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Chapter 9 Managing the Systems Daily


Chapter 9 Managing the Systems Daily
This chapter describes the daily work required in SPARC M12/M10 system management.
Backing Up XSCF Settings Information
Regularly back up the XSCF settings information stored on the master XSCF. After replacement of a field replaceable unit (FRU) due to the failure of the FRU including the master XSCF, restoring the XSCF settings information stored as a backup enables system operation to continue without change, as it was before the failure.

For details, see "10.10 Saving/Restoring XSCF Settings Information."
Backing Up Logical Domain Configuration Information
Regularly back up the logical domain configuration information configured by Oracle VM Server for SPARC. Make a backup for each logical domain from the control domain. The configuration information of the logical domain can be stored using the following two methods:
- Saving in XSCF

- Saving as XML file

After changing the domain configuration, be sure to back up the latest configuration information. We recommend saving duplicates of backup files onto other media in case of disk failure.

For details, see "10.11 Saving/Restoring Logical Domain Configuration Information in the XSCF" and "10.12 Saving/Restoring Logical Domain Configuration Information in an XML File."
Backing Up the OpenBoot PROM Environment Variables
Record and back up the OpenBoot PROM environment variables set in the control domain periodically.
If you want to change the logical domains to the factory-default configuration to restore logical domain configuration information from an XML file, the OpenBoot PROM environment variables in the control domain are initialized, and Oracle Solaris boot cannot be performed.
To prevent this from happening, record and save the OpenBoot PROM environment variables in the control domain before changing to the factory-default configuration. After changing the logical domains to the factory-default configuration, restore the OpenBoot PROM environment variables in the control domain using the saved information.
Backing Up Internal Disk Drives
Regularly back up the data on internal disk drives. The backup method varies depending on the configuration of the installed drives. Execute backup according to the drive configuration.
Updating to the Latest Firmware
The XSCF firmware for SPARC M12/M10 system management is provided as the XCP package together with OpenBoot PROM, Hypervisor, and POST. The latest version of the XCP package is regularly released with new added functions, bug fixes, etc. Always update to the latest version of the XCP package immediately after it is published.

For details about updating to the latest firmware, see "Chapter 16 Updating the XCP Firmware."

New functions and changes in the XCP package are mentioned in the Product Notes of the corresponding XCP version for your server. Be sure to read it.
Monitoring the System Status
The XSCF constantly monitors system operation.
You can get a grasp of the server status by accessing the XSCF from the XSCF shell or XSCF Web.
Use the XSCF SNMP agent function, failure information notification function, and various messages and logs to monitor system failures and events.
For details, see "10.2 Receiving Notification by E-mail When a Failure Occurs," "10.3 Monitoring/Managing the System Status with the SNMP Agent," and "Chapter 12 Checking Logs and Messages."