Feburary 8, 1999
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One nice new feature of Solaris 7 is the System Registry, accessible through the management console. It shows all the packages installed on the system in an easy-to-navigate GUI, with the date installed, version number, last update, and other related information for each. It's based on a flat file, so it can also be viewed or edited from the command line--a boon for hard-core Unix administrators.
Solaris Easy Access Server 2.0
Easy Access Server 2.0 includes the Web Start installation utility and management console already discussed, as well as InstallShield support (the same InstallShield used to install most Windows applications). It also includes a suite of disk tools, a backup program, and client administration tools, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol support, Sun's WebServer, and a mail server.
The disk tools included with Easy Access Server are comprehensive and easy to use. They allow the administrator to easily set up RAID devices, mirrored disks, and volumes that span multiple disks (RAID 0).
The backup program will be quite a treat to those used to using batch scripts and the tar utility for performing file system backups. It provides a nice GUI interface that allows several levels of backups with point-and-click date and time selection. It supports a wide variety of backup devices, including jukeboxes and autoloaders.
Easy Access Server's LDAP directory tools provide a simple graphical interface for implementing an LDAP directory service in a simple graphical interface. You can use existing information from the NIS or NIS+ directory on your existing Sun directory server as the basis for LDAP services, and you can use the LDAP services to modify the information in the NIS and NIS+ directories.
Solaris 7 also includes TotalNet, a network connectivity package for integrating with other network operating systems and clients. TotalNet provides support for Windows, OS/2, and Macintosh clients, using the AppleTalk, NetBEUI and IPX/ SPX network protocols. It lets clients share files on the Solaris server and use its printers as well. One strange shortcoming: I tried to run the configuration tool for TotalNet before configuring DNS, and the tool failed to run, saying that it was unable to locate a DNS entry for the server.
The DNS install was painful and stupid. It's an entirely manual process that involves modifying or creating about six files. The format of the files is difficult and poorly documented. I used the examples in the documentation to create the files (most of them didn't exist, even as sample files, which most Unix operating systems provide), then modified them to use the host names, domain name, IP addresses, etc., necessary to get the whole thing running.
It was by far the most painful process of getting DNS running I've ever had to do. Even when I've done it before with Unix systems, the files were there, with sample lines commented out, so all you had to do was remove comments from the appropriate lines and save the files. And when compared with the GUI-based, interactive DNS setup on NT or NetWare, Solaris' approach is truly archaic.
Once DNS was installed, I was able to set up TotalNet. Before the installation, I had to modify the /etc/groups file to add the user TotalNet wanted to the group it wanted, rather than have them added automatically or through the installer. The TotalNet product also comes with only one license, rather than five, so only one client at a time can be logged on. Once those steps were completed, the installation tool was easy to use and allowed me to add support for the other network clients and protocols.
Then there's Solaris' WebServer. The most difficult thing about setting up WebServer is figuring out how to start it. The process is documented only in the release notes; once you issue five commands in a terminal shell, you can then bring up a Web browser and start the WebServer administration tool from the browser. Unfortunately, the documentation is accessible only through the administration tool--the AnswerBook online documentation contains no mention of it at all, let alone the commands to start it, or how to get the tool running.
Once the WebServer administration tool is started, the rest is easy. It's a production-strength Web server that supports Java servlets as well as Secure Sockets Layer. It may not have the development support that Microsoft's Internet Information Server or Apache's Web server for Linux has, but WebServer is a robust server with a serious set of tools.
The Sun Internet Mail Server 2.0 is a command-line mail tool with no GUI interface. There is a more functional 3.0 version included in the ISP Server package for $5,995. While many companies have run their E-mail systems with tools less sophisticated than Internet Mail Server 2.0, by today's standards, it's complex and difficult to setup.
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