Below are the list of Best Solaris Interview Questions and Answers

1) What is Solaris?

Solaris is a Unix based operating system that was initially developed by Sun
Microsystems. Initially released in 1992, Solaris is written in C and C++. A proprietary
software, Solaris is now under Oracle after the acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The
Oracle Solaris is known for its scalability on SPARC systems and has support for x86-
64 workstations. Oracle Solaris is now considered as the most widely deployed UNIX
operating system that provides reliability, performance, and enterprise-class security for
mission-critical applications.

2) What is a zone in Solaris?

Zones in Solaris are used to isolate software applications and services using flexible
software-defined boundaries. Previously known as Solaris containers,

You can build the Oracle Solaris Zones using technologies such as Solaris Resource
Manager, and Solaris Zones Partitioning technology. Zone creates a virtualized
operating system environment that is then represented to the applications as isolated
and complete.

3) List the RAID levels in Solaris?

Solaris supports six RAID levels from 0 to 6. Only a few storage environments support
RAID levels 2, 3, and 4.

The other three RAID levels are most supported by the storage environments.

RAID level 0 - Here, the data are spread across relatively small, equally-sized
fragments which are allocated evenly across multiple physical disks.

RAID level 1 - Here, the mirroring technique is used to duplicate the data over two or
more physical disks.
RAID level 5 - Here, the striping technique is used to spread the data over the disks in
an array. It will have substantial performance degradation when operating with a failed
device.

4) What is Piping in Solaris?

A pipe is a pair of files between two process that is created in the parent process. A
pipe is used to connect only two processes and a single pipe also connects multiple
child processes to each other and their related parent.

A process can create a pipe with a call to pipe(). This call returns two file descriptors in
the array. Both the processes read from p[0] and write to p[1].

5) What is FSCK in Solaris?

The FSCK command in the Solaris used to check and repair inconsistencies in the file
system. You can run this command with many options but if you run without any
options, it asks for confirmation before making the repair. The options used with this
command are '-m', '-y', '-n', '-op'.

The '-m' is used to check if a file system can be mounted, '-y' assumes yes response for
all repairs, '-n' assumes no responsibility for all repairs, '-o p' preens the file system and
fixes all the inconsistencies.

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6) How to check the Solaris Volume Manager Version?

You can use the command "pkginfo | grep -i volume" and "pkginfo -l SUNWvolr" to
check the version of the Solaris Volume Manager in the Solaris 9 and 10.

7) Which command is used to find out the NFS version in Solaris?

The command "nfsstat -a" can be used to find the version of NFS in the Solaris.
8) What is LDOMS in Solaris?

The LDoms (Logical Domains) are virtualization and partitioning technology that
allows administrators to allocate various resources in the system such
as memory, CPUs, and devices into logical groups. With this group, it then creates
multiple, discrete systems, with each having their own operating system resources that
are identified within a single computer system.

This technology is used by many enterprises to host multiple instances of Solaris or

Linux Virtual Machines on a Sun Server. A Solaris LDoms server has different guest
domains and a single control domain for monitoring and reconfiguration of guest
domains. Applications are hosted in the guest domains which can be independently
powered on or off without affecting other domains. This virtualization technology
provides significant cost savings but it also makes the monitoring and management
process much challenging.

9) Explain sticky bit in Solaris?

The sticky bit in the Solaris is like a permission bit that protects the files within a
directory. If a sticky bit is set on the directory, then only a file owner, directory owner, or
a privileged user can delete that file. So the sticky bit is used to prevent other users
from deleting files in the public directories.

10) How to find the size of RAM in the Solaris server?

The command "psrinfo | grep memconf" is used to find the size of the RAM installed
in the Solaris Server.

11) What is OBP in Solaris?

The OBP (OpenBoot PROM) provides a list of useful OBP commands. It helps in
booting, configuring, and performing diagnostics on the Sun SPARC hardware and
clones.

Some of the OBP commands are,

Power-off - it will halt the box and turn off the power.
Reset - it will perform a soft reset. Boot - it boots the system.

.version - it shows the OBP version.

Show-devs - it provides a list of devices available to the system.

Printenv - it is used to get the list of environment variables.

Test somedevice - it is used to perform checks upon the specified device.

12) What is the maximum no. of slice that can be created in a single
disk?

You can create a maximum of eight slices per physical disk in the Solaris.

13) How to find the network card speed in Solaris?

The kstat -p | grep link_ | grep bge command is used to display the network
interface variables. You can use the ndd command with it to set network interface
configurable to check the current network speed.

14) What are NFS daemons in Solaris?

NFS daemons are used to handle and support the NFS activities in the Oracle Solaris.
Several NFS daemons for handling NFS activities. They are,

Automountd Daemon - It handles the mounting and unmounting request from the
autofs service.

Lockd Daemon - It is used to support the record-locking operations on NFS files.

Mountd Daemon - It handles the file-system mount requests from the remote systems.
It also provides access control.

