Tools for Managing Single Servers

This section describes tools used for managing single instances of HP-UX.

HP System Management Homepage (HP SMH)




	IMPORTANT: As of HP-UX 11i version 3, the HP-UX system administration tool for single server administration, SAM (System Administration Manager), has been extensively redesigned, and given a new name and more intuitive user interface. Beginning with HP-UX 11i version 3 the single server administration tool for HP-UX is HP SMH (the HP System Management Homepage).

The HP System Management Homepage (HP SMH) provides three interfaces for managing HP-UX. Use the interface that best suits your needs:

A web based graphical user interface (GUI)
A terminal user interface (TUI)
A command line interface (CLI)

Though HP SMH does not have an X Window native interface^[8], a few applications launched by HP SMH continue to open in ObAM based X Window or ObAM based TUI.

A majority of the applications in the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of HP SMH support multi-byte locales. However, the Text User Interface (TUI) of HP SMH does not support locales other than English. Therefore, HP recommends that you run smh(1m) TUI in C locale.




	NOTE: ObAM is the technology used by SAM, the former single server administration tool.

When you run either the /usr/sbin/sam or /usr/sbin/smh command and the DISPLAY environment variable is set, HP SMH opens in the default web browser. If the DISPLAY environment variable is not set, HP SMH opens using its terminal interface.

When first launched, the terminal version of HP SMH presents you with the main menu, which is the gateway to its functional areas:

             HP-UX System Management Homepage (Text User Interface)
                                      SMH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 a - Auditing and Security 
 c - Auditing and Security Attributes Configuration(new)
 d - Peripheral Devices
 e - Resource  Management
 f - Disks and File Systems
 g - Display
 k - Kernel Configuration
 l - Printers and Plotters(new)
 n - Networking and Communications
 p - Printers and Plotters
 s - Software Management
 u - Accounts for Users and Groups


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
x-Exit smh                     w-WebLaunch        1-Help
ENTER-Launch Functional Area   v-SAM Log Viewer

Launch the functional area you want to work in by typing the letter next to its entry in the main menu. For example, type e to launch the Resource Manager or p to launch the Printers and Plotters functional area.

Launching the HP SMH Web Interface

To access the HP SMH web interface from a browser (either locally or on a remote system, perhaps a PC), use the address:

http://name_of_system_to_administer:2301/

where name_of_system_to_administer is the network hostname (or IP address) of the system you want to administer. This will cause the web server on the system to start a secure web interface to the HP SMH.




	IMPORTANT: For remote web access to HP SMH to be successful, the system you are trying to administer must have its web server running. By default, this means that HP-UX must be at run-level 3 or higher. For a discussion of run-levels, “Run Levels”.

If you type w in the TUI version of the HP SMH main menu you will launch the HP SMH web interface on the X-Window server associated with your DISPLAY environment variable.

Launching the HP SMH web interface from within the HP SMH terminal interface starts a web server on the system you are administering (if one is not already running) and starts a web browser to display the functional area (in HP SMH) corresponding to the functional area that was highlighted in the TUI when you typed w.




	IMPORTANT: Read carefully any warnings that appear when you start your web browser. There are possible security implications in launching the System Management Homepage in this way and HP SMH will identify safer alternatives to launch the System Management Homepage via a secure http (https) URL should you require that.




	NOTE: If you plan to launch the web based interface from within the terminal based version of HP SMH, be sure to set your shell’s `DISPLAY` variable prior to starting the terminal interface so that HP SMH knows where to direct the GUI display.

The HP System Management Homepage Web Interface

When the HP SMH GUI interface is launched in a browser, it presents the above screen and requires you to authenticate yourself (log in). Upon a successful login the GUI version of HP SMH presents a slightly different menu than the terminal version does.

Instead of showing the functional areas of HP SMH as the first screen, as the terminal version does, the graphical version of HP SMH first displays a system summary showing the general health of the system hardware and providing links to other status screens (for example, Memory Utilization).

