Solaris Interview Questions asked in IBM interviews

11) Which command displays the system configuration information?
A) prtconf

12) Which command is used to configure newly attached hardware ?
A) devfsadm –c where

13) What are the different types of “file systems” in Solaris?
A) There are 3 Types of file system :
13.A.1) Disk based : ufs (standard unix), hsfs (cd-rom), pcfs (Floppy)
Or udf (DVD and CD Rom)
13.A.2) Distributed : NFS (enables sharing of files between many types of n/w)
13.A.3) Pseudo : tmpfs (temporary), swapfs , fdfs, procfs

14) What is a “boot block”?
A) The bootstrap program (bootblk) is found in the next 15 disk sectors. Only the “root” file system has an active boot block, although the space is allocated for boot block at the beginning of each file system.

15) What is “superblock”?
A) The file system is determined by its superblock. It is contained in the 16 disk sectors following the boot block. It contains :
· No. of data blocks
· No.of cylinder groups
· Size of data block fragment
· Description of hardware
· Name of mount point
· File system state flag ( clean , stable , active , logging or unknown)

16) How will you repair the main superblock if it gets corrupted?
A) Every file system has backup superblock at block no.32, which can be given to fsck to repair the main superblock.
# fsck –o b=32 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0

17) How to create new file systems ?
A) newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0

18) How will you restore /etc/vfstab file if it gets corrupted?
A) Step 1 : Insert Solaris CD 1 of 2
Step 2 : Go to single user mode : ok boot cdrom –s
Step 3 : Run “fsck” on /(root) partition : # fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
Step 4 : Mount /(root) file system on /a directory to gain access to file system
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a
Step 5 : Set & export TERM variable
# TERM=sun
# export TERM
Step 6 : Edit /etc/vfstab file and remove the incorrect entry : # vi /a/etc/vfstab
Step 7 : Unmount the file system : # cd / ; # umount /a and reboot the system.

19) How will you share user’s home directory?
A) Step 1 : Login as root and verify mountd daemon is running
# ps –ef | grep mountd
Step 2 : If the daemon is not running start it :
# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start
Step 3 : List all shared filesystems
# share
Step 4 : Edit the /etc/dfs/dfstab file and add :
# share –F nfs /export/home
Step 5 : Share the file systems in the /etc/dfs/dfstab file :
# shareall –F nfs
Step 6 : Verify that the home directory is shared.
# share

20) What does /etc/inittab file contain ?
A) The /etc/inittab contains the systems default run level, processes to start/monitor
or restart. It also contains the actions to be taken when run level changes.
/etc/inittab file is in foll format :- id:rstate:action:process

Thanks Dushyant (scorpio) for sharing these interview questions

Solaris Interview Questions - Sun's OS is a favourite among Storage industry

Sun microsystem's Solaris Operating System has a large penetration in Storage industry so it becomes a necessity for Storage professionals to know Solaris. A good blog reader "Dushyant" (scorpio) : has shared very good interview questions which he has collected from his experience of attending interviews. Thanks Dushyant for sending these questions & sharing with this blog community - I appreciate your efforts. As a reward I will be sending Dushyant 4 PDF's of Solid Storage Fundamentals to help his Storage Learning.

I request all readers of this blog to share their IT or Storage related ORIGINAL articles & get more Free downloadable materials from me.

Solaris Interview Questions
1) What files control user administration?
A) /etc/passwd file: 7 Fields: loginid:x:userid:groupid:comment:homedir:shell
/etc/shadow: 9 Fields: loginid:password:lastchng:min:max:warn:inactive:expire
/etc/group : 4 Fields : groupname:password:groupid:username list)

2) What does the “pwconv” command do?
A) It updates the /etc/shadow file with information from /etc/passwd file.

3) Where are the failed login attemps to system logged?
A) /var/adm/loginlog (We need to create this file as it does not exist by default)

4) Which command shows the users currently logged in to system?
A) who ( It reads the information from /var/adm/utmpx file)

5) Which command will show detailed information about a user?
A) finger –m

6) Which command displays all login and logouts?
A) last (It reads the information from /var/adm/wtmpx file)

7) What is the “StickyBit” file permission?
A) Sticky Bit permission protects the file within a public writable directory.
File set with sticky bit will not allow any user to delete the file except the
Owner of file, owner of the group or the root user.

