AspiringSysadmin.com

To follow up on my previous post, 7 Basic Solaris Troubleshooting Tips, I now thought I would present some of the great information resources that are available to a Solaris sysadmin. As someone pointed out in a comment on this blog, it is not always easy to know what is different between a Linux and Solaris system. Fortunately, since Solaris has been available for so long there is a big community out there and plenty of information. If you are a seasoned Solaris admin you probably won’t find anything new here but if you are new then this is a must-read list.

1. docs.sun.com - this site contains every manual that Sun has ever produced (well, close at least). Not only do you have access to every current version but you get manuals for older releases as well. There is only one drawback, it can be extremely slow sometimes. You may have noticed that all man pages I link to comes from this site.

2. sunsolve.sun.com - here you can search and download the latest patches, knowledge base and the system handbook. For a lot of things you need to have a valid service contract with Sun.

3. www.bigadmin.com - this is another Sun site that contains resources for system administrators. Among other things the HCL for Solaris X86 is here.

All of the above are Sun sites. Below are community resources.

4. Sun Managers - this is a mailing list where you can post your urgent questions and usually get a very quick response from gurus around the world. You are then expected to send a summary email back to the mailing list. It has been extremely helpful for me a couple of times. Make sure you read the guide how to post before sending your first email. As always, do your homework before you post to a mailing list. Most of the time beginner questions can be taken care of by using Google. Do that first.

5. OpenSolaris mailing lists - there are a couple of mailing lists that could be useful to you. OpenSolaris sysadmin is a potential candidate. However, the OpenSolaris mailing lists are not so much for discussing Solaris 10 but if find a bug with some of the new technologies available the people on these lists are usually extremely helpful.

6. If you need to find binary packages you have two good alternatives, Blastwave and Sun Freeware. If you have been reading this blog for a while you may know that I prefer Blastwave but both are good. Together they will cover 99% of your needs for open source software.

If you have any additional resources that you really consider absolutely critical for a Solaris sysadmin please leave a comment.

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