A few links to key functional areas are displayed on the home page but to get to the functional area screen in the GUI version of HP SMH, click on the Tools menu item near the top of the display.

Using the graphical version of the HP System Management Homepage you can administer an HP-UX server from almost anywhere using a supported web browser. The GUI of the HP System Management Homepage also provides a much larger collection of tools (functional areas) than the terminal version provides.

The HP System Management Homepage, aggregates, displays, and interacts with a wide variety of web agents and other HP web-enabled system management software to give you extensive control over the configuration and operation of almost every aspect of an HP-UX server, including:

Management of Users and Groups
Auditing
Volume and File System Management
Error Management Technology (online error message lookup)
Kernel Configuration
Partitioning
Peripheral Devices
Printers
Security
Software Installation, Removal, and Management
and many others

Using the HP System Management Homepage you can also:

Launch (X-based) Applications
Run Commands




	TIP: Unlike SAM, the HP System Management Homepage (because it is based on the WEBM industry standard) can also administer Linux and Microsoft Windows based systems.

HP System Management Homepage Key Features

The HP System Management Homepage is:

Used for single system management (for single point of control management of multiple systems, “HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM)”)
Web based (accessible from any supported browser)
Secure (uses SSL-secure authentication)
Capable of managing a single system running one of these OS types:
- HP-UX 11i
- Linux (versions of Linux supported by HP)
- Microsoft Windows

What is HP SMH Doing on Your Behalf?

When you perform actions using the HP System Administration Homepage, the interface you interact with executes command-line commands on your behalf, behind the scenes. You could accomplish those same tasks from a shell prompt by using the same commands that HP SMH uses. But, how do you know what HP SMH is doing on your behalf? There are several ways:

If you are using the web based interface, as you complete the web forms to prepare to execute an action, you can click on the command preview item at the bottom of the page to see the command that will be executed if you perform the action.
If you are using the terminal interface, you can tab to the [Preview] item at the bottom of a screen to view the command that HP SMH is building for you. When [Preview] is highlighted, hit Enter to show the command.
At any time, you can also view actions that have previously been performed (what commands were executed) regardless of which interface was used to perform the action:
- In the GUI, click on the Logs menu item near the top of the page, then select the SAM Log Viewer item on “Logs” page. You can then filter the logs to locate the commands you are interested in looking at.
- In the TUI you can get to the SAM Log Viewer from the main menu page by pressing the v key. You can then filter the logs to locate the commands you are interested in looking at.

Command Line Tools

The System Management Homepage and System Administration Manager, described previously, provide user interfaces and perform tasks based on the user’s input, using commands and system calls.

If you require more detailed control or want to customize tasks in ways that the other system administration management tools do not allow, you can always manually enter the commands you need or execute sequences of commands in a shell script.

HP-UX provides the following commonly used shells for command entry:

sh - the POSIX shell
ksh - the Korn shell
csh - the C shell

Though not officially shells, two related utilities work closely with shells to provide multiple sessions on a single terminal:

shl: The Shell Layer Manager provides a means for interacting with more than one shell from a single using shell layers. Each layer represents a virtual device. The current layer is the one that can receive keyboard input. Other layers have input blocked. Output from multiple layers is multiplexed onto a single terminal. See shl(1) for complete details.
tsm: The Terminal Session Manager, similar to the Shell Layer Manager, allows a user to interact with multiple shells from a single terminal. Each shell is bound to a virtual device emulating a physical terminal. tsm hot keys allow the user to switch between (and create new) sessions. See tsm(1) for complete details.

The HP System Management Homepage Command Line Interface

If you need to enter a quick command line command from within the HP SMH graphical user interface and do not want to start up a shell in a separate window, click on the Tasks menu item near the top of the page and then select either Run Command or Run Command as Root from the System section on the resulting panel.

^[8]Although the GUI for the System Management Homepage isn’t a native X Window application, HP SMH will attempt to use X Window to open a browser on a remote X display when you use the w menu item from the main menu.

Tools for Managing Single Servers

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