A Sysadmin's Notes: November 2013

Monday, November 25, 2013

Installing Firefox on Solaris (Update III)

These are my updated notes on how to install Firefox on a Solaris 10 server. In this installment, I will go over two different ways to install Firefox. I will be using the files found at the Mozilla website, which just started hosting these files. To check out my previous posts on installing Firefox please check out at the bottom of this post.

The files on the Mozilla site, are the same files that can be found at Sunfreeware.com or UNIXpackages.com. The only issue with getting Firefox from this site is that it is not actually from them. They go out of there way to say this on there site and I quote; "They are the ONLY packages in our repository that are not compiled by us, and were contributed by External Offshore developers in East Asia". The README file on the site says that they where contributed by Oracle Solaris Desktop Beijing Team. I checked with the local Oracle reps in the area and they can't confirm that install files are from Oracle. Anyway if this is not an issue for you then follow the instructions below to install Firefox.

Get the Files
Use the links below to download the files needed for this how to.
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/24.0esr/contrib/solaris_pkgadd/
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/24.0esr/contrib/solaris_tarball/

We will use the files below to install Firefox.
firefox-24.1.1esr.en-US.solaris-10-fcs-sparc.tar.bz2
firefox-24.1.1esr.en-US.solaris-10-fcs-sparc-pkg.bz2

Install Firefox from a tar file.
One advantage of installing Firefox with a tar file is that you can install Firefox almost anywhere. Run the following commands to install Firefox.

root@earth> mv firefox-* /usr/lib/
root@earth> cd /usr/lib
root@earth> bzip2 -cd firefox-24.1.0esr.en-US.solaris-10-fcs-sparc.tar.bz2 | tar xvf - root@earth> ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

Start Firefox.

root@earth> firefox

Install Firefox from a package.

root@earth> bzip2 -d firefox-24.0esr.en-US.solaris-10-fcs-sparc-pkg.bz2
root@earth> pkgadd -d ./firefox-24.0esr.en-US.solaris-10-fcs-sparc-pkg

The following packages are available:
   1 SFWatk ATK - Accesibility Toolkit Libraries
                       (sparc) 1.24.0,REV=110.0.4.2009.02.26.22.56
   2 SFWcairo    Vector graphics library
                       (sparc) 1.8.4,REV=110.0.4.2009.02.26.23.05
   3 SFWfirefox     Mozilla Firefox Web browser
                       (sparc) 24.1.0esr,REV=110.0.4.2013.10.24.13.53
   4 SFWglib2       Low level core compatibility library for GTK+ and GNOME
                      (sparc) 2.18.3,REV=110.0.4.2009.02.27.14.31
   5 SFWgtk2    GTK+ - GIMP Toolkit Library for creation of graphical user interfaces
                      (sparc) 2.14.5,REV=110.0.4.2011.05.26.09.57
   6 SFWpango    Library for layout and rendering of internationalized text
                      (sparc) 1.22.3,REV=110.0.4.2009.02.26.23.21
   7 SFWpixman    Vector graphics library
                      (sparc) 0.12.0,REV=110.0.4.2009.02.26.23.01

Select package(s) you wish to process (or 'all' to process
all packages). (default: all) [?,??,q]:

You can install all the packages listed above or just the Firefox package (SFWfirefox). Firefox will be installed at /opt/sfw/lib/firefox. The install process will link the Firefox exacuteable to /usr/local/bin/firefox. Start firefox as shown below.

root@earth> firefox

If Firefox doesn't start then I would make sure that /usr/local/bin in your path.

My Other Firefox posts.
Installing Firefox on a Solaris server
Installing Firefox on Solaris (Update)
Installing Firefox on Solaris (Update II)

Friday, November 8, 2013

Firefox won't run

This is quick fix for getting Firefox to run, when it says it is already running. How this only seems to happen if you have your home directory mounted across all your computers. The picture below is the error you normally get when your have this problem.

One way to fix this is to delete the lock file.

root@earth> rm ~/.mozzilla/firefox/*.default/lock

You can also use profiles to get past this error. I would suggest you create a different profile for each computer you use Firefox on. Run the command below to get the Pop-up GUI for selecting the profile, as show below. From here you can create a profile to use, if you need one.

root@earth> firefox -p

If you already have profile, then run the command firefox -p with the profiles name at the end.

root@earth> firefox -p profilename

Please feel free to add an comments below If I have missed something.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Replace drives on a StoreEdge 6130 & 6140

These are my notes on how to replace a hard drive for a StorEdge 6130 and 6140.

