Category: Howto

How do I reboot or shut down my Linux server?

To reboot or shut down from the shell (command line):

  • log out all Eclipse Eterm or Solar users
  • Log in as root using the terminal client of your choice (Eterm, PuTTY, etc.)
  • Run the following command to reboot your system:
reboot
  • Run the following command to shut down your system:
halt

To reboot or shut down your server via the GUI (console or DRAC only):

View a step-by-step screencast of this process:

To schedule a reboot to happen at say 4AM, you could type:

at 0400
reboot

Press [CTRL-D] to submit the job

Extended Reboot/shutdown Procedure

If you encountered the “Not all UniVerse processes were successfully terminated” message during a shutdown or reboot, please follow this procedure as root to perform an extended, clean reboot/shutdown of UniVerse:

  • log out all Eclipse Eterm or Solar users
  • Stop SYSTEM.ADMIN, phantoms, JBoss:

RHEL 5 and RHEL 6:

service monit stop
service eclipse-jboss stop
service eclipse-system-admin stop

RHEL 7:

systemctl stop eclipse-jboss 
systemctl stop eclipse-system-admin
For secondary accounts (play, train, stage, etc.), substitute “eclipse” for the account name. For example, a “train” account services would be referred to as train-jboss and train-system-admin.
  • Stop UV processes:
cd /u2/uv
bin/uv
#ESC
MASTER OFF ALL
Q
  • Stop remaining phantoms, UV processes:
pkill -4 -f phantom
  • Stop UV:

RHEL 5 and RHEL 6:

service uv.rc stop

RHEL 7:

systemctl stop universe
  • If UV complains that there are open processes, find any “uv” or “phantom” processes and kill them:
ipcs -mp|grep 0xaceb
kill -15 cpid

uv -admin -stop -force
  • Run the following command to reboot your system:
reboot
  • Run the following command to shut down your system:
halt

How do I upgrade the Fusion-io drivers?

This article was last updated April 2011.

Any time the kernel is upgraded, you’ll need to recompile and reinstall the drivers. As such, it is important to plan your kernel upgrades in advance and perform testing after the first boot using a new kernel.

If you are an IBM customer using IBM High IOPS adapters, please refer instead to the latest IBM documentation, drivers and firmware located at IBM Fix Central.

The 2.3.x driver builds and runs on a much wider range of kernels than the 1.2.x driver series. It accomplishes this using a new portability layer to abstract itself away from the operating system internals. By following the procedure below, you will obtain a working driver, built for the specific kernel running on your system.

Follow the instructions based on the version of your driver.

Building the Fusion-io Drivers From Source

To view a step-by-step screencast of this process, click here.

Before beginning, download the ioDrive driver source rpm for RHEL from the Dell Fusion-io support site to a temporary directory. At minimum, you’ll need the latest version of the following packages:

  • fio-common
  • fio-firmware
  • fio-sysvinit
  • fio-util
  • iomemory-vsl
  • libfio

Here’s a screenshot showing the packages that need to be downloaded.

Remove prior versions of the ioDrive driver rpm

yum remove iomemory* iomanager* iodrive* fio-* libfio*
rm -rf /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/x86_64/iomemory-vsl-*

For Red Hat Enterprise 5, install the gcc 4.x and kernel-devel packages for your current kernel. The kernel-headers package is also needed, but is typically installed as part of the base operating system.

yum -y install kernel-headers-`uname -r` kernel-devel-`uname -r` rpm-build gcc lm_sensors net-snmp

Change to the directory where you downloaded the ioDrive driver source RPM and begin the rebuild process.

rpmbuild --rebuild iomemory-vsl*.src.rpm

Install the newly-built drivers.

yum install --nogpgcheck fio-sysvinit* fio-common* fio-util* libfio* fio-firmware* iomemory-vsl-source* /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/x86_64/iomemory-vsl-*

Check the status of the ioDrive(s):

fio-status

Found 1 ioDrive in this system

fct0 Attached as 'fioa' (block device)
 Fusion-io ioDIMM3 160GB, Product Number:FS1-001-161-ES SN:6168
 Firmware v5.0.1, rev 42895
 161 GBytes block device size, 198 GBytes physical device size capacity.
 PCI:0c:00.0, Slot Number:6
 Internal temperature: avg 42.3 degC, max 44.3 degC
 Media status: Healthy; Reserves: 100.00%, warn at 10.00%

Upgrading the Fusion-io Firmware

In the previous section, you should have already downloaded and installed the latest firmware package. If not, you may download the fio-firmware package from the Fusion-io Support website to proceed. Once the firmware package is installed, it needs to be applied to the cards.