8) How is ACL (Access Control Lists) implemented?
A) 8.1) “getfacl”command : To display an ACL on file.
Syntax : getfacl

8.2) setfacl command : To set the ACL on file
Syntax : setfacl


8.3) setfacl –m command : To modify ACL entries
Syntax : setfacl –m

8.4) setfacl –s command : Remove old ACL entries and replace with new one.
Syntax : setfacl –s

8.5) setfacl –d command : Delete ACL entry
Syntax : setfacl –d

9) Imp “root(/)” subdirectories and their purpose :
9.1) / : Root of overall file system.
9.2) /bin : Symbolic link to /usr/bin. Stores standard system commands and binary files.
9.3) /dev : Primary location for “logical” device names
9.4) /devices : Primary location for “physical” device names
9.5) /etc : Contains host specific system admin config files
9.6) /export : Default directory for commonly shared filesystems.
9.7) /home : Default directory / mount point for user’s home directory
9.8) /kernel : Directory of platform independent loadable kernel file
9.9) /mnt : Temporary mount point for file systems
9.10) /opt : Default directory for add on packages
9.11) /sbin : Executables used in booting process and file recovery
9.12) /tmp : Temporary files
9.13) /usr : Mount point for /usr file system
9.14) /var : Directory for varying files, temporary logging or status files

10) What are the different disk slices?

Slice Name Function
0 / Root’s system files
1 swap Swap area
2 Entire Disk
5 /opt Optional Software
6 /usr System Exe’s
7 /export/home User’s file and directories

Dushyant has sent 41 interview questions in total which will be posted in next posts - updated in next 6 hours. This blog is updated twice a day & has lots of good articles in previous posts - So spend enough time to read thru & get a Career boost.

For people interested in Virtualisation jobshere is a great blog http://virtualizationjobs.blogspot.com

Information Lifecycle Management - A must to know for Storage professionals

Information Lifecycle Management refers to a wide-ranging set of strategies for administering storage systems on computing devices. Specifically, four categories of storage strategies may be considered under the auspices of ILM.
Information Management consists of the practices that facilitate operational storage management. These include the principles that guide ILM; the storage management tools and practices; database management practices; system performance and monitoring; system configuration; capacity planning; and business controls. Business controls generally include chargeback, costing and P&L-related metrics.

How the ILM Service works?

1 Analysis of requirements and business policies
2 Data Archiver service installed and enabled on customers network
3 Archiving policies and schedules defined Storage Options
4a Data archived to customers’ storage
4b Optional offsite backup of customer archive storage pool
5 Data archived to offsite storage utility at InTechnology data centres

Information Lifecycle Management (sometimes abbreviated ILM) is the practice of applying certain policies to the effective management of information throughout its useful life. This practice has been used by Records and Information Management (RIM) Professionals for over three decades and had its basis in the management of information in paper or other physical forms (microfilm, negatives, photographs, audio or video recordings and other assets).

ILM includes every phase of a "record" from its beginning to its end. And while it is generally applied to information that rises to the classic definition of a record (Records management), it applies to any and all informational assets. During its existence, information can become a record by being identified as documenting a business transaction or as satisfying a business need. And while most records are thought of as having a relationship to business, not all do. Much recorded information may not serve a business need of any sort, but still serves to document a critical point in history or to document an event. Examples of these are birth, death, medical/health and educational records.




More info about Information Life Cycle management can be found on weblink:www.intechnology.co.uk/intech_CMS/managedS.asp?id=1310

Training on Storage Fundamentals by Professionals working in Storage industries

Training on Storage Fundamentals given in Bangalore by Professionals working in Storage industries.Email jobsulike@gmail.com for details.You can attend a class this saturday 2007 also next weekends.

Practical Hands-on Project oriented training on Storage Testing High Paying Technology segment which has more hundreds of openings in all major companies like IBM,HP,EMC2,Sun Microsystems,SANdisk,Emulex,Qlogic,Symphony,LSI,Brocade,McData,Adaptec,Wipro,Infosys & many more.

Advantages of this Project Oriented Training on Storage Fundamentals & Testing

- 90% Practical with 10% in Lab theory classes
- Industry Level Projects on High demand technologies
- Mentoring by Storage industry experts who have real working experience in DAS,NAS,SAN
- More than 400 Real Interview Questions covered in this training
- Only 9 students taken per batch to give personal attention
- Trained students will get interview tips,resume enhancement support at end of the succesful course completion
- Extensive Mock Interviews to prepare you for the actual interviews
- Resume building support - Yes we will develop your resume & give you maximum advantage
- Extensive classes on Interview Tips from Professionals who sit in interview panels
- Course fee is only 10,000 Indian Rs .
- Classes only on weekends .
- Course duration : 6 weekends ( 2 days each week for 6 weeks on Saturday & Sunday )

Course Syllabus Coverage :
Storage Technology basics
Different storage requirements of the industry (DAS,NAS,SAN)
RAID Concept & RAID Practical handson labs
DAS Labs
Storage Testing - Test plan, Test cases, Test execution, Test Data, Test Results
Storage in Windows
Storage in Linux
Storage Management software brief
Software Testing - SDLC, Test Life cycle , Bug Life Cycle
Defect Management & Testing experiences from real Industry experiences
Testing Processes and requirements of the Real Industry

Please email to jobsulike@gmail.com for the details.

IBM's Storage related training options - Its Huge & Its High Paying , Challenging too