The installer will transparently install: □ On Oracle Solaris 11 Express, 11, or higher: - RDA and Explorer via an IPS package with pkg://oraddt/support/explorer. Note: The Oracle Explorer Data Collector is supported on Oracle Solaris Releases 8, 9, 10, 11 Express, and 11. Download Oracle Explorer Data Collector.
This chapter provides details for using Oracle Explorer Data Collector and how to submit output files to Oracle Support.
Using Oracle Explorer Data Collector from an Alternate Path
Follow the procedure below to install and use Oracle Explorer Data Collector from an alternate path after you have downloaded the latest installer (see 'Download Oracle Explorer Data Collector'):
- Complete steps 1 through 7 in 'Extracting Individual Packages'.Note:The Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) needs to be installed, too, in order for Oracle Explorer to be able to collect all information.
- As superuser, install Explorer. Run:pkgadd -R <alternate root> -d . SUNWexplo SUNWexplu
- Create default configuration file for alternate root instance as <alternate root>/etc/opt/SUNWexplo/default/explorer running <alternate root>/opt/SUNWexplo/bin/explorer -g
- To run Explorer from alternate path, use the -d option to locate the alternate default configuration file:<alternate root>opt/SUNWexplo/bin/explorer -d <alternate root>/etc/opt/SUNWexplo/default/explorer
Run Oracle Explorer Data Collector with NFS
Installing Oracle Explorer on multiple servers can be a time-consuming task. To reduce the installation time, install Oracle Explorer on one system and then use NFS mount to share the install directory with other systems.
- Create an Oracle Explorer Data Collector defaults file for the NFS client by performing the following substeps on the NFS server with the tool installed:Note:Most values in the NFS server's Oracle Explorer Data Collector defaults file are valid for all servers in the environment.
- Record the NFS client's host name and host ID.
- Become superuser.
- Go to the Oracle Explorer default directory.cd /etc/opt/SUNWexplo/default
- Copy and rename the defaults file to associate it with the host (for example, explorer.hostname).cp explorer nfs_dir/explorer.hostname
- Edit the new explorer.hostname file to reset the following variable (where hostid is the client's hostid):EXP_SERIAL_$hostid='Client's serial number'
- Reference the client's Oracle Explorer Data Collector defaults file.Note:When using the explorer command on an NFS client, you must specify the Oracle Explorer Data Collector defaults file as input, and you must specify the output directory location. If you do not specify the client's Oracle Explorer defaults file, the NFS server's defaults file is used. If you do not specify the output directory location, an attempt is made to write the output to the NFS server's explorer_install_dir/output directory. The NFS mounted file system might not allow writing over the NFS mount.Use the following Oracle Explorer options:
- Specify the defaults file with -d nfs_client_accessible_dir/explorer.host-name
- Specify the directory in which to write the output with -t /var/tmp (which is a local writable directory)
- Direct output to a local, writable directory by performing the following substeps on the NFS client:
- Become superuser.
- Mount the explorer_install_dir directory from the NFS server
- Change directories into the mount point.
- Execute the following command to send output to the client's /var/tmp/output directory:# explorer -d nfs_dir/explorer.hostname -t /var/tmp
- Do the following to schedule Oracle Explorer Data collector to run on an NFS client using cron:
- Verify that the NFS server is available.
- Verify that the explorer_install_dir directory is mounted on the NFS server.
- Do not send messages to standard output or to standard error.
- Redirect to specific files or /dev/null
Use FTP to Submit Oracle Explorer Data Collector Files
This section describes the procedure to manually submit a Oracle Explorer output file to the Oracle Explorer database (ConfigDB).
AMER and APAC Submissions
- Open a terminal window and type: ftp supportfiles.sun.com
- Type the following user name and password to log in:Username: anonymous Password: your_email_address
- Type the following commands at the ftp prompt:Note:The title explorer.filename is the name of the file to upload. Use explorer as the file name prefix.For example: explorer.80a711xy.abcdf-2002.04.01.12.40-tar.gz
EMEA Submissions
- Open a terminal window and type: ftp sunsolve.sun.co.uk
- Type the following user name and password to log in:Username: anonymous Password: your_email_address
- Type the following commands at the ftp prompt:Note:The title explorer.filename is the name of the file to upload. Use explorer as the file name prefix.For example: explorer.80a711xy.abcdf-2002.04.01.12.40-tar.gz
Use HTTP/HTTPS to Submit Oracle Explorer Data Collector Files
This section describes the procedure to manually submit an Oracle Explorer Data Collector output file to the database (ConfigDB).
For HTTP, the upload link is:
http://supportfiles.sun.com/upload
For HTTPS, the upload link is:
https://supportfiles.sun.com/upload
Oracle Explorer Data Collector files need to be uploaded to the following destinations for automatic submission to the correct configdb.
