Taking a Sun solaris 2.5 system off the network

[nappaji]

Hello,
I have a Sun OS 2.5 system which is hooked onto my company's netowrk. The network is going down for a weekend and I need to temporarily make the system a standalone system. After the weekend, I;ll have to put it back on the network.

Can anyone please let me know what files need to be modified to get this done?? Is there a standard procedure to accomplish this??

Thanks in advance.

 

[bi]

Does the system have to remain up when the network is down?

I'd do nothing, unless there are going to be changes made to any network IPs that are important to the system. (Double-check with your network folks to make sure! I've been surprised by them before.) When the network goes down, the Sun system will complain, but should find the network when it comes back up.

You could always bring it down to single user mode, but again, why? When the network isn't available, no one's going to be able to get to the Sun box unless they are at the console.

 

[nappaji]

Wouldnt the system hangup trying to look for networking resources (NIS/NFS/DNS) stuff during startup????

My plan is to bring it up with the network cable unplugged and use a local login account for the user to login to the system...

 

[bi]

Yes, during startup of the Sun system, it would look for networking resources. I believe, however, that it wouldn't hang completely, but booting will take forever because it will keep trying to find resources.

But are you bringing the Sun system down? And is the Sun system going to be used during the time the network is down?

If it is going to be used, you could use sys-unconfig (unplug the network cable first) and make the choices that keep the system off the network. Then, when the network comes back up, use sys-unconfig again to put it back on the network.

You also could bring the system down to single user mode. I think at that level, it doesn't require that the network be up.

 

[nappaji]

Yes, the Sun system will be used during the shutdown. My plan is to create local login accounts using the admintool utility and let users login.

Is the sys-unconfig a safe utility.I have never used it before. What I mean is , can I safely un-configure the network parameters and use the same command again to configure the system back??

Any idea how long it might take to unconfigure and configure back???

 

[bi]

Yes. sys-unconfig is safe, believe it or not. Its name is really scary, though. do a man on sys-unconfig.

What it does is walk you through all the questions you were asked when you first installed your system: what is the server name, are you going to be using DNS (which would be no, the first time you use it), etc. You have to boot the box after your are finished answering the questions.

I've had to use it a couple of times when we moved the servers to a different building and the network settings changed.

But, my question is, if you don't have a network, how are your users going to be able to access the Sun system unless they are on the console????

 

[bi]

And regarding the time it takes: Depending on how fast you type and if you have all the info at hand that you need, 5 minutes tops to answer the questions and then however long it takes for your system to boot.

 

[nappaji]

Thanks a lot Bi for your help.

The users are going to be at the console. So, I donot need the network.