Add disk space from 6130 or 6140 array (host initiator already exists)

1. Log onto the host and note the existing disks with “format”.

2. Log onto the StorageTek Common Array Manager via web browser. URL – https://server:6789 root login.

3. Expand the 6130 or 6140 array, based on the system requiring space.

4. Click on the Volumes tab and click on New.

5. Select the Storage Pool. Click Next.

6. Select “Storage Selected Automatically by CAM”

7. Name the new volume and complete the Size section as needed. Click Next.

8. Select “Map to an Existing Host/Host Group or the Default Storage Domain. Click Next.

9. Select the host. Click Next.

10. Review the information. Click Finish. Configuration will take a minute or two.

11. Repeat step 4 thru 10, if additional disk space is required.

12. Log onto the host and note the existing disks.

13. If the newly created disk(s) are not listed, run “devfsadm” or “cfgadm –al”.

14. Create a new zpool with “zpool create ”

15. Create a filesystem on the new zpool with “zfs create /file system”

16. Set a mount point for the new file system “zfs set mountpoint=

Download Java in MOS

Oracle offers patches for their software products through My Oracle Support (MOS). The issue is the way Oracle handles Java patches. If you don't have a software contact, then Oracle will not let you directly download the latest Java patch. This can be extremely frustrating, given the fact that the patch is part of both the CPU patchset and 10 Recommend patchset, for Solaris 10. Also if you have a Premier Hardware Support contract, then you get software support for the Solaris operating system. So why Oracle makes it hard is beyond me.

If you don't have a Software support contract then you can't download Java as a Java patch. You can however download a Java patch as system patch. It is actually the same patch ether way. So what matters is the approach you use to get the patch. Follow the steps below to download the latest Java patch as a system patch.

Fig. 1 - Patch Search

Steps
1) Login to MOS.

2) Go to the Patches and Upgrade tab.

3) Choose the Product or Family (Advanced).
At this point you should be at figure 1.

Fig. 2 - Example of processor types

4) For the Product field input Solaris Operating System.

5) For the Release drop down menu. Pick the Solaris Operating system version you need.
Look at figure 2 as an example.

6) For the next drop down choose Platform.

Fig. 3 - Example of finished search fields

7) For the next drop down pick the Solaris Operating system processor type you need.

8) Then choose Description.

9) type in javase in the last box.

10) Check the Exclude Superseded patches.

At this point your search should look like figure 3.

I hope this helps you out.
You can also use this method to download other patches form Oracle such as OpenSSL.
If you have any comments please post them below.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Show Faulted Hardware in ILOM

Here, I will go over my notes on how to identify and clear hardware faults, in an ILOM (Integrated Lights Out Manager). On this page I will use the example of a chassis fan module error. If you follow my notes and the error clears Then you didn't have a real issue. On the other hand, If after following my notes you can't clear the error. Then you have a real hardware issue. You can't clear errors if the error is still an issue.

This is how you login to the command line interface for the ILOM.

man@earth> ssh root@ilom

The command below is one way to show system faults. The only target you should see is shell. If you see anything other then shell it is a fault. In the example below, the ILOM shows a bad system fan. Shown as 0 (/SYS/FMO).

--> show /SP/faultmgmt

/SP/faultmgmt
     Targets:
          shell
          0 (/SYS/FM0)

      Properties:

      Commands:
          cd
          show

Using the show faulty command is anther way to see the system faults. This command shows a lot more detail. If you have a support contract with Oracle, you will want to paste the output of this command into the ticket, you submit to MOS. The show faulty command can be used without any paths, which will be extra useful if are coming in from a chassis ILOM.

The command below shows the event log, which will also contain the system hardware errors.

--> show /SP/logs/event/list

To clear the hardware fault from the logs run the command below.

--> show /SP/logs/event/ clear=true

Run this command to clear the fan error.

--> set /SYS/FM0 clear_fault_action=true

Try to clear the hardware fault. If the hardware is really having an issue, the hardware fault will come back. In about a minute or less. If you can't clear the error and you have a support contract then this is when you summit your ticket.

If you have any questions or I missed something let me know.

A Sysadmin's Notes

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