Solaris -- can I add a SCSI target without a reconfigure reboot?

Mon Jul 9 17:31:12 PDT 2007

On Jul 6, 2007, at 4:57 PM, Russ Witte wrote:

> On a slightly different note ... I know we all brag about how long our
> systems stay up without a reboot, but in terms of security and/or
> configuration and hardware validation isn't it a good idea to reboot
> occasionally? Maybe no more than a couple times a year, but still ...
>
> What's the general consensus? I try to keep my Sun systems patched,  
> maybe
> 2-4 times a year, so that takes care of it. What do other people do?

My rules of thumb (which apply both at work & at home) are:

* Security & other important patches get scheduled when necessary,  
with reboots as required (some patches don't require a reboot--e.g.  
sendmail)

* Other patches get scheduled when convenient, with reboots as required

* Unless a system needs to be rebooted (due to a patch or HW repair),  
don't reboot it; HW & SW/configs are validated by the system  
performing as desired (and that behavior is monitored to alert me to  
any deviations):  power-cycling components to see whether or not  
they'll break strikes me as silly :^)

Most of the boxen I deal with are Solaris systems, and I can do quite  
a bit to them without rebooting nowadays (even most HW replacement on  
SPARC systems).  In David's case, I would have powered down to attach  
the new hardware (those older systems could suffer damage to the  
various devices on the chain if devices were added/removed hot),  
rendering the question of how to force Solaris to recognize it moot.

-Guy