- AMER - explorer-amer
- APAC - explorer-apac
- EMEA - explorer-emea
Run Explorer for Different Modules/Groups
Explorer can be run for the following modules/groups:
- explorer -w allRuns all modules.
- explorer -w all,interactiveIf the modules tagged to the group all require user interaction, the user is prompted for input.
- explorer -w defaultRuns modules tagged to default
- explorer -w default,interactiveRuns modules tagged to default group. If the modules tagged to the group default require user interaction, the user is prompted for input.
- explorer -w extendedRuns modules tagged to extended group.
- explorer -w extended, interactiveRuns all modules tagged to extended group using interactive mode if the corresponding *input.txt file is not populated.
- explorer -w <module name>If the <module name> requires user interaction, it runs in interactive mode.
- explorer -w default,<module name>Modules tagged under the group default and module_name are executed. Even if the modules tagged under the group default require user interaction, the user is NOT prompted for input. If the module_name requires user input (the corresponding configuration file *input.txt is not populated with relevant information), the user is prompted for input; if the module_name does not require user input, it is executed if hardware compatibility is met.
Troubleshooting Explorer
This section addresses known issues and workaround solutions for the Oracle Explorer Data Collector.
ACT Truncated Output
Oracle Explorer Data Collector Release 6.6 may truncate the ACT output on certain Solaris 10 systems that has ACT versions between 8 and 8.14 installed. This truncation is done to avoid file system overflow described in ACT bug 6897128.
Work around: Download and install the latest version of ACT into the system.
Running Oracle Explorer Data Collector in the Background
If you attempt to run Oracle Explorer Data Collector as a background process in a terminal without -SR, -esc, or -case options, then the tool may wait for you to input (on Explorer type) at the background. In such cases, the tool will not complete its execution and will wait on your input.
Work around: You may note a stopped message on the terminal indicating the suspended process at the background. You will need to bring the suspended process to foreground and then provide the appropriate response to all the Oracle Explorer Data Collector to continue its run.
IPS Actions, Triggered by STB Installation (Solaris 11)
For systems running Solaris 11, most installation tasks are done through the Image Packaging System (IPS). The steps taken for IPS are:
- Publish the file-based IPS repository, extracted from install_stb.sh. Run:
- For software that is in IPS format, the installer will launch:
- When all the software is installed, the file-based repository is unpublished with:
Note:
The individual IPS actions can take time, which might give the impression that the STB installer on Solaris 11 is slow or even hanging.Failing IPS Actions during an STB Install
In some cases, you may get errors such as:
- STB-02004: Cannot publish the IPS repository
- STB-02023: IPS installation of support/sneep failed
- STB-02023: IPS installation of support/act failed
- STB-02013: Cannot unpublish the IPS repository
If you get such an error message, the most likely cause is that there is an active IPS repository on the system, which can no longer be reached. To list the active IPS repositories, run:
Output should look like:
In this case, we see a file based IPS repository point to
/var/tmp/stb/extract/ipsrepo
. If someone has removed this file, the IPS actions, triggered by the STB installation, will all fail.A similar case can happen when an HTTP-based repository can no longer be reached.
The remedy in this cases is to “de-activate” the non-reachable IPS repository by “pkg set-publisher –G <ips repository> <publisher>”.
Tracing an STB Installation
You might find the STB installation slow or might even think the installation is hanging.
If you thing this is the case, start by using the “-verbose” option with “./install_stb.sh” so that you get more information of what the installer is doing currently.
If you are still convinced that the installer is hanging, please send a full trace to Oracle. You can do this by:
Do not forget to type “I(install)” to start the actual installation.
Posted November 28, 2005 by Quinn McHenry in Solaris system administration
Last Updated on
The pkginfo command in Solaris is capable of providing detailed information about the packages installed on a system. This tech-recipe describes some of its uses in listing numerous packages.
To list all packages installed on a Solaris system, use the following:
pkginfo
system SUNWsndmu Sendmail user
system SUNWsolnm Solaris Naming Enabler
system SUNWsprot Solaris Bundled tools
...
The output lists the category, the package name (like SUNWsprot), and a human readable name (Solaris Bundled Tools). The default categories are system and application, although additional categories can be used when making packages to simplify package management. To limit the categories displayed when listing packages, use the -c switch:
pkginfo -c application
The output of pkginfo will generally display pages of output, so it is convenient to pipe its output to more. When looking for a specific package, use pkgadd with the grep command to search for the name of the package or a part of its human readable name. Note the example below:
pkginfo | grep SUNWsndmu
pkginfo | grep -i sendmail
The latter example uses the -i switch to make grep case insensitive, matching upper or lower case.
About Quinn McHenry
Quinn was one of the original co-founders of Tech-Recipes. He is currently crafting iOS applications as a senior developer at Small Planet Digital in Brooklyn, New York.
View more articles by Quinn McHenry
View more articles by Quinn McHenry
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