Nfs4cbd Daemon - It manages the communication endpoints for the NFS version 4
callback program.

Nfsd Daemon - It handles other client file-system requests.

Nfslogd Daemon - It is used to provide operational logging.

15) What does the pkgadd command do in Solaris?

The pkgadd command is used to transfer the content of the software package from the
directory or the distribution medium to install it onto the system. It requires some
amount of temporary space in the size of the package that is being installed. You can
use many options with this command to do specific tasks. The '-d' specifies the device
source specifier,'-s' is used to write the package to a spool directory instead of installing
it, etc.

16) What is the use of df-k command in Solaris?

The df -k command is used to display the amount of space the is currently in use on
each disk mounted on your system. It specifically displays the amount of space
available and the percentage of space in use for each disk that is mounted on your
system.

//syntax
$ df -k

============================================
==

Solaris Interview Questions and Answers for 2021

1) How does the Solaris operating system boot?

The boot procedure of the operating system can be divided into four categories namely:

 Post
 Obprom
 Init phases
 Kernel initialization
2) Can you explain each of the phases involved in booting the operating
system?

Post – As you switch on the power, it will identify the hardware and certain other information
such as system ID, memory division, serial number, architecture type, and IP address. In
addition, it also loads a program that is known as bootblk.

OBPROM –This abbreviation stands for an open bootable program. It helps –

 Diagnose hardware and memory of the operating system.

 Create device subdivision and load book block from 0-15 sector and it is known as
secondary book programmable ufsboot.
 Initialize boot functions.

Kernel Initialization – In this stage, ufsboot loads the kernel which in turn loads all necessary
modules of the device. This is further required for root partition that helps continue with the
booting procedure.
Init stage – It starts as you execute the init program and begin other program reading
/etc/inittab files, similar to the directory in the form of files.

/etc/inittab

3) What to use to use ‘top’ command on Solaris operating system?

An alternative to the ‘top' command is to use it while working on the above mentioning
operating system.

4) What do you understand by Solaris?

It is a UNIX based operating system which supports workstations and server operating from
Sun. It can also be regarded as a recognized operating system that is widely used. Further,
it is available from server vendors and also known as the successor of sun operating system.

5) How many types of installation of the OS are available and explain

each of them?

There are seven types of installation of the Solaris operating system and they are as follows:

1. Solaris installation program is the general way in which you can install the OS with the help
of a DVD or CD ROM.
2. Installation procedure over the network – Installing the operating system using a server
that has easy access to Solaris disc images.
3. Flash installation – With the help of this process, the installation can be carried out via a
master system.
4. Custom jumpstart installation – This process is known as a command-line interface in
which several systems can be installed or upgraded at the same time using the profile
created.
5. Solaris Live Upgrade process – This can be done even when the current operating
system environment is running.
6. WAN BOOT process – This can be carried out by installing the operating system over a
wide area network via HTTP.
7. Solaris zones – After the installation of the operating system is completed, ‘Zones’ can be
configured and installed. One such is the global zone which can be considered as the
currently running operating environment.

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6) How many RAID levels are present in this operating system?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive or Independent Disks. It has six levels as
RAID Level 0 – RAID Level 6.

7) Do you have any idea about run levels in the Solaris operating
system?

There are mainly eight-run levels in this operating system, and they are as follows:

 0 – it is used during power downstate

 s or S – for a single user
 1 – the administrative state
 2 – Multi-user state
 3 –multi-use with NFS state
 4 – alternative multi-user
  5 – power down
 6 – Reboot state

8) How can you end any process in this operating system?

Whether you are a superuser or root user, you should know how to terminate the process of
another user on the operating system. In addition, to terminate any process, you also need
to obtain PID of the process.

The syntax used is ‘$ps –fu.’ For instance, $ps –fu abc
abc 325 322 3 Jan 12 ? 11:04 /usr/openwin/bin/sun
In order to end the process with the help of ‘end’ command
$ kill pid
Default signal number is -15 {SIGKILL}
-9 {SIGTERM}

9) In this operating system, can you explain the difference between dsk
and rdsk?

DSK is a block-level device. FS which is formatted is known as a block device. Rdsk is a raw-
level device in this operating system.

Q10) How can you find reserve space of disk?

# fstyp –v /dev/rdsk/c1d0s0 | grep minfree

minfree 6%

Q11) How to find out the location of alternative backup superblocks?

# newfs –N /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2

12) Do you know how to reduce reserved disk space while working on
this operating system?

Yes, the reserved space can be reduced to 2% using ‘# tunefs –m 2 /dev/rdsk/c1d0s0.’

13) What are the steps to check for installed packages?

# pkginfo |more
# pkginfo –l

14) What do you understand by NFS daemons?

