Device Errors And Diagnostics; File System Checks, Backups, And Disaster Recovery - Sun Microsystems Sun Workstation 100U System Manager's Manual

System Set-Up and Operation
Sun 100/150 Installation Manual
*
cd /
*
/etc/umount -a
*
AD (
Brings the system up multi-user]
Each system shutdown, crash, processor halt and reboot is recorded in the file
/ u,r/
adm/ ,hutdownlog with the cause.
6.9. Device Errors and Diagnostics
When errors occur on peripherals or in the system, the system prints a warning diagnostic on
the console. These messages are collected regularly and written into a system error log file
I u,r/
adm/ me"tJge, by dme,g(8), which is started by cron(8).
Error messages printed by the devices in the system are described with the drivers for the dev-
ices in the Section 4 pages of the S,llfem Interface MtJnutJI. If errors occur indicating hardware
problems, you should contact your hardware support group or field service. It is a good idea to
examine and truncate the error log file regularly - see the section below on File, which Need
Periodic Attention.
6.10. File System Checks, Backups, and Disaster Recovery
Periodically (say every week or so in the absence of any problems) and always (usually automat-
ically) after a crash, all the file systems should be checked for consistency by /etc/f,ck (see
f-,ck(l». The procedures of / etc/reboot (see reboot(8» should be used to get the system to a
state w here a file system check can be performed manually or automatically.
Dumping of the file systems should be done regularly, since once the system is going it is easy to
become complacent. Complete and incremental dumps are easily done with / etc/ dump (see
dump(8». Most people do a level-O dump on a weekly or monthly basis, and a level-9 dump
daily.
Dumping files by name is best done by ttJr(l), but the amount of data that can be moved in this
way is limited to a single tape.
It is desirable that full dumps of the root file system be made regularly. This is especially true
when only one disk is available. Then, if the root file system is damaged by a hardware or
software failure, you can rebuild a workable disk by doing a restore in the same way that the
initial root file system was created.
In the normal nature of things, disk space gets used up until your lu,r file system is full. At
this point, there are several places to look for files you can remove:
• Every time a crash occurs, several MBytes of system image get dumped into the / u,rl crtJ,h
directory. You can clean the
tim-
files out if you don't need them for debugging or trouble
reporting. Don't remove the lu-,rlcrtJ-,hlbound,file.
• Files in
I
u,rl adm grow and must be pruned regularly.
• Check your accumulated mail file(s) - some diligent mail writers have been known to gen-
erate about a quarter of a MByte of mail per user per month.
• Network news accumulates at a fearsome rate.
• Finally, police your own directories regularly.
Useful mechanisms for monitoring disk usage are dU{l) and dJ(l).
6-24
Revh,ion H of 12 March 1984