IRIX^® Admin: System Configuration and Operation

Table of Contents

New Features in This Guide

About This Guide

What This Guide Contains

Audience for This Guide

Related Publications

Obtaining Publications

Additional Resources

Conventions

Reader Comments

1. Introduction to System Configuration and Operation

Principles of Good System Administration

System Administrator Task List

Administration Tools Overview

2. Making the Most of the IRIX System

IRIX Shells

Displaying Windows on Remote Workstations

Creating a Custom Shell Window

Finding and Manipulating Files

Recursive Commands

Task Scheduling with the at, batch, and cron Commands

Disabling Login with the /etc/nologin File

Using Mouse Shortcuts

Creating Man Pages

System Monitoring Tools

availmon, the System Availability Monitoring Tool

3. System Startup, Shutdown, and Run Levels

Starting the System

Shutting Down the System from Multiuser Mode

Shutting Down the System from Single-User Mode

IRIX Operating System Run Levels (System State)

Powering Off the System Using /etc/inittab

4. Configuring the IRIX Operating System

System Configuration Check

Configuring Software

Partitioning Your System

PCI Hot-Plug Support

5. System Administration in a Multiuser Environment

User Account Administration

User Environment

Sending Messages

6. Configuring Disk and Swap Space

Disk Usage Commands

Managing Disk Space

Swap Space

7. Managing User Processes

Monitoring User Processes

Prioritizing Processes

Terminating Processes

Defining and Managing Cpusets

Checkpoint and Restart

NQE

Share II

Performance Co-Pilot

8. Using the File Alteration Monitor

Configuration File

Basic fam Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting fam When Using a Sun NIS Master

9. Using the Command (PROM) Monitor

PROM Monitor

Entering the Command (PROM) Monitor

Summary of Command Monitor Commands

Getting Help in the Command Monitor

Using Command Monitor Commands

Running the Command Monitor

Command Monitor Environment Variables

Booting a Program from the Command Monitor

10. System Performance Tuning

System Performance Tuning

Monitoring the Operating System

Operating System Tuning

Recovering from an Unbootable Kernel

Multiple Page Sizes

A. IRIX Kernel Tunable Parameters

General Parameters

System Limits Parameters

Resource Limits Parameters

Paging Parameters

IPC Parameters

IPC Messages Parameters

IPC Semaphores Parameters

IPC Shared Memory Parameters

Streams Parameters

Signal Parameter

Dispatch Parameters

Filesystem Parameters

Loadable Drivers Parameters

CPU Action Parameter

Switch Parameters

Timer Parameters

NFS Parameters

Socket Parameters

VINO Parameter

Large Page Parameters

Extended Accounting Parameters

NUMA Parameters

Page Replication Parameter

Migration Memory Queue Parameters

XVM Parameters

CXFS Parameters

Core File Parameter

B. Troubleshooting System Configuration Using System Error Messages

Disk Space Messages

General System Messages

Memory and Swap Messages

System Panic Messages

C. Application Tuning

Checking Application Performance with timex

Tuning an Application

Looking at Reordering an Application

Working around Slow Commercial Applications

D. IRIX Directories and Files

IRIX root Directories

Other Important IRIX System Directories

Important IRIX System Files

IRIX Device Special Files

ASCII Conversion Table

E. Encapsulated PostScript File v.3.0 vs. PostScript File Format

F. Bibliography and Suggested Reading

Index