Solaris

Hi Guys,

I am doing L1 Level support for Solaris Platform. Eg. User Management, File system , Print management and Job monitoring.
I recently completer my IBM Aix 7 Administration certification. Issue is that my manager is asking me do full time unix / linux patch management work for new client.

1. As a newcomer should i go for offered new role (Unix / Linux patch management)??
2. Is there any scope in this profile to grow as unix administrator??

Thanks in advance to my Senior Experts.

1) Any chance you have to expand your skill base and grow is a good thing.
2) That depends on your company's prospects for growth. But, if these new responsibilities don't get you on a path for greater things at your current company, there's plenty of companies hiring skilled *nix people.

Thanks Dustin,

Appreciated your prompt response. I will go for new profile as i don't have other option.
Can you help me to get tools names and how it will work to patch and install and software of Unix / Linux platforms.
Its totally new for me, but i am ready to take this challenge.

Package management is built into all modern releases of unix and linux. Each vendor has their own methods though, so you'll need to find out what the main platforms you will be supporting are and focus your efforts there. Most of the time, package management isn't too hard.

You can find from Oracle a great set of basic and advanced system administration manuals with the help of Google. I suspect if you reviewed the sections on package management you'd be in great shape to proceed with Solaris.

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The one caveat, Solaris 10 doesn't have automatic dependency resolution or updating. So, it's a fairly manual process. 11 is vastly improved in this regard.

Well for patching, first thing you learn is backup then you learn repositories (IPS).
Having local repositories is a major advantage.

In Solaris 11, if you do major patching the pkg will patch the inactive boot environment then it will be active after next reboot (utilizing zfs clone ability on root zpool).

That helps you, since if things go berserk, you can always reboot the host and revert to old environment.

On HPUX, the tool for patching is swinstall and for backup/repositories it's Ignite.

Great help here is HPSIM tool with SWA (Software assistant), which generates reports what to patch, connecting to HP site and your HP machines.

For linux, for major kernel patches, you will have your last couple of kernels to boot from if things go wrong. For backup i use tar/gzip (read full drive backup for your distribution).

And the final piece of advice (not OS related) is to have test environments to try patching first.
Nothing can substitute that.

Hope that helps
Regards
Peasant.

Hi Guys,

Thank you so much for your input, I have considered your advice.