To upgrade the firmware:

fio-update-iodrive /usr/share/fio/firmware/iodrive_*.fff

Watch the output of the upgrade process and reboot when complete.

Update the Fusion-io Init Scripts

NOTE: this is the new recommended configuration for any customer using multiple Fusion-io ioDrives in a RAID array, as it ensures the cards are all initialized before bringing the RAID array and filesystems online. Reference: http://kb.fusionio.com/KB/a64/loading-the-driver-via-udev-or-init-script-for-md-and-lvm.aspx

Uncomment the blacklist line:

vim /etc/modprobe.d/iomemory-vsl.conf
# To keep ioDrive from auto loading at boot when using udev, uncomment below
blacklist iomemory-vsl

Backup /etc/fstab, and modify it to add “noauto 0 0” to the datavg filesystems:

cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.`date +%Y%m%d.%H%M%S`
vim /etc/fstab

Example:

/dev/datavg/u2          /u2                     ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/eclipse     /u2/eclipse             ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/edi         /u2/edi                 ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/ereports    /u2/eclipse/ereports    ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/pdw         /u2/pdw                 ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/uvtmp       /u2/uvtmp               ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/kourier     /u2/kourier             ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0
/dev/datavg/crashplan   /usr/local/crashplan    ext3    defaults,noauto        0 0

Uncomment “ENABLED=1” in /etc/sysconfig/iomemory-vsl to enable init script:

vim /etc/sysconfig/iomemory-vsl
# If ENABLED is not set (non-zero) then iomemory-vsl init script will not be
# used.
ENABLED=1

In the same /etc/sysconfig/iomemory-vsl file, add the RAID array(s) and mount points. For example:

MD_ARRAYS="/dev/md0"
LVM_VGS="/dev/datavg"
MOUNTS="/u2 /u2/edi /u2/eclipse /u2/eclipse/ereports /u2/pdw /u2/uvtmp /u2/kourier /usr/spool/crashplan"

Enable the init script:

chkconfig iomemory-vsl on
chkconfig --list iomemory-vsl

Resources

How do I forward root’s mail to another email address?

It may be useful to create an alias for the root user’s email address, so that another user or group of users receives important system messages.

  • Open the /etc/aliases file for editing
vim /etc/aliases
  • Append a line to the bottom redirecting mail to an external email address
root:           dawit. gebru @epicor.com
  • Refresh the aliases database
newaliases

How do I create a mksysb tape backup on AIX?

These instructions are for AIX 7.1. If you are on AIX 6.1, the steps will be similar. If you are on a previous version of AIX, you should upgrade as soon as possible.

Use Eterm, the local console or HMC to log into the server as root.

At the root command prompt (#), run:

smit mksysb

At the “Back Up This System” screen, press ESC-4 or F4 to change the highlighted fields:

* Backup DEVICE or FILE                              [/dev/rmt0]
  Create MAP files?                                   no
  EXCLUDE files?                                      yes
  List files as they are backed up?                   no 
  Verify readability if tape device?                  no 
  Generate new /image.data file?                      yes
  EXPAND /tmp if needed?                              yes
  Disable software packing of backup?                 yes
  Backup extended attributes?                         yes
  Number of BLOCKS to write in a single output       []  
     (Leave blank to use a system default)
  Location of existing mksysb image                  []
  File system to use for temporary work space        []  
     (If blank, /tmp will be used.)
  Back up encrypted files?                            yes
  Back up DMAPI filesystem files?                     yes

When the fields have been correctly set, press Enter to begin the backup.

A progress indicator will indicate when the backup is running, and when it has completed, you will receive either an OK or Failed completion status message.

After creating the mksysb, you should verify the tape. The verification consists of reading the information stored on the tape back into the system.