (with the machine's new name in the address).
if anyone knows how to do this, please let me know..........
markw at 2007-7-6 22:15:23 >
# 6
I've worked it out - and it wasn't particularly difficult in the end...
start smc
then go 'open toolbox' - if you wait for a few seconds then two existing toolboxes will appear listed. Something like...
http://[machinename]:898/toolboxes/smc.tbx
http://[machinename]:898/toolboxes/this_computer/this_computer.tbx
select the smc.tbx one and open it.
This gets SMC working again. To set it so you needn't open the toolbox everytime, go to Preferences (in SMC, File -> Preferences) and under the console tab alter the 'home' toolbox to the correct address (to the smc.tbx file).
markw at 2007-7-6 22:15:23 >