In order to support NFS activities, the NFS daemons are available in various types and they
are as follows:

1. Automount – It helps in mounting and unmounting requests with the help of autofs
service.
2. Mounted – It takes care of mount requests and gives information regarding mounting
nfs activities.
3. Locked – It helps file locking both for nfs server and clients.
4. Nfsd – It helps in file exporting within the operating system and access files from
remote clients, and it is used in run level 3.
5. Nfslogd – With the help of this, the daemons help in providing logging information.
6. Nfsmapid – It gives information pertaining to User identification or any group
identification for representation.
7. Statd – It helps to give recovery and crash data while working on this operating
system.

15) What is the function of pkgadd command?

This command helps to install signed or unsigned software. In addition, it also helps to remove
any existing packing that is present with the same file name as that of the one that you are
trying to add.

Syntax - pkgadd –a admin_file –d device-name pkgid

For verifying whether the package is installed or not, you can use:

‘#pkgchk –v pkgid’

16) How does Solaris cluster work?

The cluster configuration of the operating system consists of both hardware and software
components

Hardware components –

1. Servers with local storage

2. Cluster interconnections
3. Public network functions
4. Share storage
5. Administrative workstation service

Software components –

1. Data services function

2. Operating system cluster software and help in communicating with customers
3. The operating system running on each node
The server in this operating system uses private interconnections to connect with different
customers. The interconnect helps in analyzing the cluster information which is also known
as a heartbeat. With the help of the servers, it is able to examine the working of other servers
present within the cluster and also ensure that all servers are functioning properly. In case
any of the servers fail to function, it disappears and thus it is no more considered part of the
cluster. In order to distinguish the failed server from the others, the ‘fail-over term is used,
and the clusters are categorized according to their high rates of availability within the
operating system.

17) How to login to the Solaris operating system and what is the login
shell used for the same?

 Solaris can be considered a secured platform and the users need login credentials to
get access to the same. Before starting the operating system, the ‘hostname console
login: Rohit’ message would pop up on the screen.
 Following this, as soon as the user presses on the ‘return’ option, he or she is asked
to use the password for the account. To keep the password safe, it does not come up
on the screen, and instead, it is displayed in the form of dots. When the user enters a
command with the help of a terminal or GUI, the user is actually providing the required
information to the command interpretation system which is also called a shell. The
shell takes in various inputs in the form of commands and gives the output that is
executed within the operating system. The default shell for the Solaris operating
system is the Bourne shell.
 Among the various types of shells available in the operating system, some of them are
C shell, Korn shell, GNU Bourne shell, and many others. After logging into the system,
if the user is able to see the command prompt on the screen, it indicates the
functioning of the shell has been initiated in the operating system. Therefore, this is
known as the login shell.

18) What do you understand by The Command ‘Ls’?

With the help of this command, you can have access to the main directory. In addition, it also
permits you to access the files present in the operating system. It shows and prints different
ownerships file accessibility, the file name including all its other details.

19) State the difference between setting files on the operating system
with the help of octal and symbolic codes?

The primary point of difference between the two is that the former one is relative whereas the
latter one is present in numeric codes. The settings remain unchanged with the help of
symbolic codes in the operating system.

20) While working on the Solaris operating system, how can the user
help check any process?

The system creates an independent process after reading the command, and the process
comes with a PID relating to the process. In order to maintain track of each process, the PID
has been created. For finding any process, the PS command is enough to help the users.
After the user executes the PS command, it shows:

 PID of the concerned process

 The initiation point of any process
 The CPU time consumed by the process

21) Explain the difference between Solaris 9 and Solaris 10?

The primary difference between the two is SMF or Solaris Management Facility. Other than
this, in case you are working on Solaris 9, for the malfunctioning of any service, restarting all
the service is enough to resolve the issue, whereas, in Solaris 10, for any particular faulty
service, you can enable and disable the same without restarting all of them.

22) Do you have any idea about LOM? How can you access it?

LOM stands for Lights out management. Some of the Sun servers try to use the server by
connecting it with a rollover cable that LOM port to a laptop. The user need not turn on the
server, but they only need to power it on and as said before, connect the laptop to the LOM
port and then operate the connected server. In addition, you also need to use the IP address
of the server to establish the required connection.

23) Which command is required to display the default boot device and
re-configure the device from the reboot process?

To display the default boot device, ‘eeprom boot-device command is used. And for
reconfiguring devices from the reboot process, ‘Devfsadm’ is used.

24) Why does the Solaris operating system slow down? Mention ways
for its rectification?

The system can start to function slowly when there are faults in the kernel memory leak. It
takes place when a process consumes a certain part of the memory which is unable to release
back to the operating system. Following this, in case of any object-oriented program, the
object that lies within memory, cannot be accessed. There are two reasons for memory leaks,
and they are as follows.

1. NFS cache – Cache memory can result in memory leakage within the operating system.
Similarly, memory leakage can also take place due to the NFS client. To rectify the same, the
user has to add ‘set nrnode =1000’ to the system and then save it and reboot the system.
2. Bug – It is found inside the volume management system driver, and as this driver is
unloaded, it results in memory leakage. This bug usually affects the system that fails to
function smoothly. However, this bug can be used with the help of patches that are compatible
to work on both SPARC and x 86 platforms.