[Sunhelp] Vfstab.. Hard crashes.. remote access.. fsck'ing

[Erik Parker]

Greetings,


So here is the dilemma..

Intel Solaris 8 box 1200 miles away. Sits with two other peices of
hardware. A 3com super stack II, and a Powerstack 450. Power has been
known to go out at this facility for long amounts of time every few
months. Changing facility isn't an option.

When the box crashes, it usually doesn't recover it's drives and needs to
be put into maint mode and have a manual fsck done. Here is the vfstab:

fd      -       /dev/fd fd      -       no      -
/proc   -       /proc   proc    -       no      -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1       -       -       swap    -       no      -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0       /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0      /       ufs     1       no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s5       /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s5      /usr    ufs     1       yes -
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0       /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0      /usr/local      ufs     1 yes     -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3       /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s3      /var    ufs     1       yes -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0p0:boot  -       /boot   pcfs    -       no      -
/dev/dsk/c1t1d0s2       /dev/rdsk/c1t1d0s2      /home   ufs     1       yes -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s4       /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s4      /home/eparker   ufs     1 yes     -
swap    -       /tmp    tmpfs   -       yes     -


I have never seen the root partition fail at boot, it's always
fine. Usually it's /usr/local ... So I need a few options. I can't really
afford a term server to go with the box, so getting in via serial isn't
really an option. (Yes the UPS will power down the box near end of life,
but I still need options)

Perhaps I can make the vfstab work better with other mount orders or
something? Or maybe a way to run commands even after it decides it needs
manual fsck done (like if I moved sshd to /sbin and do a static
compile of it)..  Or that may not work if the system gives up on
networking after it passes S01MOUNTFSYS.. 

Any ideas?

I could spend a couple hundred backs on some *very* small ethernet to
serial type of device.. but not much more.

Thanks!




Erik Parker
eparker at mindsec.com

Wisdom of the year: 

You aren't paying enough attention if the only thing
you can think about is what you are going to say when 
it's finally your turn to talk.